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What's up with Central Oregon radio these days?

M

MN Maniac

Guest
Recently discovered this forum and am enjoying it. Don't see much about Central Oregon, though. My old stompin' grounds: Bend/Redmond/Madras/Prineville/La Pine, etc.

I was there just before the growth explosion. Did afternoons on CHR KXIQ (Q-94) during 1988-89, then put on my cowboy hat for afternoons at KSJJ/102.9 ("103 Country") which was still located in Redmond back then.

In those days, the market was basically KXIQ, KICE (100.7), KSJJ, and KLRR (then on 107.5.) Plus Terry Cowan's excellent Christian FM (KNLR) on 97.5 and a few out-of-market signals.

Fun place to live and work. Loved the Cascades, downtown Bend nightlife, and not having to pay sales tax on anything!

What's it like these days? I know the number of stations has basically doubled in recent years and the place has been growing like crazy.
 
Bend is now about 75,000 and radio is three main groups at this point.

Bend Radio Group (Gross Radio) has the old Q94 now Power 94 a Hot AC that runs Kidd Kraddick in the morning, KSJJ still 103 Country, Magic 100.7 (AC) and KICE which is now AM and carries ESPN. They're on the westside now.

Combined Communications has KBND, Classic Rock 98.3 The Twins, Clear 101.7 (AAA), and 99.7 The Mountain (Country). Still hanging out in remodeled studios on Butler Market.

Terry Cowan is still plugging away at KNLR though the K-love and Air1 networks are also sending Christian signals into town now.

Horizon Broadcasting has Quack KQAK (oldies), The Peak (80s, 90s, and Today), Lite 95.1, and two others that I can't remember right now.

Housing is nuts, but it's still a great place to live. I do voiceovers out of my house here.
 
Wow! Bend was offically 18,000 when I was there and I remember people bragging (but we're really over 20,000 now!)

> Bend Radio Group (Gross Radio) has the old Q94 now Power 94 a Hot AC that runs Kidd Kraddick in the morning, KSJJ still 103 Country, Magic 100.7 (AC) and KICE which is now AM and carries ESPN. They're on the westside now.

Radio-locator.com shows a new FM on 92.7, licensed to Sunriver with transmitter co-located with 94.1 and 102.9 on Jack Pine Ridge. I'm guessing this also belongs to Bend Radio Group (?)

Glad to hear Terry is still making it with KNLR. Good guy.

>Still hanging out in remodeled studios on Butler Market.

Are any of the "old-timers" still on-the-air there? Rick Evans (a/k/a "Biff Harley"), Elise Michaels, Doug Donoho, Kerry O' Donnell, Pate, Dennis Shaw, etc?
 
Oh yeah, I forgot about the new station 92.7. Yep, they are a part of BRG.

The old timers....let's see. Rick Evans is now in sales at Combined and is still, um, interesting. Elise opened her own production company called Live on the Fly, Doug Donoho is the PD of Clear still and doing afternoons, Pate does weekends on the Mountain for Combined, and D-Shaw occasionally does weekends on the Twins.

I'm sorry to say that Kerry died of liver cancer last year. Great guy. I miss Big Bob with Big Bob's Big Sports.
 
Sorry to hear about Kerry. I had no idea. Used to get e-mails from him every six months or so and he never said anything about it. Guess I know now why I stopped hearing from him. The "Big Bob" bit was good. He started that over on the Q, back when Mike Burnette owned the place.

When they flew me in for my interview at the Q (November, 1988), the GM and SM took me out on the town. They were trying to sell me on the appeal of living there (which wasn't too difficult.) I remember going into one of the bars in downtown Bend...the Ore House, maybe? Anyway, just as we walked in, I noticed some guy beating on a stuffed bull...or cow...or something. I asked "What the **** is that?" Answer: "That's Biff Harley and his show." Ah, so *that's* what they do for fun here, eh?

D-Shaw...the stories I could tell you about that guy! (And I mean that in a good way.) Does he still drive old Willys Jeep that he restored?
 
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