Philip N. Bladine and brother Jack Bladine built KMCM in 1949. They were the owners of McMinnville's "Telephone-Register" newspaper at the time. The brothers sold KMCM in 1959. Here's more on the life of Philip Bladine:

The McMinnville News-Register:

http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=233789

The Oregonian:

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1208481916 60370.xml&coll=7

AP:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/newsroom/article_display.jsp ?vnu_content_id=1003791372

I worked for The News-Register in the 90s and among my great pleasures were conversations with Phil. We spent one evening, after the power had gone out in McMinnville, talking for two hours about almost everything ... watching traffic go by on Third St. He had so much knowledge of the history of the state and, of course, was a great newspaperman and community leader.

Bob E-Mails:

Also I worked for Phil Bladine on the news staff of the News-Register when there were only two issues a week, and three of us did all of the reporting and writing. Phil was an outstanding person to work for. He always wrote the editorials and asked us for input, and stayed active with the paper while also serving on the state Economic Development Commission and Associated Oregon Industires board.

One day following a day-long roundup of drug users within the county, the district attorney wanted to see Phil, and he grabbed his cassette recorder and was soon getting the story which he later wrote and ran in the next issue. Phil was never shy about being a reporter again.

This town is going to miss him.

Bob Kuhn (future pdxradio poster)

I remember when we purchased KCYX in 1980. I went down to the News-Register office to meet Phil. The welcome I received was unusual to say the least. Since we had only made the purchase, but it still had to go through the FCC, we didn't yet have the station. Phil offered me office space at the News-Register and complete use of their facilities until we took over.

As it was, we had a great relationship with Norm Aldred whom we were purchasing the station from and didn't need to take Phil up on his offer, but I have never forgotten that act of kindness towards a new competitor.

I remember another time when we (KCYX) were asked to produce a major multi-projector (8) slide show to show at the Chamber's annual event. The next day, Phil drove out to the station with only one mission, that was to tell us it was the finest Chamber program McMinnville had ever had. That was the class act he was.

The relationship lasted all the years we were there and Phil was often a guest on our open line talk shows.

The Sunday Oregonian has the family obit for "Philip Newell Bladine". Very informative and a nice picture. I don't believe The Oregonian makes these available on the web.

The one thing I learned that's KMCM related. I never knew why Philip's brother Jack B. Bladine gave up being President of Yamhill Broadcasters, Inc. the license of KMCM. Turns out Jack died in 1957 and that's when Philip Bladine became President.

I went to Phil Bladine's funeral today. So did just about everybody else in McMinnville...the church was packed. He was an outstanding guy to work for and work with, who really cared about the quality of the publications his company put on the street and would drop what he was doing at any time and do anything he could help to get it done.

I think Phil's life, among many things, testifies to how important local ownership of media can be. This was also true of KCYX when I was there. Deane Johnson and his family lived in the community and obviously cared about the people they served. Sure radio's a business, but the best radio stations are always much more than that.