According to the archives, Portland's first FM signal debuted in 1946, as KGW-FM at 95.3 mc. (The station moved to 100.3 in 1947.)

Eugene's first FM was (non-commercial) KRVM at 90.1 mc, which signed on in 1947.

I'm wondering, when did FM radio first come to Seattle?

Seattle's first FM station is hard to know for sure since I don't have access to Seattle newspaper microfilm in Portland.

On one side the "Broadcasting Yearbook" which began listing station debut dates in 1958, only asked for the station debut year before 58, so many dates were lost unless a station documented the occasion. The Yearbook says KIRO-FM 100.7mc began in 1946. This might be a dubious year. The Yearbook publishes any date or year a station might say.

On the other hand, a June 1948 listing from "Radio Craft" magazine does not list KIRO-FM but does list KING-FM 94.9mc & KRSC-FM 98.1mc.

Then there's the psrba.org history site which states that KRSC-FM 93.5mc began broadcasting on January 1, 1947 a dubious date I would think and would want to check out with microfilm. KING-FM 94.7mc is also said to have begun in January 1947 with KIRO-FM 100.7mc in 1948.

My hope is that someone reading this in the Seattle area will look into this. I've wanted to know this answer for years. It would be easy to find. All you need to do is follow the daily FM call letter listings in the "P.I." or "Times" back to the beginning. That person could E-Mail me and I would post the researchers results. My E-Mail is: radiohistorian@msn.com

Thanks for the info, Craig!

Was KRVM (Eugene) the first non-commercial FM in the Northwest?

I grew up in Seattle and know that KISW at 99.9, which spent its first 25 years or so as a classical music station, got an early start, but I don't know if it was the first.

That was quite a change for KISW in the early 1970s, when it got purchased by the owners of KJR and changed overnight from classical to what was then called an "underground rock" format!

According to the Broadcasting Yearbook, KISW 99.9mc signed on the air January 29, 1950.

I think KING-FM signed on sometime in 1949 and I don't think we were the first. (If we were we've certainly never promoted the fact)

I just did a quick on-line search and found an article stating that KING-FM was "the region's first FM station" and that the station signed on in 1948. It makes me realize how humble we are here....

Then it must mean "region" as in Washington state, not Oregon. KGW-FM was on the air two years earlier and it was said to be the Northwests' first FM.

here is the site with the info:

http://www.psrba.org/PSRBAHistory.asp

follow the link to the history index.

So, does this mean that the only stations to broadcast in the old "Armstrong" FM band (42.1-47.9 MHz) were located either on the East coast or California?

Was KGW-FM nothing more than a simulcast of the AM? Why did the station move from 95.3 to 100.3?

List of "Armstrong" band stations from 1942:

http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/1942fmfeb.html

None shown in the northwest.

The first FM on the west coast, with a 1941 sign-on, is 44.5 MHz K45LA, Los Angeles CA, Don Lee Broadcasting System, now known as KRTH 101.1 ("K-Earth").

List of Pre "Armstrong" band FM stations from 1939:

http://www.oldradio.com/archives/dial/1939fm.htm

But it is stated that most of these were just high frequency AM not FM.

Again, none shown in the Northwest.

Radioxpert: No, KGW-FM had its own programming in the beginning, mainly transcriptions. This changed on April 1, 1948 when simulcasting began.

Between July 1947 & January 1948 all Portland FM stations changed frequencies but not simultaneously. This was most likely a realignment with other stations outside the area and to correct close spacing issues. Those effected were:

KPFM 94.9mc to 97.1mc on 7-31-47.
KGW-FM 95.3mc to 100.3mc on 10-10-47.
KPRA 95.7mc to 95.5mc on 1-9-48.

I believe "The Oregonian" had plans for KGW-FM to be on the air in the early 1940's. World War II put an end to this. Most broadcast parts went to the war effort.

During a research project on the land at Healy Heights, I found "The Oregonian" had purchased property at: 4545 S.W. Council Crest Drive on October 30, 1940. This was the KGW-FM transmitter location. The FCC issued The Oregonian a "Conditional Grant" by late 1945, which would have been a few months after the war.

