Our Mission

Oregon Public Broadcasting: giving voice to the community, connecting Oregon and its neighbors, illuminating a wider world.

OPB Management

Steve Bass, President & CEO (email)
Lynne Clendenin, VP Programming (email)
Dave Davis, VP TV Production (email)
Jan Heskiss, Chief Financial Officer (email)
Morgan Holm, Senior VP and Chief Content Officer (email)
Cheryl Ikemiya, VP and Chief Development Officer (email)
Paul Loofburrow, VP Marketing and Communications (email)
Rebecca Morris, VP and General Counsel (email)
Debbie Rotich, VP and Chief Administration Officer (email)
Duane Smith, Chief Technology Officer and VP Technology (email)

OPB Board of Directors

Chair: Ron Saxton (email)
Vice Chair: Betsy Cramer
Secretary/Treasurer: Linda Hoffman

Members:
Rukaiyah Adams
Karen Anderson
Roger Cooke
Elisa Dozono
Colin Evans
Bobbie Dore Foster
Mike Golub
Susan Hammer
Jenn Lynch
Gary Maffei
Jack McGowan
Sean O'Hollaren
Sandy Rowe
Lisa Skari
Paul Speer
William R. Swindells
Amy Tykeson
Dave Vernier
Fred Ziari

Ex-Officio: Steven M. Bass
CAB Chair: Jesse Beason
OPB Board Liaison: Rad Probst (email)

Board of Directors Meeting Schedule

All meetings are open to the public and held at OPB unless otherwise noted. The schedule below is subject to change. Please contact us to confirm meeting times and dates or to get more information.

Friday, June 7, 10 am
Friday, September 6, 10 am
Friday, December 6, 10 am
Friday, March 6, 2020, 10 am
Friday, June 5, 2020, 10 am

Board of Directors Committee Meeting Schedule

The schedule below is subject to change. Committee meetings are often conducted in executive session and therefore may not always be open to the public. Please contact us for more information.

Audit Committee
Tuesday, April 23, 2 pm
Thursday, July 25, 10 am

Development Committee
Thursday, May 9, 1:30 pm

Finance & Investment Committee
Monday, June 3, 12 pm
Wednesday, August 28, 12 pm
Friday, November 22, 12 pm

Governance Committee
Tuesday, May 28, 10:30 am

Human Resources Committee
TBD

Strategy Committee
TBD

OPB Community Advisory Board

Chair: Jesse Beason
Members
Ronault LS Catalani (Polo)
Karin Hedlund
Mark Holloway
Mary Jaeger
Marty Jones
Melissa Moore
Dan Peterson
Mari Watanabe
Kimberly Wilson
Shirod Younker

OPB Staff Liaison: Rad Probst

Upcoming Community Advisory Board meetings:
Tuesday, May 21, 12 pm
Thursday, August 15, 12 pm
Friday, November 1, 12 pm

Milestones in OPB History

1922

KFDJ-AM radio is created as part of a physics experiment at Oregon Agricultural College, now Oregon State University, in Corvallis.

1930s

KFDJ becomes KOAC, with studios in Covell Hall at Oregon State University.

1957

OPB’s first television station, KOAC-TV, goes on the air.

EARLY 1960s

Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. transfers ownership of its FM frequency to OPB and KOAP-FM (now KOPB) begins broadcasting.

1979

The Oregon Commission on Public Broadcasting is established. In 1981 OPB leaves the Department of Higher Education and becomes an independent state agency.

1988

OPB moves into its new facility on SW Macadam Avenue after its successful building campaign.

1989

Oregon Considered, OPB's own Pacific Northwest news magazine, is first broadcast.

EARLY 1990s

Membership exceeds 100,000.

1990

"Oregon Field Guide" begins production.

1993

OPB becomes a private, nonprofit corporation with ongoing financial support from the State of Oregon.

1997

OPB radio's program format is refined to include more news and information. OPB installs Oregon’s first digital transmitter, taking a critical first step in the digital television transition.

2000

"Oregon Art Beat" begins production.

2002

OPB's World of Learning Digital Campaign raises $22 million. OPB loses all state funding.

2003

"History Detectives" season 1 premieres for PBS.

2005

OPB brings StoryCorps — a national project inspiring Americans to record one another's stories in sound — to Portland. Local residents visit the mobile StoryBooth to share their stories for broadcast on OPB Radio and preservation at the Library of Congress.

2006

"Oregon Experience," OPB's local television series exploring key people, places and events in our state's history, premieres. OPB, FRONTLINE and the Oregonian join forces to examine the methamphetamine epidemic through television specials (FRONTLINE: The Meth Epidemic, Meth: The Oregon Front), radio programs and online resources.

