Dave Stone exits KEWS for ESPN radio in Los Angeles on December 15. AM 620 KEWS changes call letters to KDBZ ("The Buzz"). The Jim Rome sports show moves from KFXX to KDBZ on January 15. The Fox sports radio network airs from noon to 3 p.m.
The Portland Radio Guide |
stories ordered latest to earliest from the year
| K-News renames to "Buzz" Dave Stone exits KEWS for ESPN radio in Los Angeles on December 15. AM 620 KEWS changes call letters to KDBZ ("The Buzz"). The Jim Rome sports show moves from KFXX to KDBZ on January 15. The Fox sports radio network airs from noon to 3 p.m. |
| Dave and Dwight out AM 750 KXL dropped the local comic duo Dave and Dwight on December 14. The Lars Larson show moves to the noon to 4 p.m. time slot. Atlanta based consumer activist Clark Howard is moved to 9 a.m. to noon. And, a new local addition, Kevin Radich (from KNBR, San Francisco) replaces the KXL afternoon news with talk from 4 to 7 p.m. Steve Leader replaces Brian Calvert to co-anchor morning news with Rebecca Marshall. |
| Gordon Miller dies Longtime Portland commercial production voice, Gordon Miller passed away during the Thanksgiving holiday from cancer. Gordy voiced commercials and liners at the legendary KGW radio during the seventies and early eighties, then moved on to KXL afterwards. More discussion about Gordy in Portland Radio feedback. |
| Williams to KKSN John Williams returned to FM 97.1 KKSN on November 27, this time in the afternoon 3 to 7 pm drive time slot, replacing Dave McKay. After leaving the KKSN morning show in 1994 for KXL-FM, Williams worked at KEX and K-103. Also at KKSN, Scott Forrest and Scott Tom flip-flopped their mid-day shifts. |
| Jackson to Mix-107 Bill Jackson departed the KFXX morning sports show for the new 80’s station KVMX FM 107.5 on November 27. Jackson teams up with Valerie Ring in the morning and has "the quickest wit in the Northwest", according to the press release.
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| Prescott out Bill Prescott is out as morning man at FM 94.7 KNRK on October 30. Gustav, from middays, is moved to mornings teaming up with Daria. |
| Summer ratings The Mix 107.5 FM (KVMX) shot out of the Portland Ratings starting gate with top honors for ages 12 and above in the latest release of the Arbitron summer radio ratings. KVMX switched to an all 80’s format in June. Also posting ratings gains were KINK, KNRK and KKJZ. |
| Clarke leaves KINK Jeff Clarke, longtime KINK announcer has left the station. Jeff was the KINK afternoon voice for 18 years and graciously bowed out October 2. Dave Scott (previously Earth-105) gets to fill Clarke’s large shoes in the afternoon. Read Jeff’s official goodbye at http://www.kinkfm102.com/airstaff/jeff.html |
| Ring returns Valerie Ring returned to Portland’s morning airwaves on the new "Mix 107.5" KVMX, Monday, October 2. Ring previously worked at Z100, KINK and KVAN. Paul Thompson holds down the mid-day slot. The search continues for more live voices to accompany the new "80’s" format. |
| Hollister to KPAM weekends Jimmy Hollister is added to the weekend morning lineup on AM 860 KPAM on September 23. The energetic Hollister teams up with Deb Barnes hosting news and interviews Saturday and Sunday mornings. Hollister previously worked in Portland as the morning man at KEX in the early 1980’s. Also added to the KPAM weekend talk circuit, Victor Boc (from KUGN Eugene) Saturday's noon to 4pm . |
| McBride returns to Portland Robert McBride spins his carefully crafted selection of classical music mid-days from 10 to 3 on FM 89.9 KBPS beginning September 18. McBride was with OPB radio for ten years until 1997 when OPB dropped mid-day music. Since that time, McBride was at a public radio station in New York. |
| KXL sports changes Eric Ross host of the nightly KXL sports talk show, "The Zone" was dismissed September 12. Brian Bushlack (Channel 49) and Jay Allen replace Ross to host the show on Portland TrailBlazer non-game nights. In addition to carrying Blazer basketball play by play action, KXL adds ex-Blazer Bill Walton to the Wednesday evening talk show, and also to post-game comments, mornings, following a game. |
| Talk show changes KVAN in Vancouver signs up Dr. Joy Browne, the New York syndicated psychologist from 9 a.m. to noon. Starting September 11, KVAN adds the financial duo, the Dolans to early afternoons and Mike Turner begins a three hour news block oriented towards Clark county from 3 to 6 p.m. In other talk show changes, at KEWS, Ed Teachout’s consumer show is pulled off late mornings. Ed will re-surface on sister station KEX. The morning Scoot show on KEWS is extended one hour and Michael Savage (San Francisco) is piped in from 10 a.m. to noon. On KXL, Peter Weisbach (Seattle) replaces Dr. Joy in the bewitching midnight hour. |
