In 1970 the Norwood Family bought KORE AM/FM from Glenn Stadler. At that time, KORE was a talk station and the "13th rated station in a market of 12" according to Ron Norwood. He adds," Prior to taking over, we advised Sadler to take the station country as the other country station was "country KATR" and they were real hillbilly. We beat KATR after several years of battle and made it number 3 total persons 12 plus. Both the AM and FM were country. We decided to throw in the country towel when KEED-AM went 24 hour country. Although we had a 24 hour FM signal (2,600 Watts), AM radio was still the leader. We took both stations Religious and made money the first month. Sold the FM to Sterling Recreational and the AM to a local businessman who took KORE-AM non-commercial and remained religious." [rn]

In 1976, Sterling Recreational Organization, owner of KASH AM (1600) and headed by Fred Dantz purchased KORE FM (93.1) and built a new transmitter facility on the East end of Blanton Heights. The call letters were changed to KSND- at that time and the station began operating with 100 KW from the new site. S.R.O. also planned to operate KASH-TV (channel 16) from the same site, but that never

happened. [crm]

KEED was faced with a tough situation in 1979 as the landlord of the property for their tower site gave them only 30 days notice of a large increase in rent. Not willing to pay the new rent, the station owners and engineer did a "midnight move" of the transmitter, down the road to the site of KATR, near Marist High School. This combined KATR (1320) and KEED (1450) on the same AM tower. Just after the

due date for the rent increase, the landlord, hearing that KEED was still on the air, came by to collect the rent for the transmitter on his land. "What transmitter?" was the station management response to the landlord. KEED began to purchase 5 acres of land in the Delta Ponds, about a half mile away and by 1981 completed the purchase and installed a new 400 foot tower just off Goodpasture Road. [crm]

Charlie Banta and David Benjamin, owners of KEED-AM (1450) bought KASH-AM (1600) and KSND-FM (93.1) from Sterling Recreational Organization in 1983 (one contributor says 1985). At the time, the FCC had limits on the number of stations that any one organization could own in a market, and since the pair would own two AM stations, they were forced to sell one of them. KEED-AM was put on the block and was purchased by Richard Parker who developed an alternative rock format with the new Call Sign of KRXX picking up a group of former KZEL-FM jocks. The KRXX-AM (1450), under his direction did not last long. The Banta/Benjamin group retained the KEED call sign when they sold the station to

Parker and dropped the KASH call letters, renaming KEED to the 1600 dial position. The new KEED-AM (1600) ran a country oldies format. [cram]

The KDUK call letters have been kicked around, first belonging to KDUK-AM in 1983 at 1280 on the dial. [rp] The 1280 spot was originally KERG, which stood for the station owners; Eugene Register Guard...the town's daily newspaper. The FM station was put on the air as KLCX around 1987, licensed to Florence. It eventually was moved to Prairie Peak in the Coast Range, took on the KDUK call letters, had

studios in Coburg for a while in the early 90's and was owned for a while by PacifiCorp, sometimes known in the area as Pacific Power and Light. They moved the station to studios on Centennial Loop in Eugene and the stations were sold to McCoy Broadcasting in the mid-90's. McCoy "spun off" the AM and gave the 1280 frequency and transmitter to the Eugene School District who turned it in to KRVM-AM. KWAX-FM eventually moved into the Centennial Loop studios after KDUK left.

Before becoming KDUK-AM, in the early '80's KERG at 1280 underwent multiple call sign and format changes. It was known in the late 70-early 80's time frame as KBDF (Rock), KYKN ("Kickin Country") and KQAK (Big Band/nostalgia) [rp]

In 1966 Lane Community College obtained a construction permit for a new FM educational Station and went on the air with the call letters KPNW FM from studios at 2nd and Monroe, also the home of KRVM-FM. The original station had a power of 440 Watts and an antenna height of "just above sea level". The Call Letters were coveted by the Wilson Family, owner of KPIR-AM who assisted in getting the call

sign KLCC released from a ship so they could be assigned to Lane Community College. By 1968, LCC had outgrown the original campus and the transmitter facility was moved to Blanton Heights and studios to the new LCC Campus on East 30th. IN 1981 KLCC increased power to 30.000 watts and then to 86,000 watts in 1984.

What is now KMGE-FM (94.5) started its life as KBMC-FM and was owned by Alan Graves in the 60’s. Graves had a music store in Eugene and one of the first multi-track recording studios in town, in his basement, along with KBMC. The transmitter site was in the South Hills of Eugene, on the East end of Blanton Heights. For several years, the studios bounced between the transmitter site and various locations. Graves sold the station to a Christian group in the 70’s who operated it from studios on 8th near Charnelton. It was subsequently sold in 1986 to John Tilson to become the flagship station of McKenzie River Broadcasting who changed it to pop-hit KMGE-FM in January 1987.

In 1987, John Tilson purchased the failing KRXX-AM (1450) an album rock formatted station, changed the call letters to KKXO-AM and operated the station with an oldies format for two years before switching to a format of 40’s-50’s-60’s hits. Tilson’s McKenzie River Broadcasting purchased KEED-AM (1600) and KSND-FM (93.1) in December 1992 and switched the FM to a country format under the new call letters of KKNU-FM. KEED-AM (1600) kept the country-oldies format. [crm]

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