Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is the primary public media organization for most of the U.S. state of Oregon, as well as southern Washington. It provides news, information, and programming via television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF translators, on more than 20 radio stations, and via opb.org and other digital platforms. TV broadcasts include local and regional programming as well as programs from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and American Public Television (APT), and radio programs from National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media (APM), Public Radio Exchange (PRX), and the BBC World Service, among other distributors. Its headquarters and television studios are located in Portland, Oregon.

The part of southwestern Oregon not served by OPB, including Medford and Klamath Falls, is served by Jefferson Public Radio, and Southern Oregon PBS.

OPB traces its roots back to January 23, 1923, when KFDJ signed on from the campus of Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in Corvallis. From 1923 to 1981, the OAC/Oregon State campus served as the base of operations for educational broadcasting in Oregon. Charles B. Mitchel, a first-year speech professor at OAC, was instrumental in bringing Oregon's first public radio station to the state. physics instructor Jacob Jordan is credited with building the station's first radio transmitter near campus in 1923. It was one of several AM stations signed on by land-grant colleges in the early days of radio.

The radio station's call letters were changed to KOAC on December 11, 1925. In 1932, KOAC became a service of the Oregon State Board of Higher Education General Extension Division.

During the mid-1950s, the university constructed KOAC's first television studios inside Gill Coliseum. On October 7, 1957, KOAC-TV signed on as Oregon's first educational television station. For nearly 60 years, faculty and students at Oregon State University broadcast news, information and entertainment programming across the state from the Corvallis studios. First known as Oregon Educational Broadcasting, the public network became the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service (OEPBS) in 1971.

KOAC won its first Peabody Award for Outstanding Public Service by a Local Station in 1942 for Our Hidden Enemy, Venereal Disease. KOAC won a second Peabody Award in 1972 for Conversations with Will Shakespeare and Certain of His Friends.

In the late 1950s, KOAC's broadcast signal was shared across the state by microwave transmitters and receivers. KOAC also added satellite studios for radio broadcasting in Eugene, Monmouth, Salem, and Portland. In the 1960s, satellite TV studios were added in Portland and Eugene. The Portland studio was located in a leased building at what is now 2828 SW Naito Parkway. A full-time satellite of KOAC-TV began broadcasting on February 6, 1961 as KOAP-TV (for KOAC Portland); KOAP-FM followed in 1962. The Eugene studio was located on the University of Oregon campus, in Villard Hall. Up until 1965, all programs from the KOAC satellites were live, due to a lack of video recording equipment. Both studios operated two RCA TK31 cameras for live broadcasts.

On December 6, 1964, KTVR-TV began broadcasting in La Grande. The station started primarily as a commercial television station, affiliated with NBC and ABC. KTVR-TV operated as a semi-satellite of KTVB in Boise, Idaho. The La Grande studio was located at 1605 Adams Ave. and produced nightly newscasts and other local programming. However, by 1967, the La Grande studio and office were closed and KTVR became a full-fledged satellite of KTVB. KTVR was unique in the Pacific Time Zone, because as a repeater of a Mountain Time Zone station, its "prime time" schedule was broadcast from 6 to 9 p.m. OEPBS bought KTVR on August 31, 1976, and converted it to PBS on February 1, 1977. At first, KTVR rebroadcast programming from two Washington stations—KWSU-TV in Pullman and KSPS-TV in Spokane—until OEPBS completed a transmission link to La Grande. On September 1, 1977, OEPBS took KTVR off the air for transmitter repairs, due to increasing technical problems. KTVR returned to the air on January 1, 1978, carrying OEPBS programming for the first time.