| Mitchell moves Jeff Mitchell moves over from KFXX to become weekend and fill-in Sports reporter at KPAM on August 28. |
| Boesen new KWJJ p.d. Ken Boesen was named the new program director of KWJJ, replacing Robin Mitchell on August 24. Ken previously worked at KSKS Fresno. |
| Rebecca Marshall new morning host on KXL. After leaving 107.5 FM "The Beat" in June, KXL signed Rebecca to anchor the morning newscast with co-host Brian Calvert in mid August. |
| Talk of the Nation visits Portland National Public Radio (NPR) spotlighted Portland on Thursday July 27 in its news broadcasts. In addition, the NPR mid-day talk show, Talk of the Nation, broadcast live from Portland’s World Trade Center. Governor John Kitzhaber and Mayor Vera Katz were guests discussing what makes Portland such a livable city. Oregon Public Broadcasting was the host. |
| Scoot tries to climb building Morning KEWS talk show host "Scoot" attempted to scale the wall of a downtown Portland building that was occupied for ten days by a logging protester. Citing the right to free speech, Scoot said that he should be allowed to scale the wall and to perch on the building ledge to proclaim his own agenda, which was to "support Scoot radio on talk 620". Police officers on hand, July 17, persuaded Scoot not to attempt climbing the US Forest Service building or he would be subject to a large fine and imprisonment. |
| Castaways in SE Portland Taking a local spin on the "survivor" television show, Z100 sets up a survivor island under the B-17 mad bomber on SE McLoughlin boulevard. Thirteen contestants are camped out around the clock competing to be the final survivor and the winner of a new car on July 21. In other Z100 news, Jason Dean is the new morning voice, replacing John Murphey. |
| Portland radio on Portland radio Bill Gallagher devoted an hour of his KPAM AM 860 talk show to the topic of Portland radio on July 3. The Portland Radio Guide’s Dan Packard was a guest as was Gina and Rebecca, who did the morning show on KBBT. Listen to the hour in the Audio lounge. |
| Rich to Hollywood Mike Rich morning newsman at KINK departed on June 30 for the bright lights of Hollywood. Two years ago, Rich submitted a screenplay to the Motion Picture Academy’s annual competition and won first prize. Mike’s script, Finding Forrester, is now in production as a movie starring Sean Connery. Between working on three additional screenplays, Mike will continue his movie reviews on KINK with Les Sarnoff. |
| Jarrett leaves KEX/KEWS Greg Jarrett left his morning news position at KEX and KEWS on June 30th to return to KGO San Francisco and the afternoon news slot.
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| Talk show hosts in hot water Meanwhile, another talk host, Bill Sizemore, KKGT morning man, owner, and initiative author, quickly distanced himself from Kelli Highley, a former co-host to his show. Highley was accused June 28 by the Oregon state attorney general of submitting forged signatures on election petitions in 1998 and 1999.
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| KXL anchor changes Krystal Carlysle departed as KXL morning news anchor on May 26 for the inland empire of Spokane. K.C. Cowan fills in until a replacement is found. Weekend and mid-day news reporter, John Leisher departs for the big apple and WCBS on June 23. Dave Yarmouth moves over from overnights to replace Leisher. |
| Tyler to Los Angeles Chuck Tyler, operations director of KPDQ departed June 16th for mornings on Christian music KXMX in Los Angeles. While at KPDQ, Tyler freshened up the formats of the AM and FM stations leading to a ratings increase. Previously, Tyler programmed KXL-FM during its successful seventies format. Andy West is Tyler’s replacement. |
| Blazers move to KXL Paul Allen’s Portland Trailblazers NBA basketball team moved its broadcasts from KEX to KXL after the finals in June. KXL began broadcasting the Courtside sports talk show with Steve "Snapper" Jones. Allen’s Rose City radio group owns KXL. To beef up its sports coverage, KXL also debuted a nightly sports show called "The Zone" on June 5th hosted in Portland by Eric Ross from 7 to 10 p.m. |
| The Beat goes off The Beat, KBBT FM 107.5 switched format abruptly on Friday, June 2, from modern adult contemporary to an energized music mix from those bygone days of the 1980’s. The entire jock staff including the morning team of Gina, Cort and Rebecca and mid-day smooth voice Inessa, were given walking papers. A tight playlist of tunes is on the air (For example, Jack and Diane by John Cougar Mellencamp every eight hours). The new slogan is "Mix 107.5, the best songs of the eighties and more." New call letters are KVMX.