2007

OPB TV celebrates its 50th anniversary. OPBnews.org — an expanded news and information Web site — launches. OPB invites community members from around the Northwest to help cover the news by signing up for the Public Insight Network.

2008

opbmusic.org, an online music service encouraging conversation and connection between OPB and our community of local music fans, launches. Think Out Loud, OPB's local online and daily radio broadcast, premieres. KOPB-AM (1600) Eugene begins providing OPB Radio's news and information service. OPB and its community partners begin a statewide, multiplatform campaign to increase awareness about the impact of invasive species, featuring The Silent Invasion: An Oregon Field Guide Special, an invasive species online hotline and numerous outreach opportunities. Time Team USA, a new archaeology program for PBS, begins production.

2009

OPB receives the duPont-Columbia University Award, one of the most prestigious national honors in the field of broadcast journalism, for The Silent Invasion: An Oregon Field Guide Special. The documentary illustrates how invasive species are changing the environment in Oregon, and focuses on ways people can work together to make a difference to native fish and wildlife resources, Oregon's economy and quality of life. The program's premiere in April 2008 marked the kickoff of the ongoing "Stop the Invasion" campaign that encourages community partners and citizens to collaborate in their efforts to take action against invasive species. OPB switches to all-digital broadcasting of its full-power television stations.

2010

OPB and its community partners share the voices, ideas and stories of rural Oregonians through the Rural Economy Project, which includes OPB Radio and news stories, along with extensive online resources. OPB receives a $1.4 million two-year grant from CPB to direct a consortium of public broadcasting stations in the Northwest (with reporters in Portland, Seattle, Pullman, Boise and Medford) that will become the region's primary source of environmental coverage.

2011

OPB expands its multimedia arts coverage with the launch of Arts & Life on OPB.org. OPB launches EarthFix, a public media partnership with reporters in Portland, Seattle, Pullman, Boise and Medford, to provide multimedia coverage of regional environmental issues. Through a partnership with OPB, Literary Arts and the National Book Foundation, the finalists for the National Book Awards were announced live on public radio for the first time. The announcement was broadcast on Think Out Loud, as well as carried by a live video stream and blog. The initiative won first place in the Innovation Award (Online) category from the Society of Professional Journalists.

2012

OPB receives a $1 million commitment from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation in support of coverage of the arts, culture and history, with a special focus on developing younger and more diverse audiences.OPB receives a $750,000 commitment from the Robert D. and Marcia H. Randall Charitable Trust to support OPB's educational programming serving learners of all ages throughout Oregon and southwest Washington.

2013

OPB launches "State of Wonder," a new weekly arts and culture program airing on Saturdays on OPB Radio. Developed by a grant from the Paul G. Allen Foundation, the program brings to life the week’s show-stopping stories, ideas and must-see happenings in visual arts, theater, music, literature, culture and more. OPB establishes The Northwest News Partnership, which brings together news coverage from more than 40 news organizations across Oregon and Washington. This network gives communities across the region greater access to local news right where they live. Oregon Field Guide, OPB's longest-running local production, celebrates 25 years on air. The season premiered with a dedicated special on the largest-known glacier cave system in the lower 48 states, located on Oregon's Mount Hood. The program was one part of OPB's multiplatform storytelling, which also included a multimedia website and a series of reports from EarthFix and on OPB Radio.

2014

OPB receives the Northwest Regional Emmy Award for Station Excellence. OPB opens a news bureau in southwest Washington to enhance our capacity to tell the region's most important stories with a focus on cross-border issues, news from Clark County and surrounding counties, and important developments at the state legislature in Olympia.

2015

OPB presents Marcia H. Randall with its Leadership in Philanthropy Award, which honors supporters whose visionary philanthropy have enabled OPB’s greatest strides forward as a public service. Randall is the fifth recipient of the OPB award.

2016

OPB launches OPB Politics Now, a weekly podcast that takes a deep dive into the hottest political topics of the week. OPB reporters, editors, and special guests offer the inside scoop about candidates and issues affecting our region.
 
OPB also launches the weekly podcast This Land is Our Land, which covered the federal trial following the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The podcast provided trial recaps, in-depth analysis and insight into the high-stakes proceedings, as well as the larger political and cultural issues at play.

2017

OPB launches the new PBS KIDS Channel — a new, separate channel featuring high-quality PBS KIDS programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The free channel offers more families across Oregon and southern Washington greater access to trusted educational programming.