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Archives of
KBPS
Processed by: Heather L. Moore, July 1996
Revised by Elizabeth C. Borja, September 2000
68.8 lin. ft.
Administrative History | Scope and Content | Provenance | Series Descriptions
Portland radio station KBPS, first licensed in 1923, is the second oldest radio station in the city of Portland. In that year, William P. Hawley Jr. of the Hawley Pulp and Paper Co. in Portland, sold his KYG radio station equipment to the Stubbs Electric Company. The student body of the Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland purchased the KYG equipment from Stubbs for the sum of $1,800. Money for the purchase of the station came from student body funds.
Purchase of the station was encouraged by Benson staff and faculty. Benson principal C.W. Cleveland was particularly supportive. The reasons for purchasing the station were to build enrollment at Benson, to add the modern art of radio to the school's curriculum, to provide career education for young people, to build better public relations between the school and the community of Portland, and to serve as a link between the school and the tax-payer. Giving added impetus to the project was the already established and enthusiastic Benson Radio Club.
On March 23, 1923, the student body of Benson Polytechnic High School was licensed by the federal government to operate a radio station using 200 watts of power at 834 kilocycles. The first call letters of the station were KFIF. The station made its formal debut on the air and was officially dedicated in early May of 1923, between the hours of 9:30 pm to 10:30 pm, on the opening night of the Benson Polytechnic High School's Fifth Annual Tech Show.
Enrollment at Benson doubled the first year with the station. Soon, 50% of the boys in high school in Portland were attending Benson, and Benson was training and furnishing 90% of the radio operators in the city of Portland. The station was recognized by the Portland School Board as having contributed to the efforts to gain needed financial support for district schools.
When it first began broadcasting, KFIF shared its frequency with all other stations in the area, with each station taking an allotment of time. At first, KFIF operated one evening a week for one hour. It broadcast for 13 minutes, and closed for two minutes to listen for distress signals from ships at sea. The station was completely student operated, under the supervision of Benson faculty members. Bill Allingham, Benson mechanical drawing instructor, served as the station's first technical advisor and program manager. Roy Stephens, physics instructor, acted as the station's representative to the FCC.
On August 27, 1924, the license was changed from the student body to the school itself. In that same year, the station's wavelength moved from 834 kilocycles to 1400 kc. In 1941, it stopped sharing its frequency with other stations, and moved to 1450 AM on the dial, where it remains today.
During the first eight to ten years of operation, all programs were produced live. Benson student talent was used for programs for the first time in April 1927, rather than adult talent which had been used for the majority of early programs. The station soon began to utilize the talents of other students in the Portland School District. On November 11, 1926, KFIF broadcast its very first program to the schools' classrooms. On February 4, 1927, Benson became the first school in the Northwest to broadcast a basketball game when it broadcast the game over KBPS.
In January of 1928 came the forerunner of the station's in-school radio program schedule. Conceived by H.M. Barr, the third Assistant Superintendent of Schools, it was the school system's first approach to systematically supplement regular school curriculum with carefully planned radio programs. The first programs of this type were Civics, Geography, and Music. They were broadcast twice each week, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Later in the same year, broadcasting expanded to four nights a week.
These first three programs, after airing on the school station, were taken over by one of the city's commercial stations. The station then planned, developed, and presented a series of new programs. Eventually, programs were developed in almost every grade level and in every subject matter. KBPS created many of its own instructional programs, and also exchanged programs with other educational and commercial stations. The first program exchanges were actually exchanges of show scripts, which would then be produced locally.
In spring of 1930, the call letters changed from KFIF to KBPS, for Benson Polytechnic High School. The station also increased its time on the air, and began broadcasting during the daytime, planning programs specifically for classroom use. During the thirties, commercial stations also began producing and broadcasting instructional programs. In order to make efficient use of the growing number of instructional programs, Radio Coordinators were appointed in each school beginning in 1941.
Since the station's inception in 1923, the Benson student body had paid for all of the station's equipment repair and technical improvements out of its own student body funds. During the school year 1938-1939, after nearly 16 years of operation under the supervision of Benson faculty members and through financial support from the Benson student body funds, a decision was made which would change the way KBPS was operated and funded. Benson's administrative staff had decided to ask the school district for financial support to cover station operating costs, and for some assistance in the area of programming responsibilities. In response to this request, the Portland School District took over the financial responsibilities of the station in early 1939.
