Gifford Phillips was a Pueblo broadcasting owner and executive who played an important role in the development of KGHF and later Colorado Springs television and FM broadcasting.
FCC and contemporary trade records identify Phillips as the principal stockholder when Colorado Broadcasting Company acquired KGHF in Pueblo in 1946. By the 1950s, Broadcasting Yearbook listings named him president of the company that owned KGHF.
Phillips later became a major owner of TV Colorado Inc., the company behind KKTV in Colorado Springs, and held interests connected with KFMH-FM. In 1963, the FCC approved the sale of the group—including KGHF, KKTV and KFMH—to Communications Systems Inc.
Outside broadcasting, Phillips became a prominent collector and supporter of contemporary and Native American art and co-founded the Chamiza Foundation with his wife Joann in 1989.
Phillips died April 17, 2013, in Palm Desert, California, at age 94.
Southern Colorado stations: KGHF; later ownership interests included KFMH-FM and KKTV.
Sources: FCC and Broadcasting ownership records (1946–1963); Broadcasting Yearbook; Chamiza Foundation memorial; Los Angeles Times obituary, April 18, 2013.
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KGHF proposed $300,000 sale
Curtis P. Ritchie sought FCC consent to assign KGHF to Colorado Broadcasting Co. Under an October 8, 1945 agreement, Gifford Phillips, the company's controlling stockholder, placed $20,000 in escrow for an option running through April 1, 1946 to purchase the Pueblo station for $300,000. The transaction illustrates the substantial value already attached to Pueblo radio properties immediately after World War II.
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