OTHER STATIONS

KRVM-FM might possibly be the first FM station in the Northwest, they have sometimes made this claim. The station was originally licensed to the Eugene School District and was part of the Technical Vocational School located in School District Facilities at 4th and Madison in the late 40’s and the '50s before relocating to a new building further north in the '60's. The "oldest" title is in somewhat of a dispute based on early '50 Oregon Blue Books showing two commercial FM's in Portland signing on in 1946. [rp] In his publication "Educational Broadcasting Comes to Lane County", Roger Houglum discusses how KRVM was the thirteenth station in the Nation to take to the newly created FM band and states unequivocally that they were the first in the northwest. However his reference is cited in terms of the FM Educational band of the lower 20 channels between 88 and 108 MHz.

What is known is that Houglum was the first Station Manager of the station which went on the air December 6, 1947 as an educational outreach of the school district 4-J. Studios were carved out of space on the third floor of the "Voc School" since the early ‘40’s and the Electronics Department had constructed a control room and fully functional training facility. With a wooden tower constructed on top of the building by the carpentry department and a custom made antenna built by KGW-KEX Chief Engineer, Harold Singleton the long-planned station finally made it on the air.

The station became the training ground for some of the areas best known and admired "second-generation" broadcast personalities following WW II.

In the early 60’s KORE and KEED swapped dial positions, about this time, KORE moved into new studios downtown at 12th and Charnelton and moved their tower from south Willamette street to the bean field off of Country Club Road…about where Valley River Center is today. KEED was a Springfield daytimer on 1050 AM and coveted the opportunity to go full time and compete with the other rock-n-roller in town KASH at 1600 Kilohertz. So KORE and KEED made a swap, KORE down to 1050 and KEED up to 1450. They also swapped studio facilities with KEED moving to Charnelton Street in Eugene and KORE to Laura Street in Springfield. Eventually KEED had to move their transmitter tower to make way for Valley River Center, going a half mile or so north along Goodpasture Island Road.

Along with the KEED/KORE deal went the KEED-FM station…after all…FM wasn’t a popular broadcasting medium in Eugene in the 60’s.

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