3 - KVDO (OEPBS) Salem
Ken Lewetag writes: "KVDO was the first station to serve Salem. It had a very watch News department and local programming including Salem Wrestling live from the grand theater in Salem. In addition KVDO during the fall of the KOIN tower became the CBS affiliate until KOIN had a new tower and antenna installed. During that time CBS's rating increased substantially. This was due in part to for the first time Eugene could see CBS programming (KEZI- ABC and KVAL- NBC at the time). This was reported that this was unsettling to Eugene and for that matter Portland. Over a period of time KEZI "helped" KVDO and its board to "make improvements" till KVDO had over extend and was forced to sale. KEZI did operated KVDO but the FCC did not like the dual operation with overlapping coverage. The station was sold to OEBPS. AT the Time there was a Corvallis OEBPS channel 7 and OEBPS Portland - channel 10. For a period of time conversations were happening of combining operations here in Salem at channel 3. Finally Portland won out and the rest is history for OEBPS. OEBPS wanted a station in BEND and worked out a deal to move the channel 3 allocation from Salem and exchange for a noncommercial in Bend channel 32."
7 - KOAC (OEPBS) Corvallis
The only PBS station in the mid-Willamette valley to survive. Began operating in 1957 and was the first OEPBS station.
9 - KEZI (ABC) Eugene.
It is unknown whether KEZI was on the Salem cable channel line-up.
10 - KOAP (OEPBS) Portland.
Its call letters are now KOPB.
12 - KPTV (Ind.) Portland.
KPTV began in the early 1950's, was an ABC affiliate until 1964, when it became an independent station. In 1995, when UPN came on the scene, it was an affiliate of it until a few years before UPN merged with WB to create the CW. Today, KPTV is a FOX affiliate (the only FOX station in the U.S. that has an 11 o'clock news. It also has a 4.5-hour-long newscast called "Good Day Oregon" which started in 1997. It begins at 4:30 am and ends at 9:00 am.
13 - KVAL (CBS) Eugene.
Again, it is unknown whether KVAL was on the cable channel lineup or not.
22 - KECH (Ind.) Salem
Ah, KECH. The old Salem TV station with the clever slogan of "Catch 22" was on in the 80's. It turned into KBSP in the 90's showing the Home Shopping Network. The remains of KECH are in KPXG, Portland's ION affiliate, analog channel 22, digital channel 4.
61 - W61AL (Ind.) Salem
This is probably K61CC, why it has the call letters of W61AL are unclear. It is a mainly Christian station. Got an e-mail saying that K21GX and its sister station in Portland will upgrade to digital, but have not set a date yet. K61CC has since moved to channel 21 and has the call letters K21GX. It also has a Portland station on channel 26.
Other 80's stations
49 - KPDX - Portland.
This was Portland's first FOX affiliate, beginning in 1986. Before then, it was an independent station. Today, it is a My Network affiliate.
24 - KNMT - Portland.
Portland's Trinity Broadcasting Network affiliate (TBN). A Christian station.
32 - KRCW - (CW) Portland.
Ken Lewetag writes: "KUTF channel 32 came on the air in 1989 under Dove Broadcasting of Greenville, SC as a religious station. In 1991-1992 I think KUTF changed to family broadcasting with Ken Lewetag as general Manger but still under the Dove Broadcasting offices still in the Salem Studios on Madison Street. KUTF was sold to Glenn Chambers from LA and ran for about 6 months before KUTF went dark. About a year later channel 32 came back as the WB affiliate under the leadership of Victor Ives. The channel 32 transmitter has always been located in the Mollala hills 14 miles SE of Mollala at "High Camp"."
52 - KGUG (Azteca America) - Salem
When Northwest Television LLC sold channel 52, this is what it became: A Spanish-language station, Salem's first ever, and the first time since the 80's that Salem had three over-the-air stations. In the early teens, KGUG moved to channel 37.
For Portlanders Only! Videos section
A smorgasboard of old Portland TV clips from 1976 up to the present. Yours truly has contributed to this fine site. NOTE: FPO is in the process of moving to a new site at KPXG on Wikipedia
Learn all about the history of KECH.
KOAC on Wikipedia
Learn all about KOAC and the strange history of KVDO.
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