There is more on the planning of Portland FM broadcasting on the "Portland Radio History" page of pdxradio, under the title: "1946 Portland FM Assignments".

Thanks again!

Eugene's KRVM claims to be "the first FM in the Pacific Northwest"...but they didn't sign on 'til late 1947.

Using newspaper microfilm from the Oregon Historical Society Library from all over the state, I was able to compile this list:

1. KGW-FM 95.3 Portland, 5-7-46
2. KPFM 94.9 Portland, by 11-13-46
3. KPRA 95.7 Portland, 9-25-47
4. KUGN-FM 99.1 Eugene, 10-12-47
5. KWIL-FM 101.7 Albany, 10-24-47
6. KRVM 90.1 Eugene, 12-8-47
7. KGPO 96.9 Grants Pass, 4-25-48
8. KPOJ-FM 98.7 Portland, 6-6-48
9. KOIN-FM 101.1 Portland, 9-12-48
10. KEX-FM 92.3 Portland, 11-25-48

Interesting. Thanks!

I was thinking KPDQ was back there too. Does KRVM claim to be "first" or "oldest"? They DO have the oldest calls on the list. I didn't realize KWIL was that old. Is that the one that moved to 107.9 or another incarnation?

I DXed KRVM last night. They are celebrating their 60th year and indeed, as stated above, claim to be "the first FM in the Pacific Northwest".

The history info on their website:

http://www.krvm.org/about/about.html

Is perhaps a little ambiguous, are they claiming to be the first in the Pacific Northwest to use the "new" (88-108) FM band OR the first one on one the 20 "new" educational frequencies ?

Hey Craig Adams...
Thanks for the list. My question is... did these actually sign on on the dates listed? Or did they acquire licenses and not put a signal on the air on that date?
Thanks.

Smoochie: KPDQ-FM would have been 19th. KWIL-FM went dark in 1956-57. The New KWIL-FM signed on in 1968.

Microphone: Yes, the top 10 stations listed in order, are according to their sign on dates.

KRVM appears to be the first NCE FM north of San Francisco and west of Madison WI. KALW, San Francisco, claims to have signed on 3-20-41, but Jeff Miller's early FM station lists do not show a listing prior to the 1948 list. Since there is no 1947 list available I will give KALW the benefit of the doubt unless proven otherwise and say they were on prior to KRVM. WHA in Madison appears on the 1948 list, and a recent Broadcasting Yearbook shows a WERN with a sign-on of 3-30-47. These are likely the same station, but the WERN website has no history posted.

KRVM can accurately state they are the first NCE FM in the northwest, period. They are not the first FM in the northwest, nor are they the first FM in Eugene. 1958 and 1959 editions of Broadcasting Yearbook, which may still be in their possession, back this up. I fished those yearbooks out of Roger Houglum's (KRVM's original GM/CE) wastebasket at LCC and I regret not keeping them instead of taking them to KRVM.

Do you happen to know when KRVM moved to 91.9?

I inadvertently took the KPDQ-AM start and assigned it to their FM, which came much later. I THOUGHT I remembered KWIL-FM going on the air!

Radioxpert: When I did the research in 2002, I didn't follow frequency changes with stations out side of Portland. I wished I had later.

According to the 1955 "Oregon Blue Book" KRVM was still on channel 211 (90.1) as of August 1954. The next Oregon Blue Book was 1957-1958 and KRVM had changed to 91.9.

One of these days I need to make time to look through some microfilm. I have a week's worth of radio logs from 1951 including a listing for KRVM, but not KUGN-FM, I'm assuming KUGN-FM was just a simulcast of the AM, therefore no listing.

It occurred to me that some of this information might be in the Eugene Radio Guide. I couldn't find anything other than points to support KRVM's claims but there's a message stating that the site is BACK after 6 years! http://www.angelfire.com/or/erg

That message was posted some time ago. I see there is still some erroneous info on the history pages that was wrongly attributed to me, which I requested be removed several years ago.