Herschel Bullen was born November 13, 1870 to Herschel Sr. and Emma Boston Gibbs Bullen in Richmond, Utah. In 1890, he graduated with a teaching degree from the University of Deseret (now University of Utah). In 1894, he married Mary Hendricks with whom he had five children: Herschel Keith, Lavona, Helen, Reed and Thurlow "Tad." After serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he taught at the Brigham Young College of Logan, Utah and served on the board of trustees for the college until 1909. Herschel was also involved in local and state politics, serving as state senator in the Utah General Assemblies of 1907 and 1909, as well as aiding congressman Joseph Howell in political campaigns. As an affiliate to the Republican Party, he purchased The Logan Republican with Preston Nibley in 1910.

The Logan Republican was the later rendition of the Logan Nation, a Republican newspaper founded in 1891 that soon became politically independent. Frustrated with the lack of political representation, local Republicans wished to create a newspaper that could compete with The Logan Journal, which was the Democratic and more prominent newspaper at the time. The Republican’s first issue came out on September 10, 1902 and was soon purchased by the Logan Newspapers Company, of which Herschel Bullen was the secretary/treasurer. In 1910, he and Preston Nibley purchased the lease from Fred Turner and over the next 14 years, Herschel assumed various positions such as president, editor, secretary and manager of the newspaper. In 1924, Bullen sold the paper to The Logan Journal due to heavy financial losses on the part of stockholders.

In addition to the newspaper, Herschel was involved in several real estate and insurance businesses and served as a founder of the Promontory Curlew Land Company, and director of the first Federal Savings and Loan Corporation. In 1938, Herschel helped his son Reed purchase the Cache Valley Broadcasting Company, which managed KVNU Radio. Herschel Bullen died in 1966 at age 96 (see Herschel Bullen, Jr. Papers: COLL MSS 178).

Reed Bullen, son of Herschel Bullen and Mary Hendricks, was born November 17, 1906 in Logan, Utah. He attended Utah State Agricultural College and graduated in 1929 with a degree in business. He then attended Stanford Law School for two years.

Upon his return from school, Reed worked as a salesman for his father’s realty business, and later became the secretary/treasurer/director of Stewart-Bullen Motor Company until 1938. That same year, Reed became the first general manager of KVNU, a radio station started by the Cache Valley Broadcasting Corporation with L.R Jensen, J.M. Reeder and J.R. Reeder as directors in 1935. It was difficult for the corporation to obtain a broadcasting license from the Federal Communications Commission, which took nearly three years to approve KVNU, the seventh radio station in Utah. Soon after the station was inaugurated, the Bullen family purchased it, with Herschel and Reed as directors.

From the beginning, KVNU used mainly local talent to supply the broadcasts, including the music and drama departments of Utah State University. Every day at 12:15 p.m., Reed conducted a live broadcast outside of S.E. Jewelers entitled, Man on the Street