Page 6, Portland Observer, March 30, 1988
KBMS:
**• « • *
Portland Soul Radio
by Nyewusi Askari
Fasten your soul seatbelts,
Portlanders! A Black-owned and
operated 24-hour-a-day radio sta
tion is coming to your city. Pen
ding approval of the FCC, the sta
tion should be in place in four
weeks or less Mr. Chris Bennett,
owner of the station explains.
“ The name of the station that
we have purchased is KAAR,
1480 am in Vancouver, but we w ill
change the stations’ call letters
(KAAR) pending FCC approval.
Tentatively, the call letters are
KBMS. The indication is that
those call letters w ill be the ones
approved by the FCC.”
Radio station KAAR 1480 in
Vancouver, W ashington, was re
cently purchased by KRIS Ben
nett Broadcasting, Inc. Explain
ing the new station's format, Mr.
Bennett said, “ It w ill be a soul
station. We w ill play Rhythm and
Blues, Rap, Gospel, Jazz, the
w hole arrangem ent of Black
music. We w ill also be an infor
mation vehicle for the African-
Am erican com m unity in Port
land. The music w ill play 24 hours
a day.’’
Mr. Bennett, and A frican-
American, said the corporation
that purchased the station is
100% Black-owned and under
stands the ins and outs of the
print and broadcast media.
“ I have three newspapers and a
magazine in the Seattle/Tacoma
area: The Seattle Medium, which
is an award-winning newspaper;
TheTacom aTrueCitizen; ashop-
pers guide called The Metro
Homemaker; and the magazine,
The Soul Town Review. We are
self-contained. We do our own
printing. I have been in the
business for 18 years,” he said.
In the African-American com
m unities of Seattle and Tacoma,
Mr. Bennett has helped launch
the careers of many aspiring
African-American journalists. He
said, “ Three of the top writers at
the Seattle Times newspaper
right now worked for us. We have,
unfortunately, trained a lot of
people who have gone elsewhere
to bigger and better things. And
that’s fine because we are about
helping people get ahead.”
Sports
by Fred Hembry
Responding to the question of
why he chose Portland for his
new soul station, Mr. Bennet
said, “ We own the radio station
KRIZ 1420 am here in Seattle.
We’ve had that for four years, and
we've built and built from a small
daytime station to a full-tim e,
powerful m etropolitan station
located in the Black community.
There were two properties avail
able when we started looking at
P o rtlan d. I had done som e
homework and saw that Portland
didn't have an urban format soul
station.
I saw that the masses of
the people in Portland’s
Black community was
not being served by
other radio stations.
So, we looked at Portland and
decided that we would put into
place a 24-hour voice down here;
that we would have good music,
national and local news and
views. We hope to be on the air
w ithin the next thirty days.”
Speaking specifically to Port
land’s African-American com m u
nity, Mr. Bennett said, “ We want
the community, especially the
business folk there and the
church community, to try and
support us financially. We are
putting
out
a tremendous
amount of money, and although
we are going to create some jobs
there, we do need their support
spiritually and financially. It’s
amazing that since we’ve put the
word our, a number of folks from
Portland have been calling us of
fering their support.”
The new station w ill be located
in downtown Portland in the old
postal buildingat5103rd Avenue
and Washington. Mr. Bennett
said, “ The building was already
ready for a radio station. It had
been renovated for another sta
tion that didn’t take it. We won’t
be in Vancouver anymore.
The minute we get ap
proval, we will be moving
into downtown Portland.
We are buying our tower sites.
We have three towers that are
located in Northwest Portland,
but the community we want to
serve is in Northeast Portland. We
w ill be shooting out 2500 watts
non-directional. Our signal at
night gets as far as Tacoma,
Washington We w ill be covering
Portland, Gresham, Beaverton,
Oregon City and all the surroun-
dind towns and cities in Oregon.”
A native of Waynesboro, Geor
gia, Mr. Bennett said he is look
ing forward to becoming an a ct
ive memberof Portland's African-
American community. “ We hope
to be a vehicle and an outlet for
young people. I understand that
Portland has a bad drug scene,
but somehow we’ve got to get in
there and help get rid of it or we
are going to lose an entire
generation of children.”
Concluding his interview, Mr.