In August of 1939, Hazel M. Kenyon, English instructor at Franklin High School, was transferred to Benson and placed in charge of Radio Work for KBPS. She was the first paid station manager. She resigned in September of 1941, and was replaced by Mary Elizabeth Gilmore. Gilmore served until June 1947, when she was succeeded by Patricia Green Swenson, who served as KBPS station manager until her retirement in 1994.
In 1947, a commercial station operator attempted to divide the use of the 1450 frequency and share air time with KBPS. The community and the school district protested. The FCC decided in favor of KBPS. The FCC decision led to longer programming hours for the station. In 1948, KBPS was on the air Monday through Friday, 11:00am to 4:00pm, with special evening events as needed. There were 42 weekly radio programs on the air for in-school listening. On March 21, 1949, KBPS extended its time on the air to 6:30pm. One year later, on March 20, 1950, the station again extended its time to 9:00pm, with the addition of adult programs during the evening hours. A High School Radio Advisory Council, made up of two students from each high school in the Portland school district, was also formed at that time to advise the station on its instructional programming.
In late 1950 or early 1951, KBPS once again extended its operating time from 10:00am to 10:00pm each week day. Power was increased from 100 watts to 250 watts. In 1953, KBPS staff included a station manager, an assistant, a traffic clerk, and a secretary.
Events in the early 1970's prompted KBPS to again extend its broadcasting time. In October of 1970, KBPS became a charter member of the newly formed National Public Radio network when the station was able to meet the Corporation for Public Broadcasting criteria for qualified stations. Many instructional stations could not meet the criteria to be eligible for CPB grants. Only a handful of instructional stations survived this period. KBPS was one of those. The criteria required stations to operate at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 12 months a year. At the time, KBPS was on the air 12 hours a day, but only for 5 days a week and 11 months of the year. By adding another broadcasting day each week and another month, KBPS was able to qualify with the first group of stations.
In early 1970, KBPS began broadcasting "Saturday Sound" to increase its on-air time to 6 days a week. A year later, the FCC gave the station permission to increase daytime transmitting power to 1000 watts. Early in 1971, a KBPS Citizen's Advisory Council for Community Listening was formed. The Council would prove invaluable in raising needed funds for the station.
By early 1973, KBPS was broadcasting seven days a week, 18 hours a day. In February of 1973, KBPS added Sunday to its broadcasting week. Every Sunday, eighteen hours were dedicated to serving the needs of blind and handicapped listeners on "Seeing Sound". The show was completely programmed by volunteers from the National Council of the Blind. In the spring of the same year, Watergate came to KBPS, via NPR. The station provided exclusive live network coverage of the event, drawing more listeners. By 1973, there were also well over 100 educational series on KBPS.
In 1980, the station was linked into the satellite interconnection network of NPR. KBPS received from the FCC in July of 1981 a construction permit for an FM station at 89.9 on the FM dial. The FM signal reached an expanded geographic area with no reduction in power in the evening. KBPS-FM began broadcasting in August of 1983, with programming devoted to the fine arts and classical music.
By early 1990, grants from CPB and public donations made it possible for the stations to operate 7 days a week for 24 hours a day. Fundraising for a new KBPS building began in 1990. Construction of the new facility commenced in 1991, and the station moved to the new studios the following year.
In 1990, the Portland school district faced a severe budget cut which drastically affected KBPS. In November of that year, the voters of Oregon passed Ballot Measure 5, which authorized a limitation on property tax rates in the state. The measure caused a decrease in the budget of the Portland School District. The district stopped financial support to KBPS in 1991.
In order to compensate for the severe reduction in budget, the station began intensive fund-raising drives. Despite these efforts, operating cuts were necessary if KBPS was to survive. In 1993, KBPS discontinued its NPR membership. Much of the instructional programming on the AM station was curtailed, although efforts were made to ensure that instructional programming would continue, even if on a reduced level. Production of new series all but ceased. The last KBPS produced instructional series was "The Oregon Trail" in 1993.
For a time, AM was simulcast with FM on Saturdays and Sundays in order to save money. KBPS was forced to drop "Seeing Sound" on Sundays. The AM station also sold a nightly block of time, from 5:00pm-12 midnight, to Portland State University's KPSU. The FM station cut back on live broadcasts at night. Staff was reduced as well. Station manager Patricia Swenson voluntarily retired in 1994 to keep down KBPS operating costs.
Despite the budget crisis of 1991, both KBPS-AM and KBPS-FM continue to air quality broadcasting to the people of Portland. Students still operate the AM station from 9:00am to 5:00pm. In 1993, 123 students were involved daily in hands-on broadcasting. A record high 55 Benson students were KBPS majors during the 1994-95 school year.
