The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Then and Now: Symons Block

Stately edifice hosted Spokane’s first radio station

V.J Morris company, one of Spokane
V.J Morris company, one of Spokane's oldest appliance and electrical dealers, had just taken a long-term lease on the northwest corner of the Symons building, at Sprague and Howard. (Spokesman-Review photo archive)
Businessman Thomas Symons built the dignified Symons Block in 1918, and it later played a pivotal role in Spokane radio broadcasting. In 1922, 17-year-old Ed Craney, who had a First Class radio license from a YMCA class, pitched to Tom Symons Jr. the idea of starting Spokane’s first station to boost sales at their radio-parts business. With his boss’s backing, Craney applied for a license and stretched an antenna wire from the Symons building to the theater marquee on the Columbia building across First Avenue. Their first radio station was KFDC, which became KFPY and later KXLY. Craney went on to establish stations across Montana, including in Butte, Helena, Bozeman, Great Falls and Missoula. KXLY moved out of the Symons Block in 1950. Craney died in 1991. – Jesse Tinsley