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| KXL adds local news and Portland Fire KXL adds one hour of local news from 6 to 7 p.m. in early May. That bumps up Clark Howard and Dr. Joy Browne by one hour. In the sports department, KXL begins pre-season broadcasts of Portland’s new WNBA team, the Portland Fire. Mike Barrett returns to the KXL airwaves as play announcer with Ann Schatz as color commentator. The season opener was May 31.
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| AM 860 switches to news
and talk Monday, May 1st, AM 860 KPAM switched format from Christian rock to news/talk. The station has assembled probably the largest collection of local Portland personalities since KGW radio of the 1940’s. KPAM hit the air with a 24-hour line up of all local live programming – something unheard of in Portland radio for the past decade. Hired over from the Oregonian, columnists Pete Schulberg and Dwight Jaynes. From KEX comes Pat Boyle, Bill Cooper, Darrel Aune, Bob Chase and Heidi Tauber. From K-103, Karen Tracy. Channel two’s Sheila Hamilton hosts a daytime talk show. Local favorite, Bill Gallagher returns to the air with a weekday talk show. Other notable Portland names joining the line-up are Greg Robinson, Steve "dream" Weaver, Eric Mason, Bill Schonley, and Ralph Steadman. KPAM is owned by Portland philanthropist Robert Pamlin, Jr. Studios are in downtown Portland. Lending a guiding hand, Kevin Young general manager and Alan Lawson, program director. A radio retrospective preceded the changeover during the weekend. Hear the first day broadcast (using the RealAudio player) |
| John Murphy to leave Z100 After a collective eight years of anchoring the morning show on Z100, John Murphy has decided to pack his bags and head home to Los Angeles. One year ago, Murphy moved to L.A. but commuted weekly to Portland for the morning show. Now he’ll have more time with his family, can sleep in, and will sharpen his broadcast talents. Murphy worked at Z100 from 1986 to 1990, and 1996 to this year. |
| Karr to KKJZ Lisa Karr moves in late April from hosting love songs at night on K-103, to playing smooth jazz in the evenings on 106.7 FM KKJZ. The love songs continue nightly on automatic pilot from K-103. |
| Patrick shifts to KFXX ESPN Sportscenter anchor, Dan Patrick is added to afternoons on AM 910 KFXX, April 19th. Patrick’s insightful look at the sports world originates from New York and plays on KFXX from noon to 2 p.m. weekdays. Previously, Patrick was on AM 1550 KVAN. In addition to Patrick, KFXX replaces the one on one sports network with ESPN at night. |
| Oregon Symphony on air The Oregon Symphony, under the baton of James DePreist, has its Spring concerts broadcast on FM 89.9 KPBS, Saturdays at 5 p.m. |
| New afternoon hosts Two longtime Portland radio personalities are back on the air full-time. KGON moved weekender Glynn Shannon into the afternoon drive spot, replacing Bob Brooks on January 31st. Smooth Jazz KKJZ elevated David Shult to afternoons, on February 3rd succeeding Mark Gerek. |
| Davies to KPDQ Lew Davies moves back down the dial to AM 800 KPDQ, hosting a talk show from noon to 2 p.m. Lew previously hosted a mid-day talk show on KPAM. |
| Rosie tangles with Rosie 105 Television talk show host Rosie O’Donnell filed a lawsuit against Portland’s Rosie 105 FM in January claiming first name trademark infringement. The suit demands the station cease using "Rosie" in its name and to pay triple damages for unauthorized use. Rosie 105 (KRSK) began its present format and name in the City of Roses during June of 1998. Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show airs on KATU channel 2 weekdays at 4 p.m. |
Twisting the Portland Radio Dial - 
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Twisting the Portland Radio Dial - 1999
Twisting the Portland Radio Dial - 1998
Twisting 
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Twisting the Portland 
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