EXHIBITS

The Broadcasting Bullens: One Family’s Contribution to Cache Valley Newspaper, Radio, and Television: The Logan Republican

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The Logan Republican

Logan Republican Joseph Howell whole front page.tif

Senator Joseph Howell on the front page of The Logan Republican [Click image to enlarge.]

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Logan Republican, October 20, 1914.)

1902

The Logan Republican, Volume 1, No. 1 was first published on September 10, 1902. The newspaper was previously started in 1890 as the Logan Nation, a Republican newspaper that soon became politically independent. Frustrated with the lack of political representation, local Republicans started the Republican as a counterweight to the powerful Democratic voice of the Journal.[i]

Born in Richmond, Utah, in 1870, Herschel Bullen Jr. entered the newspaper business when he and Joseph Howell (later a Republican U.S. Senator), Joseph Odell, and J. C. Walters established the Logan Newspaper Company in 1903. The company subsequently took charge of the Republican and leased it to N. Ralph Moore and later Fred Turner. In 1910, while serving as secretary-treasurer of the newspaper company, Herschel purchased the lease on the Republican with Preston Nibley. He continued as manager and editor for several years.[ii]

The Republican survived until 1924, when the paper could no longer continue without incurring heavy financial losses on the part of stockholders. It was sold to Earl and England Publishing Company, owners of the Journal.[iii]

Scene of East Center Street in Logan, Utah

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Historical A-Boards, SCAA-0399.)

1920

KDKA radio station was started in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. On November 2, Henry P. Davis announced the results of the presidential election in the first commercial broadcast in history.[iv]

Advertisement for The Logan Republican found in the 1905–06 Logan City directory [Click image to enlarge.]

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, SCAVBOOK 308-102.)

1922

H. Carter Wilson and the Deseret News started KZN, one of the first successful radio stations in Utah.[v]

Herschel Bullen sitting at his desk

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Bullen Family Photographs, P0018, Box 8, Folder 24.)

1925

Logan auto dealer LeRoy Hobson Strong started KFXD Radio, the first radio station licensed in Cache Valley. By 1927 the station had moved to Jerome, Idaho.

Meeting minutes of the Republican Publishing Co., 1915 [Click image to enlarge; click it again to browse all pages.]

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Herschel Bullen, Jr. Papers, 1883-1966, MSS 178, Box 23, Folder 2.)

1928

In May, Dr. Ernst F. W. Alexanderson and General Electric instigated the first regular television broadcast over WzXAD and WGY in Schenectady, New York. The program lasted 90 minutes and aired three days a week. Alexanderson was one of several inventors who worked to perfect their own unique television systems, including Philo T. Farnsworth, John L. Baird, C. Francis Jenkins, and Vladimir Zworykin.[vi]

Stock certificate for the Republican Publishing Company, 1915 [Click image to enlarge; click it again to browse all pages.]

(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Herschel Bullen, Jr. Papers, 1883–1966, MSS 178, Box 23, Folder 4.)

1929

On September 11, the Journal was bought out by the Cache Valley Herald, a newspaper started in 1925 which was owned by the Scripps-Canfield newspaper chain (now Pioneer News Group). The company combined the two newspapers to form the Herald Journal, Cache Valley’s leading newspaper today.[vii]

Citations:

[i] “Logan Republican, 1902-1921,” Utah Digital Newspapers, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, accessed July 21, 2014, http://digitalnewspapers.org/newspaper/?paper=Logan+Republican.

[ii] Bullen, Jr. “History of Newspapers in Cache Valley,” January 13, 1950, USUSCA; warranty deed, February 1, 1910, Herschel Bullen, Jr. Papers, COLL MSS 178, Box 23, Folder 2, USUSCA; Alter, Early Utah Journalism, 106–107.

[iii] Alter, Early Utah Journalism, 99–107.

[iv] “The First Commercial Radio Station: Developed by Henry P. Davis, Class of 1880,” Worcester Polytechnic Institute, last modified 2014, accessed July 21, 2014, http://www.wpi.edu/about/history/radio.html.

[v] “KZN: The Birth of Radio in Utah (1922-1924),” Utah Communication History Encyclopedia, last modified April 26, 2012, accessed July 22, 2014, http://utahcommhistory.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/kzn-the-birth-of-radio-in-utah-1922-1924.