How KRSB Came to Be
Tom Worden (left) in the KRSB broadcast booth, and with wife, Karen, and son, Eric, in center photo.
Before there was Brooke Communications, there was Roseburg’s first FM station and the Head Goat Observer who made it happen.
Story by Doug Pedersen
It wasn’t widely noted at the time, but Douglas County radio listeners who happened upon 103.1 FM on Oct. 1, 1970, heard history being made. First came the sound of shuffling papers, then a voice that would become one of the most recognizable in the community.
“This is KRSB, Roseburg,” said announcer Tom Worden. “Broadcasting at a frequency of 103.1 megahertz.”
Worden, who was also a KRSB co-owner, station general manager and program director, then welcomed listeners to the first FM broadcast from Douglas County.
That was the start of the KRSB story, one that impacted the Roseburg community, the radio industry as a whole and those who have connected with the station’s personalities, music and stories over its half-century of operation.
The crystal-clear, stereophonic sound of FM radio was nothing new at the time. Experimental FM stations began broadcasting in the late 1930s and a commercial FM band was established in 1941. Stereo broadcasting began in 1961. But FM was still something heard largely in large metropolitan areas, not smaller towns where AM still ruled.
In Roseburg, that all changed when Tom and Karen Worden came to town.
The beginning of that story comes from their son, Eric. KRSB was part of his growing up. Now an on-air host at WNOB-FM in Norfolk, Va., Worden has fond memories of those early days in Roseburg.
“My parents got married in August 1960,” Worden says. “Dad was working as a news guy at a radio station in Mount Shasta. After he and Mom met, they moved to Los Angeles looking for the lights.”
What Tom and Karen found instead of radio gigs was part-time work at Disneyland. With a new baby in tow, they headed back north to find work and a place to raise their family. Tom anded first at Roseburg’s KQEN in 1961 and later at KRNR, now The Score.
“My dad became the news director,” Worden says. “But he wanted to do something bigger. He knew FM was a big deal but he didn’t have the money to start a station. So he shared his dream with several others in town.”
“I was very proud of my dad and what he did as a community leader. That's my calling card.”
— Eric Worden
Tom persuaded Roseburg brothers, Chuck and Duke Ricketts, to invest in his vision. Chuck owned a local music store and Duke was an attorney.
“They also needed an engineer,” Worden says. “Dad got Bob Reece to be part of the group, and WRR Inc. (for Worden, Reece and Ricketts) was created.”
In the beginning, KRSB’s studios were in the historic Kohlhagen Building in downtown Roseburg and its tower atop the next-door Hotel Umpqua. For years, Karen led KRSB’s sales team and Tom was the morning host who got national attention for some of his on-air antics.
An early example came when an anti-obscenity ordinance was enacted in Roseburg.
“The district attorney at the time got Playboy magazine banned through the ordinance,” Worden says. “Dad was an avid reader, so he’d go up to Eugene to get a copy. Then he would read the articles live on the air. Playboy took notice and ran a full-page ad in the New York Times about it. Dad was proud of that.”
Then came the KRSB weather goats.
Each morning, Tom looked out the studio window to a view of Mount Nebo and a herd of goats that grazed and moved among the rocks. If the goats were near the top of the hill, the town would have fair weather. If they were grazing near the bottom, it meant rain.
“The goat weather forecasts were featured on NBC Nightly News, Ripley’s Believe it or Not and in Reader’s Digest,” Worden says.
The weather goats’ fame evolved into official KRSB Goat Observation Corps cards, with Tom’s signature and title of Head Goat Observer.
“He’d use terms like widely scattered goats and low-goat pressure system,” Word adds. “Those goats were right most of the time. They were way more accurate than the national weather service.”
Gary Donnelly, who partnered with Tom on the morning show before working in public relations at Pacific Power, has fond memories of the goats.
“Tom deserves all the credit for the goat reports,” Donnelly says. “There were people who would not start their day until they heard the goat report.”
The goats’ fame endured.
“People across the country would ask me about the goat reports years later,” says Donnelly. “I was in Gillette, Wyo., talking about Pacific Power on a local radio station. The interviewer found out I knew Tom and asked if he could get a goat report live on the air. I called Tom and got it done. That guy probably never forgot that.”
Eric Worden started his radio career in 1974 as a weekend DJ at KRSB. He later took over the morning show and programming duties.
“I’ve been in radio ever since,” he says. “I was very proud of my dad and what he did as a community leader. That’s my calling card.”
By the mid-1980s, Tom and Karen wanted to pursue new interests, and KRSB was ready for new ownership. Today, it’s owned by Brooke Communications Inc., whose president, Patrick Markham, is a radio industry expert and longtime broadcast specialist. KRSB-FM is now Best Country 103, but still in the same place on the FM dial.
“KRSB is our flagship and has been for 15 years,” Markham says. Brooke’s full list includes Best Country 103, News Radio 1240 KQEN, 104.5 SAM FM, i101 FM, and The Score, simulcasting on 92.3 FM and 1490 AM.
“It’s a fun business,” Markham adds. “We’ll keep doing the job we’re doing, which is serving our listeners and clients. That’s what it’s all about.”
