Jeff Hino showcases his old National steel guitar. (photo: Bob Crum)

It was a cathartic moment in 1991 when Jeff Hino walked into a Seattle music store and saw it hanging there on the wall.  Possibly from Blind Boy Fuller, an original great blues-man from the 1930s and 40s, the 1934 National steel guitar with two bullet holes through it was “like an old friend,” recalls Hino.  “It spoke to me with its gutsy, soulful sound that carries the blues right to your heart.”

And if you listen to the music of Jeff Hino, learning technology leader with Extension Experiment Station Communications, and his musical partner Dave Plaehn, who graduated from OSU with a Ph.D. in math, you’ll find that the old slide guitar blends right in with their unique style of blues.

“We bring our own identity to old blues songs,” said Hino.  “We create our own experiences based on the greats like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Bukka White before us.”

“Jeff is good at improvising,” said Plaehn. “He’s one of the best slide players in the state.”

In their first homespun CD “On Your Bond,” Hino reflects that it felt right to be their flagship.  “It’s about trust and helping each other.  It is spiritual,” he said.  The CD earned critical acclaim with its mix of rural and urban blues and simple acoustic approach.

In their latest release, “Can’t Get My Rest,” they featured more original songs, more musicians and added color from additional instruments such as drums that they didn’t have on their first CD.  The sound ranges from country blues to pop blues to R&B.

Like most kids, Hino recalls, he was attracted to music in middle school.  He started with an electric guitar and played in the equivalent of a “garage band” in high school.  By his senior year, “we were the best rock band in Taiwan,” said Hino.

When he moved to Arizona to attend college, Hino experienced a big shift from rock to Americana, country and bluegrass.  He sold is guitar for a banjo, and when he played, “It resonated with the sense of being American,” recalled Hino.

By the mid-70s, Hino was attracted to Corvallis because of the folk music scene.  He moved to play banjo and dobro (a resonator slide guitar) for the Highwater String Band.  By the late ‘80s, he became interested in acoustic blues.

“The release of the Robert Johnson CD was really a milestone for me,” said Hino.  “It was inspiring to hear original artists from the ‘30s like that.”

Jeff Hino and Dave Plaehn have been performing acoustic blues since 1990. Their next local performance is on Nov. 22, 8:30 p.m., at Big River Restaurant, Corvallis. (photo: Bob Crum)

Then, in 1990, he joined Plaehn, a singer/songwriter and harmonica player.  “People enjoy the interplay of Dave’s harmonica and my steel guitar.  The energy and fusion of blues, country, etc., is the heart of what we do.”

With a master’s degree in educational media and experience as a library media specialist, Hino went from substitute teaching when he moved to Corvallis to working for the College of Forestry as a hands-on media specialist.  From his start at OSU in 1984, he eventually rose to COF media center director in 2002. Recently, he joined the EESC to help them use technology to better communicate Extension information across Oregon.

“My job, and my music, feed my creative side each in different ways,” said Hino. “In my job, I bring new ideas on how to deliver information using new methods.

“Music is a social outlet for me. It is incredibly rewarding being with other people in a variety of musical spaces.”

On a recent trip, he carried a ukulele on his back as he visited the Karen tribe in the hills of Thailand.  “I played an elephant folk song and some blues in the jungles of Thailand and they started playing (Eric) Clapton!”

“Music is just this incredible shared experience for everyone,” said Hino.  “It is a voice through which you can speak with anyone, and they can appreciate it. It is a wonderful feeling.”

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Physics Professor Jacob Jordan, holding the microphone, built KOAC’s first transmitter in 1922. Photo courtesy of OSU Archives.

It was the Roaring Twenties and at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC), Physics Professor Jacob Jordan (photo) brought the campus to life.  By turning a lab experiment into OAC’s first 50-watt transmitter, Jordan invited sound to Oregon’s airwaves.

And while that sound will not be disappearing, the campus-based broadcasting station will come to an end when Oregon Public Broadcasting’s KOAC-AM radio station moves its operations to Portland in Spring 2009.

“I never wanted to be the one to close KOAC,” said Vice President of Radio Programming, Lynne Clendenin. “But it falls on me.”

As KOAC updated its equipment, Covell Hall, home to KOAC since 1928, could not keep up.

“Basically, we’re trying to support 21st century equipment with 20th century facilities.  Updating the facilities just would not be cost effective.”

Clendenin said she and the station’s chief engineer examined the costs of installing air conditioning, along with associated costs, but it was just too expensive.

Governor Sprague welcomes KOAC listeners to the Oregon State Fair in 1940. KOAC staff "covered everything down to the last county booth and the giant squash." Photo courtesy of OSU Archives.

For eighty years, KOAC has broadcast from Covell Hall and spread its coverage throughout Oregon and beyond.  In the early years, topics included agriculture reports, music, faculty lectures, home economics programs, state fair news, athletics, and talks on a variety of subjects ranging from chemistry to history to house heating.  It was a time when families listened eagerly by their radio for scheduled broadcasts.  In 1936, the Oregon State College Forestry Club began broadcasting a weekly program “of fun and music from the woods” by the Foresters Chorus, just to name one of the few surviving audio samples in OSU Archives.

The station survived the depression, when it was only one of two educational stations west of the Rockies to overcome the economic crisis.  By 1950, KOAC had studios in five locations: Corvallis, Eugene, Monmouth, Salem and Portland. When TV came on the scene in Corvallis in 1957 and later in Portland, radio continued to thrive.   In 1979, KOAC became a member of National Public Radio and in 1981, the Oregon State System of Higher Education divested its radio and television stations, including KOAC, and Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) was formed.

Lynne Clendenin, Vice President of Radio Programming, has worked on campus at KOAC for 20 years.

Clendenin began her career at KOAC 20 years ago as a part-time announcer while she finished her broadcast media degree at OSU. She was a fan of OPB, listened whenever she could and when she learned KOAC was located on OSU’s campus she quickly applied.

“I was shocked when I learned that OPB was (on OSU’s campus),” Clendenin said, “and thrilled.”  “Over the years everyone at OSU has been supportive and welcoming. It is hard to leave.”

“It’s important for listeners to know we’re not going off the air,” said Clendenin.  “We’re just moving operations.  You will still hear the KOAC call letters at the top of every hour! You will still get KOAC and OPB’s other fine services.”

From its meager beginnings on December 7, 1922 when radio station KFDJ was granted its first broadcast license, to changing its call letters to reflect its connection to Oregon Agriculture College in December 1925, KOAC called campus home.  And, while the station’s operations move to Portland, the KOAC transmitter in Corvallis stays.  For radio listeners, OPB programming will continue at 550 AM, KOAC’s spot on the dial.

KOAC memorabilia is being collected for public display.

A preservation effort has sprung up on campus in order to leave a lasting legacy of the radio station and its birth at OSU. There is a loosely connected group of OSU faculty and staff who are working with OPB in saving some of the artifacts and recordings from the early days of the station. Some will be placed on display for the public.  If you have contributions, please contact Larry Pribyl, x7-3817, larry.pribyl@oregonstate.edu or Lynne Clendenin, x7-5332, or 541-602-3005, lynne_clendenin@opb.org.

~ by Jeanne Silsby

Two other audio recordings from the 1930-1939 timeframe, in addition to Alouette noted above, are Cruiser’s Song and George W – The Dean.  “George W – The Dean” is a song about the longtime dean of forestry and president of OSU, George Peavy.  All are sung by Forester’s Chorus; recorded at KOAC Radio Station by J.M. Morris; Theme for Forester’s in Action.  All are courtesy of OSU Archives.