The word around Austintatious in the 1940s was that because the previous owner couldn't get his license renewed, she bought it for about ten cents on the dollar. $17,000 was one figure I heard.

It gets more interesting when TV came along. She got Channel 7, a VHF channel. Coke Stevenson--who lost to LBJ in the famous landslide election--wanted into the TV bidness. He couldn't get an FCC license because of "too small a market for more than one channel".

Waco, half the size of Austin, had two channels. 'Scuse me?

The "10th and Brazos" corporation got into the real estate development business up on Granite Shoals reservoir (now named "Lake LBJ"). The ranchers along the west side of the lake didn't really want to sell. The story is that they were promised unending visits from the IRS folks if they didn't sell.

I met the lady a very few times. I dunno. There was always something about those two beady little black eyes that I always found "off-putting".

'Rat