It was after ten o’clock on a Friday night when I headed to community radio station Freeform Portland‘s studio in Portland, Oregon for a visit. Board President Becky Meiers had invited me and Paul Riismandel to join her on her final show before she embarked for Alaska and I couldn’t refuse. The co-host of a cassette-themed program, The Tape Escape, Meiers crafted a radio-themed mix tape for her show in honor of the Grassroots Radio Conference that weekend.
“The Tape Escape” on Freeform Portland’s posted programming schedule. Photo: J. Waits
The indefatigable Meiers played a major role in organizing the 2018 Grassroots Radio Conference, which was hosted by community radio station KBOO (see my tour), where she was wrapping up her work as Development Director. After a full day at the conference, she wound down with her music show, as she reflected ahead to her new job as station manager of community radio station KCAW in Sitka, Alaska.
Becky Meiers in Freeform Portland studio. Photo: J. Waits
Her tracks, which made up the “A” side of the mix tape, expressed her radio love, with songs like “French Radio” by Swirlies, Spoon’s “Car Radio,” and the Guided by Voices track “Radio Show.” Freeform Portland’s consulting engineer Todd Urick (also a college radio alum of KDVS, which was one of my recent tours) created the mix on the “B” side. His selections reflected his passion for retro pop culture, from the theme song to the 1983 video arcade-themed movie Joysticks to cheesy faux jingles, to a new wave parody song (“Palolo Valley Girls”) to radio station air check clips.
“To Radio People” mix tape at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits
While enjoying the music mix (hear the entire October 5, 2018 show) and occasionally sharing the mic with Meiers, Riismandel and Freeform Portland’s Operations & Engineering Chairman Arthur Rizzotto, I also took in the surroundings. The studio is a dream for music nerds, with cassette players, turntables, CD players, a small vinyl collection and even a retro radio.
Turntables and headphones in Freeform Portland studio. Photo: J. Waits
The on-air studio has windows overlooking the street below, with a view of a bus shelter, food mart, and furniture gallery. The room opens up into a living room-like space with a couch, plants, sticker-covered cabinet, and a wall covered with a packed hand drawn on-air schedule.
View from Freeform Portland’s music library hallway. Photo: J. Waits
The narrow hallway leading out of the station is lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves on one side, largely packed with vinyl in addition to some CDs and cassette tapes. In a place of honor adjacent to the studio entrance is a framed memorial to Negativland’s Don Joyce, including one of his cart’s alongside a packet of his cremains.
Framed Don Joyce cart and cremains at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits
It was just two years ago when my colleague Eric Klein was on the scene for Freeform Portland’s antenna raising festivities, which he beautifully documented on Radio Survivor Podcast episode 41. Board member Jessica Ponaman articulated over email why she was inspired to help start the station, proclaiming, “To make sure communities have access to the radio airwaves!!!”
Officially KFFP-LP 90.3 FM and KFFD-LP 98.3 FM, Freeform Portland is one of the many new low power FM (LPFM) community radio stations to go on air following the FCC’s 2013 LPFM application window. The station began streaming online on April 1, 2016 and launched over FM on April 16, 2016.
Vinyl records and more music in Freeform Portland’s hallway leading to its front door. Photo: J. Waits
Considering just how new the station is (launching in 2016), I was flabbergasted to hear about the huge pool of volunteers (hovering around 200) currently devoting time to the station. Clearly Portland was hungry for independent radio. The schedule on the wall hints at the diversity of shows on air during my October visit, ranging from “Dark Noise” to “Part Time Punk.” The station has live DJs twenty-four hours a day, with 84 on-air volunteers hosting two-hour shows. To keep the schedule fresh, DJs must reapply for their shows every six months. According to Meiers, “We bring new people into the community quite often as a result.”
Program schedule on wall at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits
A passion for music is at the heart of Freeform Portland and the station’s name is an overt proclamation of its freeform orientation. After my visit, Meiers elaborated over email:
DJs are given total control over what music to play, regardless of music genre or approach. There are no blocks of programming for people to conform to. We hold operational expectations (informed by FCC rules and the Communications Act, among other standards) as a community, but otherwise impose no limitations on what goes on the air. We do expect programming to focus on music, art, and cultural expression, so we do not have programs that focus on news or public affairs. That’s just the difference people hear on the air — the difference in our community, the difference in how we’re entirely volunteer-run, the difference in our overall openness to community broadcasting is something that gets expressed differently. We’re openly exuberant and human, and I think that comes through in the way we sound.
Sound board at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits
Meiers first joined up with Freeform Portland in early 2016, even though she was already working at KBOO, recounting, “I saw that the community was going to put up the antenna together, and I joined in. There’s a picture of me lugging cinder blocks up a ladder…I joined right as the station was going on the air.” She added, “…the world of community radio was bigger than a single station, and…expanding opportunities for people to make media was my purpose. Helping to develop a freeform format station was doubly important in Portland, a city where affordable and accessible creative space is dwindling. The format is like an audio ‘studio,’ and I was really drawn to that concept.”
Arthur Rizzotto, Becky Meiers and Paul Riismandel in Freeform Portland studio. Photo: J. Waits
Many folks with radio experience and with Portland radio connections were involved with Freeform Portland’s founding and ongoing operations. In addition to KBOO, there have been intersections with XRAY.fm (see my tour), Radio 23, and Portland Radio Authority. A few of the Freeform Portland founders also had influential college radio experience at KDVS (read my tour) as well.
Radio at Freeform Portland. Photo: J. Waits
Interestingly, both Becky and Todd remain involved with Freeform Portland remotely. Meiers told me, “I keep volunteering for Freeform, even though I live far away, because I truly love the Freeform community and broadcast.”
View of Freeform Portland’s front door from within the station. Photo: J. Waits
Thanks so much to Becky Meiers for inviting me and my colleague Paul along during a fun Friday night broadcast! This is my 151st radio station tour. You can read my full roster of tours in numerical order and peruse field trips by station type in my tour archives. Watch this space, as I will have a cluster of Seattle radio station tours posting soon.
