Media

From before Tulsa’s incorporation, communication was important in the area. Of course, print was the first of the “modern” methods of spreading the news. Today, print is still important in Tulsa. Its daily paper, the Tulsa World, is holding its own in a changing market, and while about 75 percent of its readers come from the seven-county Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical area, it’s popular with readers across the state for its breadth of editorial opinions.

Tulsa has a number of publications that can be picked up from racks located in libraries, stores, and businesses. Even some slick magazines are delivered this way. With all forms of communication, you have to stop and try to figure out how they are paying for “free” content. Advertising revenue is important and you’ll have to determine how much of an effect that has on editorial material.

All the media are trying to figure out how traditional communication works in a digital age, and almost all the newspapers have online editions. Radio stations are adding Internet broadcasting, and the television stations all have Web sites.

People are beginning to realize that online sources of news may not be the ultimate answer—clicking from one site to another is surprisingly time consuming, and in scanning a newspaper, readers actually get more news on more topics than by looking down a list of selected headlines on a computer. Community papers are growing because they fill a niche—providing news about what’s happening in “our” neighborhood.

Oklahomans are friendly people. And they’re interested in what’s going on. Tulsa has a number of ways to find out.

Overview

The first printing press in what is now Oklahoma arrived at Union Mission, Indian Territory, in 1835. It was used to print religious tracts and the first book printed in what would become Oklahoma, The Child’s Book, or Istutsi in naktsokv, a Muskogee-language primer. The first newspaper in Oklahoma was the Cherokee Advocate, in 1844. By 1895, Indian Territory had 41 weekly papers and one daily.

Tulsa had several early newspapers. One of the earliest, perhaps the first, was the Indian Chief, in 1884. Tulsa businessmen, eager to put a better face on the town, started the New Era in 1895. It was succeeded by the Tulsa Democrat, which made its debut in September 1904. The first issue of the Tulsa World appeared a year later. The World was purchased by Eugene Lorton in 1917 and has been controlled by the Lorton family since that time. In 1919 a former editor of Collier’s and Cosmopolitan magazines and the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper, Richard Lloyd Jones, purchased the Tulsa Democrat, renaming it the Tulsa Tribune. The paper remained in the Jones family until it closed in 1992.

Though the first radio broadcast in Oklahoma occurred just after World War I, it wasn’t until the 1920s that things got really going. In May of 1922, a company organized by oilman William Skelly was broadcasting entertainment on its station, WEH. KFRU started up in Bristow in 1925 and showcased local talent like Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys. A year later, the station was given the call letters KVOO, and in 1927 it completed a move to Tulsa. In 1928 the station was purchased by William Skelly. The station became famous as the radio home of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Both nationally famous commentator Paul Harvey and actor Tony Randall got their starts at the station, and in the late ’20s a singing cowboy named Orvon Gene Autry performed on the station.

Tulsa’s first television station, KOTV, Channel 6, began broadcasting in November 1949. Channel 2, originally KVOO-TV, now KJRH, signed on in December 1954.