KVDO-TV (channel 3) was a television station in Salem, Oregon, United States, which operated from 1970 to 1983. Originally intended as a local independent station serving the Willamette Valley, financial considerations resulted in a contested sale to Liberty Television, owner of KEZI in Eugene, Oregon, in 1972. However, for media concentration reasons, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered KVDO-TV sold within three years. As a result, the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service (OEPBS) acquired KVDO-TV in 1976, resulting in a station that often—and controversially—duplicated OEPBS's transmitters at Portland and Corvallis.
In 1981, OEPBS applied to move channel 3, and KVDO-TV, from Salem to Bend, which at the time did not have public television service. The move was made in 1983, and the station was renamed KOAB-TV.
History of channel 3 in Salem Channel 3 was allocated to Salem in 1952 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted the freeze on new television stations and reorganized many channel assignments. Two construction permits were awarded for the channel—neither built—before the KVDO-TV construction permit was awarded in 1969.
First construction permit Oregon Radio, Inc., owner of radio station KSLM (1390 AM), immediately submitted an application for the channel, as well as for a television companion for co-owned KORE in Eugene. When a second application was filed by Willamette-Land Television, associated with KGAE (1340 AM) in Keizer and headed by Gordon Allen, both applications were placed in comparative hearing. Willamette-Land dropped out, enabling the FCC to grant Oregon Radio a construction permit on September 30, 1953.
Approval of a higher-power facility was stalled when a party attempted to move a channel 3 allocation from Lewiston, Idaho, to Richland, Washington, which would have left the proposed KSLM-TV short-spaced by just 0.5 miles of the minimum 190. Tower approval was still pending when it was announced on April 19, 1956, that the construction permit would be bought by then-UHF station KPTV (channel 27) at Portland to allow it to move to VHF. Storer Broadcasting, owner of KPTV, then announced plans to apply to move channel 3 to Portland, a move that would be contested by the three existing VHF stations there.
In response, Carl H. Fisher, owner of the Fisher Broadcasting group and owner of broadcast stations in Oregon and Washington, announced plans to file for a new permit. He argued that the failure of KSLM to build merited forfeiture of the construction permit. The commission refused the proposal in October.
With the FCC having turned down Storer's Portland move bid and the Fisher proposal, KSLM owner Glenn McCormick announced in May 1957 that he still intended to build the station if the FCC approved the tower plan. The next month, the FCC ordered Oregon Radio to go into comparative hearing against Fisher, who now owned local station KBZY (1490 AM). In February 1958, the FCC Broadcast Bureau ruled against another extension of the KSLM-TV permit. A hearing examiner agreed the next month. The full commission voted to deny further extension to Oregon Radio in March 1959.
As the KSLM-TV permit waned in 1958, Fisher and Allen showed renewed interest. Ultimately, however, four parties filed: Willamette-Land, Fisher, Oregon Faculties (owner of the KIEM stations in Eureka, California), and KPTV. Fisher and Oregon Faculties soon dropped out, the latter to avoid a lengthy and expensive comparative hearing. KPTV then withdrew in February 1961, citing the fact that its withdrawal could speed the activation of service in Salem, leaving Allen alone. However, financial and character qualifications continued to be a concern for the Allen bid, and the FCC denied it in February 1962, over the recommendation of a hearing examiner.
Second construction permit With Gordon Allen's attempt having been denied, interest in the channel 3 allocation by other parties returned. One of the new entrants, Salem Channel 3 Telecasters, Inc., was owned by Don Wellman, who owned radio stations KGAL at Lebanon and KGAY at Salem. Other groups that had pushed for the channel at that time included former governor Robert D. Holmes, vice president of the Salem Television Co., Fisher Broadcasting, and Gordon Allen. By 1963, the applications of Salem Channel 3 Telecasters and Salem Television Company were pending at the FCC. The commission that year dealt a blow to both Salem applicants when it approved an application by Portland's KATU, channel 2, to move its transmitter south from Camas, Washington, which would have in turn required Salem channel 3 to be placed further south to meet minimum mileage separations between stations on adjacent channels.
Financial qualifications drove the comparative hearing between the two applicants. In May 1964, an FCC hearing examiner found that Salem Television Company was more financially qualified; the commission reaffirmed the finding in January 1965, stating that Salem Channel 3 Telecasters's construction plans and loan commitments were misrepresentations. The examiner found that Salem Channel 3 had "failed utterly" in its program proposal and would be less responsive to community needs.
As a result of the 1963 decision, and the fact that a Prospect Hill transmitter location would have placed too strong a signal in Portland to secure a network affiliation, Salem Television—which selected the call letters KVUE—proposed to place its transmitter on Vineyard Hill, north of Corvallis. That prompted protests from Eugene's two television stations, KEZI and KVAL-TV, who claimed that the technical proposal would have resulted in a new competitor in their market and asked for hearings on the application. After the request from the Eugene stations, Salem Television Co. surrendered its construction permit.
