Senator Hugh Ike Shott - Contact Information

Hugh Ike Shott (September 3, 1866 – October 12, 1953) was an American newspaper editor, pioneer broadcaster, and Republican politician from Bluefield, West Virginia. Born in 1866, he came of age in the post–Civil War era and apprenticed as a printer, learning the technical and business aspects of the newspaper trade from the ground up. This early training in printing and publishing laid the foundation for his later prominence in regional journalism and communications, as well as his eventual entry into public life and politics.

Shott’s formal education is not extensively documented, but his apprenticeship in the printing trade functioned as a practical education in both the mechanics of publishing and the currents of public opinion. As a young man, he moved to the then-booming new city of Bluefield, West Virginia, a growing rail and commercial center whose rapid development offered opportunities for ambitious professionals. Immersed in the world of typesetting, editorial work, and newspaper management, he gained the skills and experience that would allow him to assume leadership in local media.

In Bluefield, Shott took control of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, the city’s primary morning newspaper, and emerged as one of the most influential media figures in southern West Virginia. Through the use of straw parties, he also controlled the ostensibly competing evening paper, the Mountain Sunset Review, thereby consolidating his influence over print news in the area. He was involved in the railway mail service and served as postmaster in Bluefield for several years, a position that at the time was a political appointment made by the President of the United States. Under his direction, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph became an openly Republican publication, reflecting and reinforcing his own partisan commitments. In 1928, the Daily Telegraph Printing Company obtained a license for Bluefield’s only radio station, whose call letters—WHIS—were derived from his initials. This step made Shott a pioneer broadcaster and expanded his influence from print into the emerging medium of radio.

Shott’s prominence in business and local affairs led naturally into elective politics. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia in 1928 and re-elected in 1930, serving two terms in the House during a period that spanned the onset of the Great Depression. He contributed to the legislative process as a Republican congressman, representing the interests of his constituents in West Virginia and participating in the democratic process at the national level. In 1932, he was defeated in his bid for a third term in the House, and in 1936 he unsuccessfully sought election to the United States Senate. Despite these setbacks, he remained a significant figure in state Republican politics and in the public life of his region.

Hugh Ike Shott’s service in the United States Congress as a senator occurred during a significant period in American history. In 1942, following the resignation of Senator Matthew M. Neely, Shott became a candidate for the special “short term” Senate seat from West Virginia. He won the special election and served as a United States Senator from November 18, 1942, to January 3, 1943. Although this tenure covered only a brief period—effectively a single short term in the Senate—he nonetheless participated in the legislative process and represented West Virginia in the upper chamber of Congress. The election was regarded as almost honorary, as the Senate met only twice during his time in office, and he was not a candidate in the regular election, held the same day, for the subsequent six-year term. For the remainder of his life, however, he was widely referred to as “Senator,” reflecting both the prestige of the office and his long-standing role in public affairs.

After leaving the Senate in January 1943, Shott continued to shape the media landscape of Bluefield and the surrounding region. His control of both daily newspapers and the primary radio outlets in the city gave him a virtual news monopoly. In 1948, his sons Jim and Hugh Ike Shott Jr. launched a companion FM station, WHIS-FM, extending the family’s broadcasting presence, though the station was initially forced to shut down due to the limited number of FM receivers then in use; it later returned to the air and eventually became WHAJ. In 1955, two years after Shott’s death, his heirs obtained—through the only special exception ever granted by the Federal Communications Commission—the license for Bluefield’s sole television station, which likewise carried his initials as WHIS-TV. Subsequent litigation led to a landmark United States Supreme Court ruling that no single company could own the primary AM and FM radio stations, the only television station, and the only daily newspaper in the same town. As a result, WHIS-TV was sold and its call letters were changed to WVVA in 1979, and over time both WHIS-AM and the FM station were also sold, though the WHIS call sign preserved Shott’s name in local broadcasting.

Hugh Ike Shott died on October 12, 1953. His legacy endured not only in the continued operation of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph and WHIS-AM, but also in the philanthropic work of his family. In 1984, his youngest son, Hugh Ike Shott Jr., who had worked with the newspaper founded by his father for more than sixty years, established the Hugh Ike Shott Jr. Foundation to help improve the social and economic quality of life within the trade area of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. Shott’s papers are preserved at the West Virginia & Regional History Center at West Virginia University in two collections, A&M 908 and A&M 1583, providing researchers with insight into his multifaceted career as a printer, publisher, broadcaster, and Republican officeholder who, through both media and politics, helped shape public discourse in West Virginia during the first half of the twentieth century.