PDX to SFO

It's about 650 miles from Portland to San Francisco, that's a full day at the wheel. The plan was to spend as much of the drive on the coast as possible so instead of heading down I-5 or Route 99 I drove north west up Route 26 to join 101 in Seaside, OR; lost some time but gained some road miles.

The coast of Oregon is mostly rural, small towns separated by miles of forest. KXJM is located in Banks, along route 26 but at 68k watts is just another Portland station. KMHD petered out and I started looking for local stations. The Classic rock station 102.3 KCRX in Seaside was the first and their license is held by "OMG FCC Licenses, LLC" which is the best LLC name I've seen since "The Dude Abides LLC."  In this area OMG also owns 1230 KKOR and 1370 KAST-AM in Astoria which is too far north to receive here. (They also own a cluster of station in Alaska.) OMG sadly only stands for Ohana Media Group and not the exclamation "oh my god." Ohana's website has been down for quite a while and is excluded from the wayback machine so they're running dark online.

KCRX is classic rock if you think The Offspring is classic rock. It's fine but it's not all about Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Further down the coast in Cannon beach there's a whole cluster of FMs to check out. The best option was 94.9 KBGE an actual AAA format station: Gorillaz, Florence and the Machine, Blur, Genesis, Live etc. Nothing unexpected but at least it's not new country. Down the road Manzanita has a local Classical stick, KQMI and then down around Bay City  we have another cluster of FMs now audible from Tillamook. Two are public radio: KTCB and KTMK. But down on the AM band I can now clearly get 1590 KTIL. My info said that it was classic rock but all I heard was country music... Slim pickins' out here. Bay City next door has an actual LPFM station 92.9 KAYN. [LINK] They had a bluegrass program and it's the best thing I've heard since KMHD faded out. 

Route 101 swings inland and I can briefly hear Portland stations again before heading back to the coast. In Newport is Lane Community College and their stations 89.7 KLCC and 90.5 KLCO. It does have some local programs, notably Eye 5, a Saturday roots music show but it's not Saturday today so I get an NPR zombie. Another hour south, in Lincoln City there's another classic rock station KCRF. But they're silent today. That went dark in the Pacific West foreclosure. [LINK] and [LINK].

Around Newport, more Eugene stations came in range. It didn't add any great options, further south Reedsport and then Coos Bay there's even more NPR zombies; KLFO, and KSBA, and yet more classical: KZBY, KWAX, and KWVZ and further south are KSOR, and KOOZ. AAA outlet KTEE was playing some Roasanne Cash. But in Florence 90.7 KXCR, a hyper-local unassuming 900 watt station. I stuck around and I heard a show about poetry, and listened to a talk show KXCR Conversations. These get posted online here so you can hear that very show. Also notable is KMHS, a high school station with not one or two but three sticks: 1430, 105.1 and 91.3. I just wish it wasn't wasted playing modern country music.

The drive was beautiful of course. I stopped at a joint named Mr. Ed's Espresso, Juice, and Underground Pub. The walls and ceiling are all hung with guitars of every make and model. The pizza is great it was one of the best stops on the whole drive. As I approached the California border I could hear 790 KRJY-AM, the Travelers Information station out of Eureka. This station is interesting because it's privately owned. They signed on in 1980 as KEKA. Prior to 2000 it was an Adult Standards format, and under Westwood One it was Spanish Oldies until 2016.

Station 910 KURY-AM should be playing Nostalgia but it too has drifted forward a couple decades more like it's FM counterpart on 95.3. The first California FM station I can hear for sure is 91.9 KHSR, an NPR zombie. I hear it best near the coastline. 1480 KEJB-AM out of Eureka is playing some actual oldies: Chiffons, Martha Reeves, Bobby Fuller the first one I've heard all week. I drove through Brookings, past several state-line themed cannabis shops and was in suddenly California.

I might have missed something but the giant redwood trees do seem to only start south of the border. I have since read that they do grow in Southwest Oregon but are smaller. The first LPFM I hit was 101.1 KFUG in Crescent City but they were playing modern country music as I passed through town but according to their website it's a crapshoot. It could have been Noiseparade or all Elvis. More here. I could hear 104.7 KHUM out of Humbolt by the time I got to Kalamath, more true AAA: Dan Auerbach, Beatles, Lana Del Rey and way too much J.J. Cale. 

