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We believe we have a 1930 Packard that may have been owned by Mr. Anthony for his radio station due to some lettering we found on two panels on the door. One said Earle C. Anthony VanNess at Ellis PR0444 and the other said Radio Stations KFI and KECA. I'm really trying to find someone who could help me track down someone with some history on the radio station and if they used this car for the station. Thanks!

This might help on the radio stations.liquisearch.com/kfi/history I believe KFI was always in Southern Calif. Call letters are still active for a station today and the history writeup would suggest it is the same station. There is a mention of KECA in the writeup too. I believe the Van Ness at Ellis dealership address was the one in San Francisco so maybe the So Cal dealership was also listed on another panel or is no longer visible.

I don't know if he posts here often but Stuart Blond who often posts at the PAC website was a So Cal guy very active in Packards and should know a great deal about the Earle C Anthony dealerships and stations. If he doesn't see your post you can probably reach him thru his email address found in the list of officers at the Packard Club.packardclub.org

G'day traciejones,
to PackardInfo.

I invite you to include your '30 Packard in the Packard Owner's Registry.

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? Let's SEE the car since descriptions leave out so much.

? I was a founding board member and first editor for the Earle C. Anthony region of the Packard Club... back in the 1970s. I actually worked in the building that formerly housed Mr. Anthony's Packard dealership at 1000 S. Hope St. I knew several former execs from the company and interviewed them in the 1970s. I also saved much of the literature and photos from ECA, Inc. I personally knew the last surviving senior manager for the radio division from the days when EC was still alive.

? Just because a Packard listed Mr. Anthony's radio stations it does not mean it was his personal car. Instead the vehicle was likely owned by Earle C. Anthony, Inc. (the company) which was a fairly good-sized operation. It was west-coast distributor for Packard Motor Car Company in addition to having radio and TV stations and other enterprises (including the first commercially successful neon sign business in the USA).

? A mention of Van Ness means San Francisco for certain. Mr. Anthony had a very large dealership there (the building still stands today as a car dealership). But it was common to mention both NorCal and SoCal dealerships and show these on promo cars, such as those used on the old Mobilgas Economy Runs. These would not be cars typically driven by or personally owned by Mr. Anthony himself.

? A mention of KECA and KFI is related to the stations Mr. Anthony had operating out of Southern California (the former call letters also being related to his family).

? By the way... KFI was what was known as a "clear channel" which was not a BRAND or company name as it is today. Instead "clear channel" meant the FCC did not allow other stations to broadcast on that frequency on the radio dial. In theory you could go anywhere that AM radio signals existed and potentially receive KFI broadcasts. And Mr. Anthony often did. He and his lawyer sometimes took Mr. Anthony's sailboat all the way to Tahiti and would signal back to Los Angeles if he was receiving a broadcast! Mr. Anthony also had his own private rail car that he would hook to trains and go across the country. His rail car had a very advanced and extensive radio set in it.

Let's see photos...

Attached is a photo of the 1930 Packard when we received it. It looked to have been modified to a fire chief's car. I'll also post the photos of the side panels with the information on them.

It also had a registration card on it from California from 1965. Type 11 license number CMU 921. Validation number 4699100. Engine ID: 302510. Registered to a Leroy Raymond Harbaugh from Redwood City, CA.

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Thank you. I'll go to that page. I've also posted photos in reply to "Leeedy"'s post.

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Interesting car! I don't know what Type 11 is but if you're referring to the license plate, that number is for a passenger car but the one in the photo was clearly open at the back so would have legally required commercial plates! That's true now and as far as I know was true in 1965 too.

That car was for sale a few years ago around Sacramento if memory serves me right together with some other Packards and other cars. I think it was an estate cleanup and I'm pretty sure it got discussed quiet extensively here in the "CL listings".

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The link page has lots of omissions and several mistakes. It does not seem to understand the origin of the term, "clear channel"... and other aspects. It does not mention KFI-TV which was ECA's television station. This was where the first TV cooking show was invented. And a lot more. I still have radio scripts from KFI-AM which were written to bring the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles (YES, Mr. Anthony had a hand in this too).

In any event, the Packard you have was obviously used as some kind of promo vehicle for ECA, Inc. Possibly even a service vehicle for ECA Packard. But it was not a fixed asset of KFI radio. It was also obviously linked to the San Francisco dealership since it listed that address.

As for speculation about radio broadcasts from ECA dealerships... the Hope St. dealership indeed had a broadcast facility and transmission towers. As the broadcast facility and KFI grew, the studios were moved from Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles to a big, beautiful dedicated building in mid-town L.A. (yes, I have the photos). The transmitter was at one point located in Fullerton while the studios remained at the big location until more recent years.

By the way, KECA call letters (at least as Mr. Anthony saw them) were not merely representing "ECA = Early C. Anthony. But rather, as Mr. Anthony saw it... the call letters represented "Kelly Earle C. Anthony"... a member of his family. Yes, I know that radio stations west of the Mississippi all began their call letters with a "K"... but I relate this story as Mr. Anthony himself saw it.

I tried finding that thread, but didn't have any luck.