Bennett quoted African-Ameri
can activist Dick Gregory: “ Mr
Gregory once said that the way to
communicate with the masses of
Black children is through your
refrigerator door and on Black
radio. I can’t do anything about
the refrigerator, but we sure got
some Black radio coming. I also
want to conclude by thanking
The P o rtla n d O b se rve r fo r
assisting us in some of the transi
tions we are doing. We come
down there and might have to use
the telephone or a place to hang
o u r hats and The P ortland
Observer has been most kind. We
really appreciate it because we
are coming to Portland to get in
volved with people, and we are
going to turn to the community.
We need each other. Actually, I
am more excited about Portland
than I was about Seattle,” he said
with a deep laugh.
So Portland, get ready for a
soul ride — a ride we hope w ill
last into forever.
To Mr. Bennett, Mrs. Gloria
Bennett and KRIS Bennett Broad
casting, Inc., we say, “ Welcome
to o u rC ity and to our community.
May our relationship and involve
ment establish a legacy Oregon
w ill never forget. Thank you for
choosing to share your visions
and dreams with us.”
Shaping Up For the PIL
At last, Spring is here! A fterall
the long, hard hours of winter
training and anticipation, the
1988 track season arrives. We
saw some of our high school
talent two months ago in the
Portland Indoor. Now we w ill
have the pleasure of seeing the
rest of the talent as well.
1988 should prove to be an in
teresting season in PIL track.
With the graduation of such stan
douts as Peter Prichett of Ben
son and Leon Lincoln, Jr., of
M adison, along w ith several
others, a noticeable void w ill be
felt. A few teams have lost more
senior greats than others, and
they w ill be in a rebuilding mode
th is season. This w ill be a
coaches year, giving the spec
tators a chance to see the men
tors of each school program at
work.
I had the opportunity to speak
to a couple of the area coaches
about their returning athletes as
well as their undeveloped talent.
Leon McKenzie, the coach at
NIKE NW
Basketball Camp
Boys and girls ages 11 through
16 are invited to sign up for the
NIKE Northwest Basketball De
velopment and Team Camp at St.
M artin’s College in Lacey, Wash
ington. Boys' Camp is July 10 -15
and G irls’ Camp is July 17 -22.
Day Camper rates are $130.00
and Overnight Camper rates are
$250.00. Group rate with eight
or more players per group is
$230.00. Registration deadline is
May 15, 1988. For additional in
fo rm a tio n and r e g is tra tio n ,
please contact: Pacific J C Bas
ketball, P.O. Box 7106, Bellevue,
Washington 98008 or call (206)
746-4016.
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has Jeanine Macow (58.0 400m),
and John Dimoff who should
threaten some other athletes.
Grant should be the big meet
favorite this year, and could
again give the state tourney a run
for its money.
Madison had a great 1987 sea
son. Unfortunately, a lot of their
talent were seniors. Madison is
definitely having to rebuild their
program this year. They do have
some talen t developing that
could be very threatening in a
couple of years. Coach Leon Lin
coln feels that “ David Cauthers
should emerge as one of the bet
ter distance runners in the city.”
David w ill run the 1500 up to the
3000. He also has Debbie Cantrea
who should do very well in the
800.
After talking to thse coaches, I
feel that the spectators are in for
some interesting Track & Field
this season. Who w ill emerge o r
top is anyone’s guess. My pick is.
Grant due to the returning depth
Coach Cotton has, but only the
next two months w ill tell the tale.
Benson, said that although they
lost a lot of tanet last year, they'll
still be making a “ lot of noise.”
Benson shouldn’t have too much
trouble with the likes of Walter
Bailey. Walter holds the 5th best
long jump for Oregon Preps.
Coming into the season, Walter
has a best of 23’11V4” . He also
runs a 10.6 100 and a 21.6 200.
Benson also has a sure bet in
the field with Hau Nguyen,‘ a pole-
vaulter. Hau went 13’3” as a
junior. He also throws a mean
javelin w ith a best of 180 ft. Athea
W illiam s is ranked #2 in the 200
with a mark of 24.9. She’s in the
top four in the 400 with 56.8. “ We
can run Athea in the anything
from the 800 down and do w ell,”
coach McKenzie stated. With
talent like this Benson is sure to
do well.
Grant has depth coming into
the 1988 season, much like Ben
son. Coach Cotton has returning
powerhouses like Bill Sheppard
and K.K. Waller, as well as a host
of underclass talent that could
fill in wherever needed. Cotton
P r in te d us I) S A
nvvoed b y th e R eliq io u s