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No historical review of the former KGW Radio Towers site would be complete without the personal reflection and memories of a few of those who worked at that facility or otherwise contributed to its history.
Soon after the 1927 formation of the Federal Radio Commission, the agency was quoted as giving KGW high marks for its widespread popularity and leadership. The FRC stated:
"Throughout this area, station KGW, because of its generally high-class service, appears to be the most popular station . . . programs are well balanced, are typical of the better programs of regional stations. . . (and they) appear to be well adapted to the radio needs of listeners in the area. KGW has contributed generously to civic, community, and charitable enterprises . . . "
In a 1930 survey, noted a March 1931 article in The Oregonian, KGW garnered 75% of the household listeners in Portland. The article went to say that a second survey gave KGW a preference of 61% in Oregon and southern Washington. These were high marks for KGW, considering the remaining listeners were divided among eight other Portland AM stations.
When KGW made plans for expansion in 1931, radio was in its prime, with 608 actively operating radio stations on the air in the United States. Moreover, since television hadn't yet hit the public consciousness, and newspapers were losing ad revenue because of the Depression, radio was the medium of choice.
 Tom McCall, one of Oregon's most notable governors (1967-1975) and father of the state's "Bottle Bill" and legislation regulating public access to Oregon beaches, joined KGW and KEX as a news editor in 1946. His 15-minute news analysis, "As It Looks From Here," focused primarily on local and regional matters, but occasionally covered international news, five times daily.
In the early 1950s, before television eclipsed radio as the mass media of choice, radio theater shows were quite popular. Examples of such shows on KGW radio were "You Bet Your Life," featuring Groucho Marx; "The Great Gildersleeve"; "Fibber McGee and Molly"; and shows featuring Bob Hope, and the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Lee McCormick, a longtime KGW radio engineer, helped assemble a series of KGW-related scrapbooks dating from the late 1940s. Those books, now housed in the Oregon Historical Regional Research Library in Portland, contain newspaper accounts from The Oregonian and the former Oregon Journal newspapers, including The Oregonian's long-running "Behind The Mask," by William Moyes, and the Journal's "What's On The Air," by Joe Stein, earlier known as "Radio News." Those same newspapers also printed daily schedules of radio programs, although by 1956, radio programming became noticeably less prominent as television finally eclipsed radio.
There were many people associated with KGW AM radio outside of those who worked for the radio station. One of those was Ed Erickson.
Erickson, a City of Portland planning director from 1952 to 1979, for 19 years served as one of five representatives for a 781-acre water district that included the 90-acre KGW radio transmission site, along with four other properties. Erickson's role was to help evaluate and solve problems associated with flooding and ground water inundation.
After retiring from the city in 1979, Erickson assumed the role of operations manager for the district, and later as president, until he retired from public service in 1996. "Before the dikes were put in . . . the southern end (of the property) never had dike protection . . . the KGW site was flooded most of the time in the winter," recalled Erickson. "If it flooded too much, the (broadcast towers) ground wire system would malfunction."
"The towers were placed high above ground due to the flooding so that the water would not affect them. When it did flood to almost the base of the towers, employees would rowboat to the (transmission) building. Water could get as high as the second level of the building some years."
Erickson noted that the KGW property would generally flood in the winter and dry out in the summer. To control this, Multnomah County created and maintained a system of dikes.
Reflecting on some of the more unusual discoveries around the KGW site, Erickson said that during particularly wet years, the drainage ditches around the property would fill up with debris left over from the 1948 Vanport flood. "They would dredge the ditches every so many years and come up with things such as garage doors, baby carriages and concrete pads that were left over from the flood. There's still a lot of that kind of stuff buried in the high ground there."
Erickson said he thought the tension wires supporting the radio broadcast towers were a deterrent to birds flocking to the site, but that they didn't affect rodents, rabbits and coyotes, which were in abundance.
He said the most memorable events which occurred during his tenure as district representative, and later as operations manager, were the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens ("The drainage ditches were clogged with ash."), and the flood of 1996. During the flood, he noted that the roadblocks put in place to keep water from flooding the district are still there. "The two pumps (one of which could move 64,000 gallons per hour) were barely able to keep up with the flood waters; they were going 24 hours a day."
As the interview came to a close, Erickson concluded: "KGW was wonderful to work with."
Long-time KGW AM 620 radio personality Craig Walker and news director John Erickson were interviewed in April 2001 in a broadcast booth at Portland's k-103 fm (KKCW 103.3 FM), where they work today. The interview is replete with their memories of outstanding events of the time, citations of unusual station activities, and their sincere admiration for the character of the former AM radio station and its owners, the Bullit sisters of Seattle.
Craig Walker began his KGW AM 620 tenure in August 1972. He started working as the mid-day on-air personality, taking over the morning slot in 1976 until he left the station for k-103 in 1986.
John Erickson served as KGW AM 620's news director from 1976 until 1980, when he was transferred to KGW's sister station in Seattle. Five years later, he returned to Portland to rejoin his on-air companion, Craig Walker, at k-103.
The Craig Walker and John Erickson duo are one of the most popular, well-respected radio teams on the air today in Portland.
News of Late
Byron Swanson, who was director of engineering for Clear Channel Radio-Portland before retiring in May of 2002, said there was little change in KGW personalities and staff after the station was sold in 1993, but its call letters changed several times. Clear Channel bought the facility in August 1997. The station's transmission facility has since moved to Clackamas, Oregon, and now shares three towers with 1190 KEX. The 620 call letters today are KTLK, and the station advertises itself as "News Talk for the Great Northwest."
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