As mentioned in Part I, I really hit it off with one of the owners at Elite Broadcasting. As a result he included me in a lot of different activities that were going on as we geared up for a March 1995 launch of 95.1 KSND…”The Sound of the Central Oregon Coast.”

Our broadcasting equipment was installed at the tower site in January of that year. The format was a closely guarded secret, but we enjoyed messing with our competitors a bit. They were openly guessing on their airwaves what kind of music we’d play. We were busy testing our audio processor settings and would play anything and everything for an hour or so a day during the process. That kept them wondering!

One night I was invited for a signal drive. Jack, Keith, our engineer Chris, and I all hopped into the truck and drove as far north and then as far south as we could while still receiving a clear signal. We ended up in Tillamook to the north and Florence to the south — 118 miles of coastline. I’ll never forget riding in the back listening to Heart’s Magic Man blast through the speakers as we drove along the ocean thinking I landed a killer gig that hadn’t even started in earnest yet.

We ended the night at Mo’s eating clam chowder and talking about how impressed we were with the equipment. KSND ran a mostly digital audio chain with a great deal of state-of-the-art gear — unheard of in a small media market. We were as clear-sounding as a CD. There was nothing small about the station or its presentation, and we were poised to be players — big fish in a little pond.

Not too long after this I got a call from Keith one night. Our music service discs had arrived. Did I want to come over and listen? Uh…yeah! I spent that evening with both Jack and Keith listening to a lot of the songs that we’d play in our format. We were going to be an adult contemporary station, but we were going to rock, too.

A few pictures:

For now this story is more about the job and less about my feelings on Newport, but they are intertwined. I have vivid memories of what took place during my five years on the coast and the people with whom I spent so much time. A lot of that time was spent outside of work, too.

More to come in Part III…