Radio Station Field Trip 44 - KRRC at Reed College

KRRC at Reed College (photo: J. Waits)

During my visit to Oregon at the end of April for the What is Radio? conference I visited five non-commercial radio stations in Portland. My most hectic day of station tours was on Thursday, April 25th. After stopping at KBOO and KLC in the morning, I made my way to Reed College to KRRC. I was particularly interested in visiting the station after following its recent license travails. Although the station used to hold a class D FM license, it had been off the air since the end of November, 2011. For many years the station struggled to be heard on campus and that challenge grew even larger after a commercial Clear Channel station made plans to utilize its 97.9 FM signal. By early 2012, Reed opted to donate the KRRC license to Common Frequency.

Radio Station Field Trip 43 - KLC at Lewis and Clark College

KLC Radio at Lewis and Clark College (photo: J. Waits)

I was recently in Portland, Oregon for the What is Radio? conference. While there, I decided to set some extra time aside so that I could visit a bunch of non-commercial radio stations. Upon my arrival on April 25, my first stop was KBOO (more on that in a future post). Following that impromptu visit, the next stop on my whirlwind day of station visits was KLC at Lewis and Clark College. After leaving KBOO, I traversed over bridges and found my way to the beautiful wooded campus in southwest Portland. Thanks to some very detailed directions provided by KLC General Manager Shannon Boerner, I easily found the station.

 

KLC Entrance (photo: J. Waits)

Located in the Templeton Campus Center at Lewis and Clark, KLC is just past the entrance to the building near a student lounge area. Windows in the on-air studio and a windowed door to the lobby face the hallways of the building, so passersby can see into the station. The station has been in its current location since 1995 (it was in the basement of the building prior to that).