Down the road I hit the Eureka-Arcata market which has a more robust radio dial. Station 95.1 KMDR playing is listed online as Rhythmic Oldies but is actually Soft AC. 94.1 KLGE a loungy jazz station... not quite Adult Standards though it sports some Mel Torme. A couple years ago they did a real deal radio play called "Hard Boiled Humboldt, A Half-Baked Detective Story". Yes you can download it and you should. [LINK] I expected it to come in but 105.1 KRFH, the one college station in town was not audible.

The area between Eureka and Ft. Brag is pretty rural but I noticed, starting in Eureka what KMUD has become. Firstly it is the station I remember. I tuned in and the first thing I heard was some talk about Shamans and then Native American music. They are now a real deal public radio network: 91.1 KMUD, 88.1 KMUE, and 90.3 KLAI. Don't ever change.

The dial got quiet until we hit Ft. Bragg and then Mendocino, home of 89.3 KAKX. The kids are surprisingly adept, nice mix of indie rock. Then the highway routed further inland. In Santa Rosa I can hear a repeater for KCSM on 90.7, and KWMR is keeping it weird. Kay Clements was still MD last time I came through, she's not listed on the staff website anymore but they just celebrated 25 years of broadcasting[LINK], congratulations! I also bumped into KRJF-LP which I've not heard before [LINK]. In the mid-afternoon I caught the New Music show, mostly a mix of AAA and indie rock, nice driving music. From there I could already hear San Francisco stations like KPFA, but I stuck with 93.7 KJZY, one of the few Nostalgia stations left, then all jazz 91.1 KCSM all the way into the city.

Filled with tacos from Tacos Oscar next door, I paid a visit to 1-2-3-4 Go Records on 40th Street in Oakland. Among other things I got a few stickers there, one for 92.7 FM KEXP.  The problem is that KEXP is on 90.3 in Seattle. Much like KYA Gold in Seattle... this station is 800 miles away from this sticker. The truth was a big surprise. In 2009 KEXP bought the station we now know as 92.7 KEXC. I'm not sure how I missed the news, but KEXP bought the old KJAZ stick from Flying Bear in 2022. There were other sights and other sounds, but you can't stay on the road forever.

PSC to PDX

I didn't drive directly from Tri-Cities to San Francisco. I drove from Portland to Tri-Cities and back to Portland, and only then down that long winding coastal road. Route 101 originates in Washington state where it wraps around the Olympic peninsula. Most sources give  that location as Olympia but I think the start of the ramp off is technically in Tumwater. The southern Terminus is in Los Angeles 1,540 miles away. The ramp  roughly at the ramp for S. Grande Vista Ave.

Two stations call Tumwater their city of license: 1340 KUOW-AM, and on 95.3 K237FR, the HD2 repeater of KYYO. Many stations give their city of license as Olympia: KAOS, KPLI, KXXO, KKWF, and seven repeaters and translators. Almost none of those towers are actually in either city. KAOS or course is local, as is KPLI; even KXXO way out on Capitol Peak at the Weyerhaeuser Radio Site in the Capitol forest is technically in Olympia. Strangely it's the repeaters that seem to be out of town like K270CJ and  K262CY repeater, are out of town.

K270CJ reminded me of something I've been observing for years now: the slow migration of oldies and classic rock playlists into the 1980s and even 1990s. By extension Country Oldies has also time-traveled to the 1980s which is frankly not a good era and I'm sorry to report that Nostalgia, the old big band format is basically extinct. But more on all that in a bit. 

Appropriate, to this topic, K270CJ at one point did broadcast "Olympia's Boomer Rock and Roll" as "Boom FM." But it's the HD3 channel of KRXY, that's not front row. HD3 is the back seat of the station wagon. (On the 94.5 FM stick they're broadcasting Hot AC.) But if you go to the website it has very mixed branding. It has KYA-FM in the header, but the URL is still Theboomfm, and the text describes the music as "Classic Hits" which is not oldies or classic rock. Notably the banner at the top is broken. I had forgotten this existed but this is all that remains of the old KYAgold site. That last flip of the FM stick happened in march of 1994 at 93.3 KYCY in San Francisco ending a brand stretching back into the early 1970s. [LINK] Per a December 2022 conversation on radiodiscussions.com [SOURCE] K270CJ flipped to SuperCFL and the steam flipped to sports which is what I found. However, I've found multiple other KYA streams... that are on-brand and still running.

