Does anyone have the original 1960 address for KOHI St. Helens? I'm guessing this would have been the transmitter site also. I know someone must have this information, maybe on an old envelope You kept.

KOHI was such a great place to learn radio and I know a lot of broadcasters first cracked the mike at Ko-Hi. I'm guessing the current address is not the original: 36200 Pittsburg Rd. Suite C.

Thanks in advance!

Update: Ralph Gould checked in via E-Mail. He reports the original KOHI site is where the Best Western Motel sits. That address is: 585 S. Columbia River Hwy. I wonder if KOHI had the same address. I'll bet it wasn't the same. Let's find out. Your turn....

Yes, the studios and tower were at this location. I had the wonderful opportunity to work there from the age of 16 until I left for college. Many, many great memories and some hilarious incidents. What a great place it was.

I think KOHI St Helens/Scapoose was owned or partially owned at one time by Bill Anderson. Bill was the guy who did many years of the NHL Portland Bucks Hockey play by play and the talk show afterward "Buck Talk" on KPOJ I think it was.

When I worked there in the early 70's, the station was run by Chuck Brownlow and owned by his mother and a partner. Chuck was a good guy, left everyone alone and they had the station for several years.

Western Hockey League

I thought the Buckaroos were in a bigger league than the WHL...

Oh well, then Bill did Portland Winterhawks for the first year or maybe two. He was getting pretty up there in age by the late 70s.

Bill did a couple of games for the Winter Hawks(Two words, not one is actually correct) in that first season, as they only had a handful of games on the air in the early days.

In his Buckaroos days, Bill had two heart attacks, on air. The second was one night in Salt Lake. I went into the kitchen to get a snack and when I came back, Eagles announcer Mark Kelly, who also spent some time behind the mic for both the Winter Hawks and Portland Beavers, was calling the game. I got to know Bill and his wife a bit and they were very nice people. He was the one who really inspired me to becaome a hockey announcer.

I spent two months working at KOHI in 1982. What a crap hole. The only hilites were the day news guy Mark Raney mooned me on air, plus anytime you'd take albums or 45s, head out the back door and start up a rousing game of "Tower Toss." And yes, the station was where the Best Western is now. The current KOHI location is in a business park that fronts the hospital on the North edge of town.

Great thread! I do not want to lead it too far astray, but I found a few things to share:

Bill Anderson called the games on the radio in the beginning, and for me, he was the best of all time. "He shoots, he scores!" never sounded so exciting. -- Dwight Jaynes

Bill contributed his collection of WHL Weekly News Releases from November 1959 through March 1973 to the Portland Buckaroos website.

The unofficial site mentions the Portland Buckaroos vs. Salt Lake Golden Eagles game on Jan 23, 1971 when Anderson suffered the heart attack. Outsider, that sounds like it was a scary night for the fans.

The Winter Hawks have a "Bill Anderson Award" trophy for ability and character. The player is chosen by the Buckaroos Old-Timers Association. Recent winners include defenseman Michael Sauer and netminder Kurtis Mucha.

Outsider,

Glad to hear that Tower Toss was still going strong eight years after I left. When they cleaned up the area, they must have uncovered thousands of stiffs from the record companies. Also nice to see the tradition of mooning continued. It wasn't a pretty place, but it sure was fun.

Bill did more than a couple of games, home games only of course in those days as I remember it. KYXI aired them and I was their 'engineer'.. This in 1976/ and early 77. I forget the name of the guy he had doing color. Much younger guy who was associated somehow with the Winter Hawks front office , I believe.

I had someone at the studio tape a game for Bill he was bugging me about it, as it was the last or close to the last game of the season. He wanted it on reel to reel not cassette. So the board op recorded it on a 10 INCH reel??? I didnt have time to dub it off on a smaller reel for some reason I dont remember now..

I will never forget taking that pancake of tape out to Bill at his home in Beaverton, somewhere just over Sylvan ridge or maybe it was more over by Hillsdale/Garden Home. Yes, he and his wife were very nice people. He made a crack about Engineers being late...all the time... as if it was the usual behavior for Engineers because he knew them real well when he was owner of KOHI. Well I said hey ! I got lost trying to find your house in this maze of a neighborhood ! And we all had a laugh about it...He said he had someone to dub it off on a smaller reel...LOL

Well, I'm pretty certain that not all the home games were done that first season (I just threw out the "a couple games" comment because I have no idea now how many games were carried that season and I have no recollection of anyone ever doing color with him, since he never had a color guy work Buckaroos games with him and his wife kept his scoresheet for him) and I do remember on one occasion driving to Jantzen Beach and sitting in the parking lot of the Jantzen Beach Ice Arena (Now Toy's R Us for the uninitiated)to listen to an away game (I think from New Westminster) that aired on KVAN. (I know that game wasn't on KYXI because if it had been, I could have listened to it at home, because I lived close enough to the tower site to hear the station at night. But I can't tell you for certain that it was Bill that did or didn't do that game.

It was probably one of those mid season switcharoo things. I dont remember all the details now, but I was earmarked to set it up for a few games just to get them going. And it was a last minute deal, I think I got the news like a day before we actually did the game, the chief engr came to me and said YOU are THE ONE ! I am not doing Hockey ! No extra pay of course. But I didnt mind. I did most of the home games from Jan to Feb or March. KYXI All News Radio didnt do the whole season , but picked it up midway somewhere in the mix.

Turns out that I had a girl friend that really liked hockey and going out to dinner afterwards. And that worked out well ( he he he ) .. And so I did it all for the "gipper'...The color guy also did play by play when Bill needed a break. His wife ( Bernice? ) used to watch him pretty close , get him water or a beverage, she looked after him very well. and I do remember her keeping stats while he worked.

I left the 'Clackamas Radio Ranch " by June , but I heard they didnt pick up or werent offered Winter Hawks the next year.

Does anyone else have stories they can share from KOHI? It would be great to hear more tales from this station.