KPOJ
Encyclopedia
KPOJ is a radio station
located in the Portland, Oregon
, area. It airs a progressive talk format and was an original Air America Radio
affiliate.
newspaper and owned and operated by it until 1953, when it was sold to King Broadcasting
. KGW affiliated with the NBC
network in 1927 and stayed for 29 years until joining ABC Radio in 1956.
Among KGW's early personalities was Mel Blanc
, a local musician and vocalist featured on the "Hoot Owls" variety program from 1927 to 1933. Here Blanc discovered a talent for character voices that would win him stardom as the voice of Bugs Bunny
, Daffy Duck
and many other Warner Brothers cartoon features.
Under The Oregonian the station gained an AM sister, KEX
, in 1933, and the Northwest's first FM station, KGW-FM (now KKRZ
), in 1946. King Broadcasting founded KGW-TV in 1956. All three stations continue to exist in Portland, but none have any remaining connection to AM 620.
"62 KGW", as it called itself during its later years under those call letters, was one of the most popular radio stations in Portland in the 1960s and 1970s, but its ratings declined during the 1980s, and on August 28, 1989 the station changed from a Top 40 music format
to a talk format
, using primarily local hosts
. The change did not produce the hoped-for ratings turnaround, and in July 1991 the talk programming was replaced by a simulcast of sister station KINK-FM's
programming, but retaining the longstanding and locally well-known call sign
, KGW, until 1993, when the call letters were changed to KINK. In 1995, KINK-AM changed back to all-talk, now airing nationally syndicated talk radio programming instead of local talk, and the call letters changed to KOTK. The frequent changing of call letters continued, with the station becoming KEWS ("K-News") in 1997, KDBZ ("The Buzz") in 2000, and KTLK in 2002. The station picked up the current KPOJ call letters on August 18, 2003. For many years and with various formats, the station called itself "Super 62".
The KPOJ call sign originated at what is now KKPZ
AM 1330, which for many years was the Mutual Broadcasting System
's Portland affiliate. In the 1970s, that station changed its call letters to KUPL
. The call letters stand for Portland Oregon Journal
, the now-defunct newspaper that once owned AM 1330.
station to be owned by Clear Channel Communications
. Its schedule features a local morning show and syndicated programs from Dial Global
, Premiere Radio (which is owned by Clear Channel) and other radio syndication companies. KPOJ was the first station to call its format "Progressive Talk", a tag that is often used.
Just prior to adopting the present format, KPOJ was an oldies
station with low Arbitron
ratings. Immediately after picking up talk, KPOJ quadrupled their number of listeners, and in its first Arbitron ratings book became the most-listened AM station in the market, particularly among younger listeners coveted by advertisers. Following their success in Portland, Clear Channel rolled out the format and a nearly identical on-air lineup on many of their struggling AM stations in other markets, to mostly modest success.
With the switch to its current format, KPOJ, in just two years, has gone from a low-rated afterthought, with many format and call letter changes over the years, to one of the most influential stations in the country.
, Ed Schultz
, Randi Rhodes
. KPOJ differs from many other progressive talk radio stations in that it airs a local-live morning show (instead of the syndicated Stephanie Miller Show, which is part of the line-up on most other progressive talk stations but does not air in Portland, although it aired on KCMD (now KUFO) opposite the KPOJ local show until 2009). The original host of KPOJ's morning show was Thom Hartmann, who has since scaled back his involvement in the local program to focus on his syndicated program, which is broadcast from KPOJ.
As of 25 January 2010, the weekday lineup is as follows:
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
located in the Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, area. It airs a progressive talk format and was an original Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
affiliate.
History
For more than 70 years, the station at AM 620 was KGW, founded in 1922 by The OregonianThe Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
newspaper and owned and operated by it until 1953, when it was sold to King Broadcasting
King Broadcasting Company
King Broadcasting Company is a Seattle, Washington media conglmerate founded by Dorothy Stimson Bullitt. It began with one AM radio station and later an FM radio station, and grew to include a large group of broadcast television and radio stations, as well as a cable television network.-History:In...
. KGW affiliated with the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
network in 1927 and stayed for 29 years until joining ABC Radio in 1956.
Among KGW's early personalities was Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
, a local musician and vocalist featured on the "Hoot Owls" variety program from 1927 to 1933. Here Blanc discovered a talent for character voices that would win him stardom as the voice of Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
and many other Warner Brothers cartoon features.