• KYA Gold

• 1260 KYA Radio

• 94.7 KYA Radio1

I stocked up on  Calvin Johnson mix tapes at the Rainy Day Record Co. . but there's no tape deck in the car. So I spent this leg of the trip doing a bandscan while driving along the Columbia River gorge. This was an interesting experiment as there are no AM or FM transmitters in side of it but alternately behind the bluffs and hills around it. 

 

Heading to (Yakima-Pasco- Richland-Kennewick) Most of the drive is decidedly rural, these are white areas of the metro map. You can see the course of the river in the shape of the surrounding counties. But Route 14, aka The Lewis and Clark Highway,  starts in Vancouver, WA; home of 91.9 KOUV-LP, which is still a CP and 97.5 KDOA-LP a Caribbean station with a complicated resume. They sold their stick on 101.5 in the Dalles to the religious satcaster Educational Media Foundation (EMF). That station became KJYV in 2019 and then KDLZ in 2022. KDOA moved to 97.5 in 2021 but in September of 2023 filed a CP to move to 99.9. Both CPs are still active,but EMF (the E also stands for Evil) has a translator on 97.5 for KLVP making 99.9 the safer bet. They did file a proper STA [LINK] to remain silent due to that "copious interference" which they were when I drove through.

The first town of any note is Camas which has two location stations KIEV-LP "outlaw country" [LINK] and KNRK and by extension the HD-2 channel of KNRK, Alternative Classics. They were playing Kings of Leon when I last checked, a new cut from 2024. Alternative perhaps, classic? No. The Freeway ends at Washougal and while KMHD comes in clear there's nothing new on the dial I couldn't hear in Vancouver. The transmitters on Mount Hood are mostly on the south side of that summit and not particularly clear here.

Further down the road was the town Skamania, a perfect town for a ska-fest, or ska band. It's never happened but there have been a few near-misses. In 1964 Carlos Malcolm And His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms put out a record "Ska-Mania" which opened with the single "Skamania" it's mostly about curry. The Supertones and Five Iron Frenzy did a tour in 1998  named "Skamania." The band the Skatalites put out a record in 1996 "Greetings from Skamania." That's both one first wave and one second wave ska band, but still no love for the unincorporated community in Oregon. But if you're looking for local music in Skamania, Matthew McDonnell put our a cassette in 1992 "A Musical history and tour of the Columbia River Gorge."  Good luck finding it. A few miles later I pass the Bridge of the Gods.

After a quick stop at North bank Books I hit the road. 104.5 KPLP reports a city of license right on the water in White salmon, but they use a stick 23 miles away in Parkdale. It's another christian contemporary station.  I headed on to The Dalles; home of KQHR, KOTD, KMSW, KACI, KDLZ, KACI, KODL and another 9 FM repeaters.  92.7 KMSW purports to be Classic Rock and 1440 KODL to be Classic Country; both have slide into the 1980s. On the AM band are two more: news talker KACI-AM and and KODL-AM, both simulcasting on their respective FM sticks. I can just get 102.3 KRSX a standard issue country FM station.  They're 12 miles inland up route 97 to nowhere. Further down the road I can just get 106.1 KWCQ out of Condon, OR 33 miles away.

By the time I get to Boardman, before the river hooks north, The dial turns over to mostly Tri-Cities stations. Public stations KOLU, KRBM and KFAE comes in clearly but just like my last visit the college station KWCW is elusive. Half the dial is country music stations. I tried for 980 KTCR looking for an oldies station and got more 80s music. I can however get two other classic country stations out here: 1240 KTIX-AM and 1360 KOHU. Both have playlists that also lean into the 1980s but KOHU is certainly more interesting with a lot more old style lap steel. Both stations cover an area in the hills south east of Tri-Cities proper out in those white areas of the map. Station 101.9 KNHK is also classic country but I couldn't receive it. 

On the drive back there was one RF mystery that took me hours to make sense of. On 1230 AM I could hear this Spanish music for most of the drive. In trying to guess the location of the transmitter, I found it was strong fore and aft even as I rounded sharp corners, and tall hills loomed over head. I even considered it being a pirate. It turns out that 1230 KDYM-AM Sunnyside (near Yakima) and 1230 KRYN-AM in Gresham both simulcast "Estacion de la Familia radio". They are 170 miles apart at opposite ends of the Columbia river, but because of the depth of the gorge you can usually receive it anywhere between Portland and Kennewick. But which one you receive depends on which side of the mountain you're facing.

