Robert E. Priebe, Owned Seattle's First TV Station

Robert E. Priebe, who made the Puget Sound area's first television broadcast in 1948, then sold his broadcast license to what became KING-TV in 1949, had a vision.

He had followed the evolution of electronic communications since he built his first crystal radio set as a boy.

He just didn't have the money - nor could he persuade banks to lend him the money to cover bills for the then-unproven medium of television.

"We would have been millionaires today, but we got started a little ahead of time," he told a reporter in 1977. "We were in the field before there were many sets in existence in this area. It would be stretching it to say there were 500."

Mr. Priebe, a longtime Mercer Island resident who moved to Redmond five years ago, died of cancer last Friday (Aug. 14). He was 93.

Born in Audubon, Iowa, he was an infant when his family moved to Seattle. He graduated from Franklin High School, earned his wireless operator's license in 1922, then served as a ship's wireless operator in the merchant marines.

In 1927 he bought radio station KRSC, which he managed. He and a partner, who co-owned KRSC, broadcast the Seattle high-school football championship game on Thanksgiving Day 1948, over KRSC-TV. It was the first TV license in the area; the Federal Communications Commission subsequently froze licensing because of signal overlap.

But by June 1949, Mr. Priebe recalled, "we saw we were in serious financial trouble."

Network-affiliated radio stations weren't interested in buying the KRSC-TV license, figuring a license would be available eventually. But lumber heiress Dorothy Bullitt bought the license, changed the name of her independent radio station KEVR to KING, and broadcast television programs under the KING call letters. A network affiliation followed.

"Within six months, there were enough (TV) sets in the Puget Sound area to make KING-TV a going concern," Priebe said.

As it turned out, Mr. Priebe did well for himself despite his ill timing - as owner of the Robert E. Priebe electronics company on Seattle's Fifth Avenue. He sold it in 1981 to what became Priebe Electronics of Redmond. He sold KRSC radio, which became KAYO, in 1950.

Other survivors include his wife of 20 years, Marietta "Tadsie" Priebe of Redmond; his stepdaughter, Charlotte Lingo of Half Moon Bay, Calif.; and his brother, Thomas Priebe of Portland.

Services are at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Emerald Heights Center, 10901 176th Circle N.E., Redmond.

Remembrances may go to Seattle Rotary Service Foundation, 1215 Fourth Ave., Suite 118, Seattle, WA 98161.