Under The Oregonian the station gained an AM sister, KEX
KEX (AM)
KEX is a class A clear channel AM radio station broadcasting from Portland, Oregon. As of 2005 it is owned by Clear Channel Communications and runs news/talk programming. Because KEX is a Class A station, KEX reaches most of the densely populated areas of Oregon, providing grade B coverage as far...
, in 1933, and the Northwest's first FM station, KGW-FM (now KKRZ
KKRZ
KKRZ is a commercial broadcast radio station in Portland, Oregon, also known as Z-100, broadcasts CHR music.-History:What is now KKRZ first signed on May, 7, 1946 as KGW-FM on 95.3 MHz and moved to 100.3 MHz on September 22, 1947...
), in 1946. King Broadcasting founded KGW-TV in 1956. All three stations continue to exist in Portland, but none have any remaining connection to AM 620.
"62 KGW", as it called itself during its later years under those call letters, was one of the most popular radio stations in Portland in the 1960s and 1970s, but its ratings declined during the 1980s, and on August 28, 1989 the station changed from a Top 40 music format
Music radio
Music radio is a radio format in which music is the main broadcast content. After television replaced old time radio's dramatic content, music formats became dominant in many countries...
to a talk format
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
, using primarily local hosts
Radio personality
A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
. The change did not produce the hoped-for ratings turnaround, and in July 1991 the talk programming was replaced by a simulcast of sister station KINK-FM's
KINK
KINK, also kink.fm, is an American commercial broadcast FM radio station in Portland, Oregon. The station began broadcasting Christmas Day, 1968 as “KINK – The Underground Link”...
programming, but retaining the longstanding and locally well-known call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
, KGW, until 1993, when the call letters were changed to KINK. In 1995, KINK-AM changed back to all-talk, now airing nationally syndicated talk radio programming instead of local talk, and the call letters changed to KOTK. The frequent changing of call letters continued, with the station becoming KEWS ("K-News") in 1997, KDBZ ("The Buzz") in 2000, and KTLK in 2002. The station picked up the current KPOJ call letters on August 18, 2003. For many years and with various formats, the station called itself "Super 62".
The KPOJ call sign originated at what is now KKPZ
KKPZ
KKPZ is a radio station broadcasting a religious radio format. Licensed to Portland, Oregon, USA, it serves the greater Portland, OR / Vancouver, WA metro area. The station is currently owned by KPHP Radio, Inc & is located at 9700 SE Eastview Dr, Happy Valley, OR 97086, 503-242-1950 Office...
AM 1330, which for many years was the Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
's Portland affiliate. In the 1970s, that station changed its call letters to KUPL
KUPL
KUPL-FM is an American commercial broadcast radio station based in Portland, Oregon. It specializes in country music with studios in downtown Portland...
. The call letters stand for Portland Oregon Journal
Oregon Journal
The Oregon Journal was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The Journal was founded in Portland by C. S. Jackson, the publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's East Oregonian newspaper, after a group of Portlanders convinced Jackson to help in the reorganization of the Portland...
, the now-defunct newspaper that once owned AM 1330.
Influence on other radio stations
The station is noteworthy because it was the first progressive talk radioProgressive talk radio
Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing liberal or progressive viewpoints of issues, as opposed to conservative talk radio...
station to be owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. Its schedule features a local morning show and syndicated programs from Dial Global
Dial Global
Dial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is a sister company to Townsquare Media, both of which are owned by Oaktree Capital Management....
, Premiere Radio (which is owned by Clear Channel) and other radio syndication companies. KPOJ was the first station to call its format "Progressive Talk", a tag that is often used.
Just prior to adopting the present format, KPOJ was an oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
station with low Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
ratings. Immediately after picking up talk, KPOJ quadrupled their number of listeners, and in its first Arbitron ratings book became the most-listened AM station in the market, particularly among younger listeners coveted by advertisers. Following their success in Portland, Clear Channel rolled out the format and a nearly identical on-air lineup on many of their struggling AM stations in other markets, to mostly modest success.
With the switch to its current format, KPOJ, in just two years, has gone from a low-rated afterthought, with many format and call letter changes over the years, to one of the most influential stations in the country.