SEA to PDX

Everyone knows the airport code for Portland (PDX) but if you were not familiar, PSC is the airport code for Tri-Cities in western Washington state. The Tri-Cities are three cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland) located at the confluence of the Yakima, Snake, and Columbia Rivers. I flew into Seattle (SEA) and after a short stop in Olympia and drove the 160ish miles to Portland to begin the real road trip. This is my first visit in over a decade. [LINK] and [LINK] Much has changed. The weird things was that I didnt' run into KEXP stickers until I got to San Francisco a week later.

In Ellensburg, 96.1 KGRU-LP is no more. The Great Round-Up Cowboy church surrendered their license in 2016. Station 89.9 KGRG is still there, as is 1330 KGRG. They're still broadcasting different programming, but I did not hear any hosts leading me to believe they're operating under automation at least that morning. The "Alternative past" logo is long gone.

Station 101.1 KOHO was playing Classical music as expected. I made a side trip into Olympia to tune into 89.3 KAOS which did not disappoint. I caught the program Sister Sound in all it's psychedelic glory. [LINK]. I picked up a few Calvin Johnson mix tapes [LINK]  and the latest issue of the Cooper Point Journal. (I did spot that KAOS advert on page 7, well done.)  Sadly 90.1 KUPS was not very audible on the route. 91.3 KBCS was, so I heard DJ Mike Biggins briefly before the Bluegrass show began at noon PST. I think he was spinning some Taj Mahal but again the faded out before I passed Tacoma. 

The co-channel interference between KASB and KMIH on 88.9 was such that neither station was audible on my route. Strangely KMIH has flipped from Rhythmic CHR to AAA making their playlist more like KBCS than KNHC if we're comparing among the Seattle stations. KMIH operated on 104.5 until 2008 when this mess began. They had some secondary coverage via a translator on 94.5 but they sold it to Bonneville and while I'm sure the revenue was tempting... the station seems all but inaudible now. Putting two class D stations on the same frequency was a truly bizarre decision, which at this point could really only be improved with a timeshare agreement.

As soon as I got south of Cowlitz, WA I began trying to tune in my long-time favorite jazz station, KMHD. The signal cleared up around Castlerock. I caught part of the program Songs From Cloud 9, and then the following Monday morning, but was sorry to miss the Carlton Heston rebroadcast. But I did listen to The Morning Session, which was very chill, as advertised. The dial stayed put for a long time.

I made a real effort to spend some time listening to KFFD, Free Form Portland. They're small, they're weird and 100% volunteer. When I first tuned in I couldn't tell I even had a station, but after a bit of listening it was interrupted suddenly by an announcement about storm water runoff. Then I realized I was hearing ocean waves, not just static. It was surreal. Around 9:00 AM they had some hard soul and R&B program rolling. But when I checked back later it was a bilingual Spanish/English talk program.

KBOO was being KBOO and I can hardly describe what I heard but it was like Merengue with Hammond organ leads. I am guessing it was the Africa Oye program. KXRY (X-Ray FM) was playing a local artist Dakota Theim "The High Life" which I know because hosts Paul and Hannah backsold it properly. Good job kiddos. I tried to get 99.9 KXRW but there wasn't even a whisper on that frequency, not even driving down Route 5 in Vancouver. Similarly 100.7 had neither KBSF-LP nor KQRZ-LP when I tried Monday morning.

I had a great time in Portland, heard good music, ate great snacks.  There were more food trucks than restaurants. The hotel room even came stocked with a Roberts Revival R300 radio with a digital tuner. So instead of using the car radio, I was able to adjust a nice telescoping antenna and sit in the hotel room in total comfort and do a proper bandscan.