KVDO-TV as a commercial independent Channel 3, Inc. On October 20, 1967, Channel 3, Inc., a consortium of 11 Salem residents, applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a construction permit to build a new television station in Salem, with the transmitter to be located on Prospect Hill southeast of town. The company was temporarily chaired by Urlin S. Page, owner of the Union Title Insurance Company. The FCC granted the permit on March 5, 1969, after Cascade Broadcasting, a group interested in filing for channel 3 at Eugene, withdrew its request to reallocate the channel. The grant required the FCC to waive minimum distance requirements to KATU.
Channel 3 selected the call letters KVDO-TV for its station and began building on Prospect Hill; the station leased a building on Portland Road for studios and offices. KVDO-TV began telecasting on February 24, 1970. The station went on the air as an independent, airing syndicated fare and a 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights. It had color broadcasting capability, though it aired many black-and-white programs, and there were no color film processors in Salem, further impeding color programs.
The station made its first sports broadcast that fall when it broadcast a game between McNary High School and Corvallis High School, which was also the first-ever telecast of a high school football game in the state. Station officials were pleased with the quality, but Corvallis High School noted a steep drop in gate revenue compared to other games that season.
By the station's first year, ratings were decent in Salem but poor in the Portland metropolitan area. The station had expanded its sports coverage to include live Oregon State Beavers men's basketball games, and it now produced two newscasts a day, but it was at a disadvantage competing against the Portland stations for syndicated programming. Cable services extended the station's coverage across much of the state, from Medford to Bend. When KOIN-TV's tower collapsed in March 1971, KVDO-TV stepped in on an emergency basis to carry CBS network programming until the Portland station could return to the air. In doing so, KVDO-TV extended its broadcast day beyond 3:30 p.m. for the first time, clearing the entire CBS schedule and moving its own local shows to fill gaps in the network lineup.
The contested KEZI sale In August 1971, Channel 3, Inc., reached terms to sell KVDO-TV to Liberty Television, Inc., owner of ABC-affiliated KEZI in Eugene, in what was announced as a merger of the two stations. Harry Godsil, KVDO-TV president, noted that "the cost of operating a secondary market television station without a network affiliation has proven to be quite substantial", incurring heavy losses in 18 months of operation. At the time, it was noted that KVDO-TV would air local shows originating in Salem as well as KEZI local productions and ABC network programming. The sale would be structured as a stock swap valued at $410,000 and would see KVDO-TV only air five and a half hours a week of separate local programming.
The proposed sale, however, drew petitions to deny from KATU—the Portland ABC affiliate—and KOBI-TV in Medford. KATU's opposition concerned the network programming; the station noted that there would be an 82 percent overlap between KATU and KVDO-TV and suggested that channel 3 be relocated from Salem. KOBI-TV warned that Liberty and KEZI would gain "an undue concentration of economic power" were the sale to be approved; in addition to KEZI, Liberty owned AM and FM stations in Eugene and cable systems serving twelve communities in western Oregon, as well as a construction permit for a new Medford station. KVDO-TV and KEZI launched a petition drive to garner support for the merger among Salem residents.
In September 1972, the FCC approved the sale, waiving its signal overlap and cable cross-ownership rules, but attaching a condition that Liberty was to sell KVDO-TV within three years; in allowing the transaction, it cited the risk of a financial collapse of Salem's only television station. Two commissioners dissented. The unusual stipulation from the FCC came as a surprise to officials on both sides of the transaction; upon its closure, Godsil noted that KVDO-TV would not carry any ABC programs and would continue as an independent. The sale was completed in October.
Sale to OEPBS By October 1974, two years into the three-year period allowed by the FCC for KEZI to own KVDO-TV, Liberty Television began to scout potential uses for the station, which was not profitable. At that time, the company's board of directors was considering three options. One possibility was selling the station to a consortium of educational institutions led by Lane Community College, which would use it as a training ground for broadcasting students and to air additional educational programs not aired by the Oregon Educational and Public Broadcasting Service (OEPBS), the state's public television service. Chemeketa Community College took the lead by December when it was noted that Eugene's KVAL-TV had pledged $200,000 over four years to assist in the conversion of KVDO-TV to educational status. By January, the consortium had coalesced around Chemeketa, Lane, and Linn-Benton Community College. In newspaper letters to the editor published in February and March, Ron Wakefield of Corvallis cynically noted that KVDO's efforts to keep the station in Salem were helpful to Eugene stations including KEZI.
The Elections Committee of the Oregon House of Representatives recommended that the Oregon State Board of Higher Education purchase KVDO-TV in late February, only to have the board vote down the measure on a 5–4 vote; board chairman John Mosser, who cast the tie-breaking vote, said he was acting on the advice of its academic affairs committee. The next month, however, backers of a proposal to sell the station to OEPBS met with state legislative leaders. Despite maintaining its recommendation to not buy the station, in late March, the board authorized such a purchase if the state legislature were to appropriate the funds.