KPOJ

KPOJ (620 AM) is a radio station located in the Portland, Oregon, area. It airs a progressive talk format and was an original Air America Radio affiliate.

History

For more than 70 years, the station at AM 620 was KGW, founded in 1922 by The Oregonian 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,^[3] and on August 28, 1989 the station changed from a Top 40 music format to a talk format, using primarily local hosts.^[3] 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,^[4] 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.

Influence on other radio stations

The station is noteworthy because it was the first progressive talk radio 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.

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 Hartmann, 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.

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 Press Show
• 6 - 9 a.m.: "Carl in the morning" - Weekday mornings, AM 620 KPOJ goes "live and local from the banks of the Willamette River" 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 Hartmann also co-hosted the last half-hour of the show until late 2010, when Hartmann moved to Washington, D.C. Currently, Paul Pimentel, the show's long-time producer, appears on air with Carl. Progressive activist Adam Klugman 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 Schultz Show (Three hour delay)
• 3 - 6 p.m.: The Randi Rhodes Show (Three hour delay)
• 6 - 9 p.m.: The Norman Goldman Show (Three hour delay)
• 9 - Midnight: The Mike Malloy Show (Three hour delay)
• Midnight - 3 a.m.: The Alan Colmes Show (Five hour delay)

References

External links

• KPOJ Website
• On the left side of the dial: Portland advertisers see an opportunity in alternative to conservative talk radio
• KPOJ on Facebook
• KPOJ on Twitter
• Query the FCC's AM station database for KPOJ
• Radio-Locator Information on KPOJ
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for KPOJ