The talent of Benson students who have worked at KBPS has not gone unnoticed. During World War II, KBPS-trained Benson Polytechnic High School students went downtown to operate the commercial stations in Portland. Even now, there is hardly a station in Portland radio or television that doesn't have a KBPS graduate. During its history, KBPS's contribution to instructional programming has been recognized in many ways. Dr. Patricia Swenson, the station manager from 1947 to 1994, has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 1978, the coordinator of "Seeing Sound", KBPS's Sunday show for the blind and handicapped, was chosen the most outstanding volunteer for broadcasting in the nation. Awards received by KBPS for outstanding instructional programs include Ohio State Awards, Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards, and Best of the West Awards, among others.
The Archives of KBPS contains materials from 1923 to 1995, with the bulk of the material dating between 1940 and 1975. The collection includes clippings, correspondence, minutes, program guides, publications, reports, schedules, and scripts. Also included are 2 photographs, 10 slides, and 1,078 audio reels. Subjects which receive significant coverage include the development of early instructional radio in Portland, the history and operations of KBPS, and the station's experiments with instructional television. KBPS programs are extensively documented through scripts, teachers' guides, and audio reels of instructional radio programs.
The collection also contains materials pertaining to general educational radio and television, including radio and television instruction.
The Archives of KBPS consists of four series:
- Series 1: KBPS Administrative Files
- Series 2: KBPS Public Affairs
- Series 3: KBPS Programming
- Series 4: General Educational Radio and Television
The Archives of KBPS were donated to the National Public Broadcasting Archives, University of Maryland Libraries by Dr. Patricia Swenson in December of 1994, August of 1995 and November of 1997.
Series 1: KBPS Administrative Files, 1933-1995 (1.75 lin. ft.)
This series contains the administrative files of radio station KBPS. Particularly well documented is the history of the station from its inception in 1923 through the 1980's. KBPS station reports, as well as reports from other local entities such as the Portland Public Schools, are also included. Other materials concern the KBPS budget, staff duties, station operations, meetings and conferences, and FCC communications. Correspondence consists largely of announcements sent to school radio and television coordinators and school administrators. The series is arranged into the following topics, each of which is arranged chronologically:
- History
- Reports
- Budget
- Staff duties
- Operations and station information
- FCC
- Correspondence
- Meetings and conferences
This series documents the public affairs of KBPS. Included are publicity materials, such as brochures, newsletters, and ads. The series also contains letters of praise received by the station, newspaper clippings, and articles about KBPS which appeared in The School Bulletin and Tech Pep, two Benson Polytechnic High School publications. Other KBPS and Portland Public School publications, as well as general speeches and presentations by station manager Patricia Swenson, are also included. The series is arranged into the following topics, each of which is arranged chronologically:
- Publicity
- Awards and praise
- Clippings
- School Bulletin and Tech Pep
- Publications and articles
- Speeches by Swenson
This series documents KBPS instructional programming. The series is arranged into four topics:
- Continuity sheets
- Program notes and schedules
- Scripts and teachers' guides
- Audio tapes
Continuity sheets, and program notes and schedules, are arranged chronologically. Scripts and teachers' guides for KBPS instructional programs are arranged alphabetically by the name of the program. Also included in this series are 1,078 reel to reel audio tapes of KBPS instructional programs and KBPS anniversary broadcasts. The tapes are arranged alphabetically by the name of the series, and amount to 58.3 lin. ft.
Series 4: General Educational Radio and Television, 1924-1986 (2.75 lin. ft.)
This series contains materials which pertain to educational radio and television in general. Newspaper clippings from 1959 to 1961 provide insight into broadcasting issues at that time. The series contains materials from several radio and television courses which were taught by KBPS staff at local institutions, as well as instructional materials on general radio and television techniques. KBPS's experiments with educational television are also documented in this series.
In addition to programs that KBPS produced itself, the station also broadcast many programs that were produced by other stations. Local station KGW produced many programs that aired on KBPS. This series contains materials which relate to KGW and KGW-produced shows. Also included in this series are speeches and publications concerning general educational radio and television.
The series is arranged into the following topics, which are then arranged chronologically:
- Clippings
- Courses
- Radio and TV technique instruction
- Educational Televsion
- KGW
- Great Plains National Instructional Television Library
- Speeches and reports
- Publications and articles
A complete guide in Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) format can be downloaded here.
