LOCAL
yonder
Wallace Neu and the Twin Peaks Translator by Randall Kinzie
ALPINE
MOUNTAIN TRAIL REGION
14
M
ountain Zone TV is the oldest family-operated business in Alpine, and one of the oldest in the region. In 1956, broadcast television was non-existent in the Trans-Pecos mountainous area of Brewster, Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties. And, the technology for rebroadcasting television signals did not exist yet. But that would soon change. After being discharged from the U.S. Army in 1949, Wallace Neu and his Italian-born wife Janett moved to the Alpine area. As Wallace became successful working as a vacuum salesman, he and Janett settled down and started their family. Wallace enrolled at Sul Ross College where he soon discovered his love for technology, especially broadcast television. By 1952, Neu was self-educated in the relatively new broadcast industry and began making plans to bring
television to Alpine. He began to formulate a plan using a 30-foot tower, antennae and amplifier to capture and rebroadcast the signal of an area television station (KMID channel 2 out of Midland). However, the signal was too weak. The Neu family, and the rest of Alpine, would have to wait a few more years. In 1957, KOSA-TV launched out of Odessa at three times the power of KMID, so the dream had a chance of becoming a reality. Investors were brought together and the application for an ultra-high frequency translator was filed with the Federal Communication Commission. When approved, Neu had the means to bring CBS into Alpine homes! In a brief history of Mountain Zone TV, Steve Neu, the eldest son of Wallace and Janett Neu and the company’s current chief executive officer, wrote, “Friends and neighbors would