PORTLAND BANDSCAN (highly selective)

88.3 - KBVM     Religious talk
88.7 - KZRI        Christian rock
89.1 - KMHD     Jazz
89.5 - KPFR       Choir
89.9 - KQAC      Classical
90.3 - KFFP        Bilingual program?
90.7 - KBOO      Random
91.1 - KXRY      Indie Rock
91.5 - KOPB       NPR
91.9 - K2201N    KWAZ repeater
96.7 - KNUM      Hiphop
99.1 - KPRP        Indie rock
107.1 K296FY    KXRY repeater

To Reed or not to Reed

It was just this week that 97.9 KRRC went dark, possibly for good.  The Reed College radio station has had a long and troubled history and the expectations have often been grim. They were operating at a mere 8.2 watts before this and it had been a long struggle to get that much at all. But let's begin at the beginning. More here.

The first incarnation of the Reed Radio Club began in 1954, by October 1955 KRCB-AM was a reality. This carrier current station operated on 660 AM. Their studio was in the basement of Doyle dormitory and they may or may not have also had a wee little pirate transmitter. Regardless of the legalities, this grew into a 10watt Class-D station, 89.3 KRRC-FM by the summer of 1958. But the patchwork of home-made and refurbished hardware was breaking down from the beginning. frequent bouts of downtime plagued the station for a decade. In 1981 that Class D status reared it's ugly head when 89.1 KMHD bumped them from their frequency.  KRRC and moved to 104.1 where they sat undisturbed until 2002. More here, and here.

A christian radio station from Tillamook, KFIS-FM was changing it's city of license to move-in on Portland and was going to mow down the Tiny Tim of college radio stations in order to do so. Only a couple months later the Portland fire marshal paid them a surprise visit and found them in violation and closed their studios. They did manage to pull that one out and get moved to 97.9 at an even lower power.  In 1992 they tried to make the best of a bad situation and increase their HAAT on the KGON tower. The FCC denied their request.

Then the unthinkable happened. On January 10th 2010, KRRC made it's plea on line with the following post:

"KRRC needs $5k to apply for a new frequency, the assistant treasurers are in favor of giving us the money, but ultimately it's senate's decision. If you care about KRRC, if you've listened to KRRC, if you like KRRC, please, take a second out of your day to send Senate an email. Tell them you want to keep broadcasting and keep KRRC alive....To put it bluntly, this is life or death for KRRC, if we don't get a new frequency, we won't be able to legally broadcast, and the FCC will take our license away..." 

It was an even worse situation that the last time. This time it was Clear Channel. They're moving KNRQ all the way from Eugene, OR into the Portland, OR market. For some reason, despite prior concerns about station migrations away from smaller markets, the FCC has permitted this 100+ mile move. the legally dubious move-in stomps directly on top of KRRC. Grim is an understatement. In November of 2011, KRRC gave up the ghost and moved to an online-only platform.

Reed College tried to sell the doomed license, then an a clever more they donated the class D license for KRRC to a non-profit devoted to community group named Common Frequency. With any luck the new owners will keep the programming local and try to shoehorn the station into a new frequency somewhere on the Portland radio dial.

KMHD is the best Jazz station in America

Somewhat subjective I know, a controversial statement for certain. I still have my soft spots for WRTI and WBGO but KMHD just wowed me when I got to Portland Saturday.

I lost 3 hours in flying across the time zones and lost more in the damn flight itself. I've lost a lifetime in layovers in Chicago this year but that's a separate issue. But KMHD is programmed by psychics and that's all I know. They read your aura or they see your mental energy or maybe they pull a heart chakra out of a rabbit's hat. I dunno. But every time I need to hear some kind of music, even if I don't know it myself... they know.

Upon arrival I was toast. Totally burnt, tired agreeing to pay for stupid things, signing without reading just to get to a bed. KMHD was playing Little Red Rooster by Howlin' Wolf. Then Muddy Waters on Born with nothing. Goddamn psychic DJs reading my mind.

Then this morning. It was cold cold cold. There was a thin coat of water on everything and the clouds were splitting sporadically. The wind was up and even the hotel room was cold. I couldn't stay warm or even dry while working. There was no sun and I was driving in circles in a run down neighborhood trying to get un-lost.

KMHD was playing Dixieland and swing jazz. Everyone from New Orleans to Boston knows Dixieland is the audio equivalent of Orange Juice and Sunshine. day in, day out, they play a mix of blues and jazz -new and old, and they don't seem to carry any of the intellectual baggage that a station WBGO brings to the mic. They just let it groove and let that alone impress. KMHD, the place to be.

check out these Portland radio sites, great stuff:
http://www.portlandradio.org/
http://www.pdxradio.com/