OMAHA, Nebraska (KMTV) — At KMTV we're celebrating the station's 75th anniversary, but did you know it all started with the same family who founded the Earl May Garden Centers in Shenandoah, Iowa?
- Earl May wanted a way to "grow" his Shenandoah seed and plant business so, in 1925, he started a radio station, KMA.
- A few years after Earl died, his son Ed May Sr., acted on his father's advice and expanded May Broadcasting. KMTV was born on Sept. 1, 1949.
- By 1956, it was among the first stations in the country to broadcast in color.
- RELATED | 'He was all about serving the area': The Southwest Iowa roots of KMTV
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Sept. 1, 1949, 75 years ago, KMTV broadcast its first signal, and it grew from a family business in Shenandoah, Iowa.
I’m your Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel, taking a look at the Iowa roots of our station.
It was the family of entrepreneur Earl May, who put the “M” in KMTV. He started May Broadcasting Group in 1925 to promote his budding seed and nursery company in Shenandoah.
Voice of Earl May: “Cattle prices increased 27% and hogs 17%...”
The radio station became, and still is, a household staple in that corner of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. In March, KMA General Manager Sandy Hansen told me she listened to the station for the same reason I did as a kid.
“We used to listen for sure to see if the school cancellation was going to come on,” Hansen said.
When Earl May passed away in 1946, he reportedly told his son, Ed, to keep an eye on that new technology, television.
“As soon as TV came along, he got into business there with KMTV,” said Hansen. “He was all about serving the area.”
When Ed May and his mother, Gertrude, attended the station’s premiere, there were fewer than 70 TV stations in the country. The studio, then at 26th and Farnum Streets, produced a wide variety of local content for the new medium. By 1956, it was among the first stations in the country to broadcast in color.
Roger Peters: “That’s where I first started working.”
Former KMTV engineer Roger Peters visited us last year ahead of his 100th birthday.
“Boy, I’ll tell ya, you guys have gone computer crazy haven’t ya,” Peters joked.
Roger moved with KMTV, west to Mockingbird Drive, in the ‘70s. And by 1986, May Broadcasting sold KMTV and its sister station in Tuscon. But, the legacy of a seed salesman and his Iowa family remains in the call letters and our commitment to our neighbors.