The KPOJ On-air Line-up
Many progressive talk stations around the country, owned by Clear Channel and by other companies, air a weekday lineup, including Thom HartmannThom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week...
, Ed Schultz
Ed Schultz
Edward Andrew "Ed" Schultz Is an American television and radio host and a liberal political commentator . He is the host of The Ed Show, a daily news talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global, promising "straight talk."-Early...
, Randi Rhodes
Randi Rhodes
Randi Rhodes is an American progressive talk radio personality, formerly featured on Air America Radio and Nova M Radio and now on Premiere Radio Networks. Her eponymous program, The Randi Rhodes Show, airs live Monday through Friday from 3 pm to 6 pm Eastern Time.-Early life:Rhodes was born in...
. KPOJ differs from many other progressive talk radio stations in that it airs a local-live morning show (instead of the syndicated Stephanie Miller Show, which is part of the line-up on most other progressive talk stations but does not air in Portland, although it aired on KCMD (now KUFO) opposite the KPOJ local show until 2009). The original host of KPOJ's morning show was Thom Hartmann, who has since scaled back his involvement in the local program to focus on his syndicated program, which is broadcast from KPOJ.
Weekday programming
KPOJ weekday programming runs from 3 a.m. Monday to 3 a.m. Saturday. Bill Press, the local morning show hosted by Carl Wolfson, and Thom Hartmann Nationwide are broadcast live. All other programs are on a delay of at least three hours.As of 25 January 2010, the weekday lineup is as follows:
- 3 - 6 a.m.: The Bill PressBill PressWilliam "Bill" Press is a US talk radio host, political commentator and author.-Career:Press has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Niagara University and Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the University of Fribourg. He started his broadcasting career in Los Angeles for TV stations KABC-TV and...
Show - 6 - 9 a.m.: "Carl in the morning" - Weekday mornings, AM 620 KPOJ goes "live and local from the banks of the Willamette RiverWillamette RiverThe Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
" with a "thinking person’s morning show" hosted by Carl Wolfson, who is nationally-known as a comic, Carl has also been a Northwest political activist. Christine Alexander, an award-winning news anchor, co-hosted the show with Carl, but left the show in July 2010. Long-time progressive talk host and best-selling author Thom HartmannThom HartmannThom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week...
also co-hosted the last half-hour of the show until late 2010, when Hartmann moved to Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Currently, Paul Pimentel, the show's long-time producer, appears on air with Carl. Progressive activist Adam KlugmanAdam KlugmanAdam Somers Klugman is an award winning media strategist and campaign consultant. He and his brother David are the sons of stage, film, and television actor Jack Klugman and actress, singer, and comedienne Brett Somers...
also makes frequent in-studio appearances, usually during the 7 o'clock hour. - 9 a.m. - Noon: Thom Hartmann - Nationwide
- Noon - 3 p.m.: The Ed SchultzEd SchultzEdward Andrew "Ed" Schultz Is an American television and radio host and a liberal political commentator . He is the host of The Ed Show, a daily news talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a talk radio show, nationally syndicated by Dial Global, promising "straight talk."-Early...
Show (Three hour delay) - 3 - 6 p.m.: The Randi RhodesRandi RhodesRandi Rhodes is an American progressive talk radio personality, formerly featured on Air America Radio and Nova M Radio and now on Premiere Radio Networks. Her eponymous program, The Randi Rhodes Show, airs live Monday through Friday from 3 pm to 6 pm Eastern Time.-Early life:Rhodes was born in...
Show (Three hour delay) - 6 - 9 p.m.: The Norman GoldmanNorman GoldmanNorman Maurice Goldman is a Los Angeles-based attorney and hosts a popular national talk radio program.Goldman first broadcast nationally as a fill-in host for The Ed Schultz Show in 2006, as well as creating colorful segments as the show's Senior Legal Analyst, —responsibilities that he...
Show (Three hour delay) - 9 - Midnight: The Mike MalloyMike MalloyMichael Dennis Malloy is an American radio broadcaster from Atlanta, Georgia. Previously his show has been carried by WSB Atlanta, WLS Chicago, the I.E. America Radio Network, the Air America Radio network, Nova M Radio and the On Second Thought network. He is now self-syndicated...
Show (Three hour delay) - Midnight - 3 a.m.: The Alan ColmesAlan ColmesAlan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
Show (Five hour delay)