Yachats Oregon Writer Rick Schultze

At lunch today I had a conversation with a woman about how dull this country would be without all the things that keep people jabbering. For example what would the Republicans do without the Democrats to complain about and visa versa? What about the timber industry talking about the conservationists? The pro-life versus pro-choice debate is always a good conversation starter and if you really want to see people at their best attend a professional sporting event and watch the opposing fans heckle and taunt one another. Or listen to the plethora of ideas people have about what should be done with the CEO’s that took the money and ran. There are some sharp opinions about that one. But you know, all of it does create dialogue and that is a healthy sign. If you can talk to each other then there is a chance a happy medium can be achieved.

What got me started on this was earlier I’d been listening to a conversation in another part of the room about the change over of Waldport’s AM radio station KORC. For many years the station has had a format that could be called “old time” to some; it featured old radio shows, local talk shows and recently country music segments. The new owner of the station is changing the format to rock and calling it; AM 820 KORC “The Rocker”.

This had them going in the other room. To them the old station was the only way to go and they weren’t thrilled with the new format. But some others I talked to later in day thought the new station is the only way to go and they consider it very exciting and will be listening eagerly. A debate for sure, but you can bet both groups will be checking out the new station just to see what all the talk is about!

It reminds me of when I was growing up and living in Roseburg. It was just when Elvis began to explode. Well, the Roseburg radio station was a strict county and western station that featured farm reports on prices of corn, wheat, alfalfa, hogs and many other wonderful items and it was big on news reporting. Some of the younger people listened since it was the only station we could get, but the day they announced that because of popular demand they were going to run an hour a day of rock and roll music featuring Elvis it changed things. The station’s ratings rose, advertising sales grew and little by little the format changed over to rock, county and middle of the road pop music.

I still remember listening to the debate about the changing format of the station but it was okay, both the older folks and younger folks were listening to the same station, there was something there for both to enjoy and hopefully KORC will be like that.

For me it was fun today to hear all that talk about the station, I hadn’t heard that much radio talk in some time!

Good luck to AM 820 KORC “The Rocker”!

To reach Rick Schultze email: yarick@pioneer.net