Ancil Payne, former head of King Broadcasting, dies at 83

For local broadcasting luminary Ancil Payne's 75th birthday, his family organized a party and asked everyone invited to record how Mr. Payne's generosity and compassion had touched him or her.

Geoffrey Barker, Mr. Payne's son-in-law, had the privilege of reading the thick stack of notes: Mr. Payne started my career, gave to my cause, put me through college, invested in my business, helped me through a divorce.

"He was so totally engaged, incredibly personable and genuinely interested in what you were all about," Barker said.

Mr. Payne, the genial Oregon native who presided over the rise of Seattle's King Broadcasting to a profitable and prize-winning media empire, died Saturday at age 83 after a battle with cancer.

Mr. Payne spent more than 30 years in broadcasting, most of it directing King Broadcasting from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, when the station was nationally recognized for its bold approach to television journalism.

"He created a place where reporters could report, and photographers could shoot good pictures. KING-TV in the '70s and '80s was the most remarkable place to work," said longtime friend Aaron Brown, a former KING reporter-anchor and now a CNN anchor.

During his tenure at King, Mr. Payne also served as a mentor and counselor to a generation of journalists who became local leaders, including former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer, Seattle City Councilman Jim Compton and civic activist Emory Bundy. He was also a prominent Democrat — a friend of presidents, senators and congressmen — whose respect young politicians knew they had to win.

Mr. Payne was born Sept. 5, 1921, and grew up on the shores of the Columbia River in The Dalles, Ore., where his father was a house painter, his mother a teacher. He served in the Navy during World War II before earning a degree from the University of Washington. As an active member of Young Democrats, he met Stimson Bullitt, heir to the Stimson-Bullitt family fortune and a fellow liberal crusader.

Later, Mr. Payne worked on the congressional staff of U.S. Rep. Hugh B. Mitchell, where he met his future wife, Valerie Davies. They wed in 1959, had three children and were happily married for 45 years, she said.

She marveled at the friends he made — and kept — over decades.

"He was still talking to people he served with in the war, and they could talk like the years hadn't passed," she said of Mr. Payne, whose storytelling gift never goes unmentioned by those who knew him.

In 1959, Bullitt introduced Mr. Payne to his mother, Dorothy Bullitt, who had bought a small radio and TV station in Seattle in the late 1940s. That acquisition was to become one of the nation's great regional media empires. Mr. Payne took a job at King Broadcasting and, in 1965, became vice president and general manager of KGW, King's Portland affiliate.

In Portland, Payne directed the fledgling station to an aggressive style of journalism, campaigning for causes such as employment of African Americans and preservation of public beaches, according to Casey Corr, author of a book on the Bullitts and King Broadcasting.

KGW's editorial commentator, Tom McCall, eventually would be elected Oregon's governor.

In 1970, Stimson Bullitt brought Mr. Payne back to Seattle, where he became King's chief operating officer.

Like Seattle itself, the company was struggling, Corr said. "There had been a downturn in advertising. Television had not been as productive, and the family was nervous."

Mr. Payne "saved the company" by finding a balance of good journalism and good business, Corr said.

The station continued its aggressive journalism and editorialized against the Vietnam War and in favor of liberal causes ranging from tax reform to environmentalism. The station also played an important role in uncovering police corruption in the early 1970s.

Mr. Payne, who supported the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, local theater and college scholarships, also established an endowment at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in 1999. It funds the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism, honoring journalists who defy economic and political pressure with their work.

Mr. Payne is survived by his wife, Valerie, of Seattle; daughters Alison Payne-Baader of London, Lucinda Payne Santiago of St. Louis, and Anne Barker of Bainbridge Island; as well as four grandchildren.

The family will announce memorial donations and the time and place of a memorial service in coming days.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com