Background: Originally published May 18, 2005. Since this article was written, KPIC in Roseburg no longer does a live local news segment, and after KVAL bought KMTR this past year, KMTR's Roseburg news bureau was closed. There may still be an occasional TV news reporter who works in Roseburg, but live local news from Roseburg is now a thing of the past.
"They had to kick the transmitter to keep it going."
That catchy title was the headline from a TV Guide article 21 years ago, about a short-lived television station. A Roseburg TV station was profiled with a full-length feature story in the nationwide magazine. That's because "K31/19" was one of the first low-power stations in the country, after the FCC loosened licensing guidelines for broadcasting frequencies.
In sorting through some old newspaper and magazine clippings that I saved over the years, I discovered a colorful history of broadcasting in Douglas County.
For decades, KPIC and KOBI were the only television stations that employed reporters based in Roseburg, covering Douglas County news on an ongoing basis. In 1953, KOBI was the first VHF (a reference to channels spanning 2-13) TV station to come on the air in Oregon. KPIC signed on the air three years later in 1956. That all changed in the early 1980s.
"NEWSCENTER 31"
K31/19 established a studio on northeast Stephens Street. Newscenter 31 was a half-hour 6:00p.m. newscast that went head-to-head with rival KPIC. News Director Clay Campbell anchored the news, Steve Lindsley was the reporter, and Dan Bain (who was employed in radio at the time) came over each afternoon to pre-record a sports segment.
Because K31/19 was classified as low-power by the FCC, cable companies were under no obligation to carry the station on their systems. Nonetheless, Clearview Cable bumped KVAL-TV from channel 13 on the Sutherlin-Oakland cable system (still leaving KPIC on channel 4), in order to accommodate the new Roseburg station. However, McCaw Cable in Roseburg never offered K31/19 to their viewers.
K31/19 had other locally-produced programming, such as "TV Trader," a barter program that aired during the noon hour. But because it didn't have cable penetration to a majority of Douglas County households, the low-power station could never capture a viewing audience and went out of business a short time later.
KMTR-TV in Eugene soon acquired the unused licenses for the 31 (Mount Nebo) and 19 (Boomer Hill at Myrtle Creek) translators. Channel 31 was forfeited years later, when KMTR acquired a "full-power" Roseburg frequency on channel 46.
"KMTX NEWS"
In order to go head-to-head with KVAL/KPIC/KCBY, KMTR launched its own local stations in Roseburg (KMTX) and Coos Bay (KMTZ) in the early 1990s.
KMTX was structured differently than KPIC, which produced its own Roseburg segment with a Roseburg anchor, during the same time in which the Eugene anchors at KVAL continued with Eugene news.
Instead, KMTX used its Eugene anchors to also anchor the Roseburg and Coos Bay news segments [2014 note: This is pretty much identical in how KVAL news anchors now deliver the "local" news segments on KPIC and KCBY.]. The Eugene anchors would pre-record those segments before the newscast. So, if a person had been watching both KMTR from Eugene and KMTX from Roseburg at the same time, you would have seen the same anchors reading different stories, tailored for their local viewing audiences.
Cathryn Stephens (now the public relations person for the Eugene airport) and Kevin Austermann were the two Roseburg reporters who operated the KMTX bureau across from Roseburg City Hall. The Roseburg-area news on KMTX lasted a little more than one year, before KMTR reverted back to only one newscast for its entire viewing area.
"THE TEN O'CLOCK NEWS"
KROZ-TV. Few people may remember the controversy generated, when this station came on the air in 1994. Their first studio was located on Highland Street in Roseburg. Billed as a "western" station that would show reruns of Bonanza, Roseburg cable viewers were initially upset when Falcon Cable bumped a popular religious station (PTL) and positioned KROZ in its place on cable channel 10.
Things moved quickly during the next few years. The original owner, John Field, who had launched KLSR-TV in Eugene ten years earlier, soon signed up his station with the new WB network. After Field's death, former Eugene banker Ron Lee purchased the station and launched a 10:00p.m. newscast.
Unlike K31/19, KROZ was a full-power station that cable companies were required to offer. Despite the fact that KROZ had cable penetration in Douglas County, the station was never able to win over enough viewers to sustain their local newscast.
Lee hired a former insurance agent with no broadcasting experience to serve as KROZ's news director. That person lasted one day on the job. Lee eventually dropped local news, changed the call letters to KTVC, and moved the station up to Eugene. Lee gave up the license to KTVC, which no longer has a studio or business office in Oregon.
"NINE NEWS"
For decades, KEZI virtually ignored Roseburg-area news and would rarely send a news crew into Douglas County. Perhaps once or twice a year, KEZI would venture into Douglas County to cover a story.
That all changed in 2002, when the station established a Roseburg news bureau, in partnership with Brooke Communications on west Harvard Avenue in Roseburg. Two Roseburg-area KEZI reporters go head-to-head with KPIC's three-reporter news department. Both stations air Roseburg news segments during their evening news. But unlike KPIC, which has its own call letters separate from KVAL, there is no distinction in name with KEZI. KEZI in Eugene is not the same as KEZI in Roseburg. A Roseburg-area news segment and Roseburg-area commercials are shown on KEZI in Roseburg, but not KEZI in Eugene.
[2014 note: While KEZI had since done away with its separate Roseburg news segment, KEZI and other Eugene stations still air different commercials in different communities, so Roseburg viewers sometimes see different commercials than Eugene viewers.]
Most communities that are Roseburg's size do not have any television stations, which may explain why many Roseburg television stations, and their news operations, have not lasted long in the past. In fact, Roseburg is the only Oregon community outside of Portland, that currently has reporters from four different stations (KPIC, KEZI, KMTR, KOBI) who cover local news inside the same community.
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