You can learn a little bit more about KDUP in this Portland Magazine Article from last year:
Organization History:
A student radio club, also known internally as “the Hams”, formed in 1937 and was able to acquire some equipment in 1939 to begin experimenting with short-wave radio communication. That year they infamously relayed messages of support to the UP football team during an important game at Montana State. Student interest grew and KDUP was established on December 10, 1950 as the “new voice of the people.”
KDUP moved from short-wave broadcasting to using an underground intercom system in 1959, allowing students direct access to each of the residence halls broadcasting between 570-585 kilocycles. The station soon acquired a new 1960s Gates Model broadcast board of “respectable quality” which was not replaced until March 1989 by a new board and a carrier wave system. This system transmitted the signal through a phone line to a transmitter in Buckley Center where it was split and disseminated to the various residence halls and the Pilot House. The carrier wave system remained operable until 2002 when the graduating class designated funds toward a new transmitter as their Senior Gift project. This antenna was mounted on the roof of Mehling Hall and allowed KDUP to broadcast through the airwaves over the footprint of the campus on 1580 AM.
Unfortunately, the antenna had technical problems shortly after it was installed and never functioned properly for more than 8 consecutive months. It was first repaired by a professional radio engineer in Fall 2004. The radius of the signal was adjusted in 2005 to respond to FCC compliance issues and complaints of a new pirate radio station on the Portland airwaves. A failed power supply was replaced in February 2006. On-going issues of clarity and performance were reported throughout 2008. Then, all communication was lost between the station and the antenna in the summer of 2009. The facts are uncertain, but it appears that some underground wiring was severed in the construction of the Bauccio Commons Dining Room. About that same time, a professional radio engineer recommended relocating the antenna to the roof of Buckley Center but the project was never completed due to concerns that the signal would interfere with various cell towers that reside there.
Fortunately in 1999, KDUP was able to acquire a grant to establish a web-streaming system of broadcasting. In 2000, www.kdup.up.edu was launched. Without this system, it is very likely that KDUP would have shut down when the antenna became inoperable. While the web-stream system has kept KDUP alive, it has not been without its own technical difficulties. The system’s software has needed to be upgraded a number of times (2003, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012). KDUP will upgrade from Icecast to Shoutcast in 2014. More recently, a lightning strike to the Bell Tower in Fall 2013 knocked the stream off-line for nearly six weeks after it burned out the board’s distribution amplifier.
ASUP funded new microphones and audio editing software in Fall 2005. In addition, ASUP funded a “forklift” upgrade of nearly every component (board, turntable, web streaming computer, remote broadcasting equipment, etc.) of the radio station in Fall 2006.
KDUP was originally housed on the 3rd floor of Howard Hall. Sometime between 1957 and 1963, the station was relocated to Music Hall. KDUP resided in Buckley Center from 1968 to 1980 and the Arts Building from 1980 to 1986. In 1986, KDUP was moved to a small house called the “shack” located behind St. Mary’s.
KDUP first broadcast two hours per day on Mondays, featuring news from a roving reporter and a classical music hour. They broadcast over 10 watts and openly wondered if their equipment would last to the end of the day. Despite the technical challenges, the program quickly expanded in 1951 to broadcasting six hours per day, six days per week featuring such shows as Morning Melodies, Tune Tracer, Poet’s Nook, Waltz Time, Sportscast, and Chit Chat. Since then, KDUP’s music programming has always showcased a wide, eclectic variety of genres, but the station has generally gravitated to the music culture of the time, broadcasting jazz and top 40 popular music in the 1960s, to soul, soft rock and disco in the 1970s, to album rock in the 1980s, to the modern college alternative music format we have today.
KDUP hosted its first major concert in recent memory with its Battle of the Bands in Fall 2007 and subsequently ASUP voted KDUP student club/organization of the year in Spring 2007. The Beacon noted their “Guitar Heroism” in 2008 not long after KDUP hosted a video game inspired event and began partnering with Espresso UP to provide live DJ performances. Campus involvement in the on-air product may have reached an all-time high in 2008. Automation software addressed the problem of “dead air” and creates the opportunity for KDUP to have a continuous programming cycle and play content 24 hours per day. Shows like Animorphs, Denim Jeans and Big Men on Campus were well recognized and well received. That year KDUP also hosted two well attended concerts (We Are Scientists and Arizona) in St. Mary’s Lounge. At the apex, KDUP even set up a small recording studio in the basement of their building. However, the space had to be shut down in Spring 2010 due to an incident involving vandalism and general safety concerns.
KDUP started using Facebook and Twitter extensively in 2009; Itunes and Ping in 2010, and Tumblr in 2011. A CD Sampler was produced in the 2011-12 academic year of local talent, and more concerts such as the “7 Below” show hosted in Mehling Ballroom in December 2011 brought campus wide recognition. DJ participation continued to grow through 2011 but the listening audience shrunk when various technical difficulties and glitches would interrupt the web-stream in 2012 and Fall 2013. Also in Fall 2013, KDUP began playing live DJ sets at Pilots After Dark, and this appears to be their most successful collaboration to date.
The news department has thrived at different moments in KDUP’s history. KDUP was honored as 5th in the nation in “Best Newscasts” in 1956. Currently, the staff has begun to produce podcasts and videocasts of different news stories.
2024 Addendum:
In the spring/summer of 2020, during the global pandemic, a leak developed in the roof KDUP. This leak was not discovered until August and by then a large amount of black mold had developed over the ceiling and along the walls of a couple of key rooms in the KDUP shack. Quickly analyzed by the environmental safety office, it was determined that the mold was toxic and the building was “decommissioned” for use. KDUP was able to retain its computers (and the ITunes digital library), some of its equipment, and the majority of its CD collection. However, they lost nearly all of their albums, cassettes, and 8-tracks. Assets that were salvaged were moved temporarily to a storage closet in the lower level of Orrico Hall, and without a home, KDUP operated remotely over Twitch.
In Spring 2021, Student Activities worked with Residence Life to allow KDUP to occupy a space in the basement of Kenna Hall for a temporary studio and office. The space was formerly used as study rooms. The transition was not entirely smooth. When KDUP moved in, they were given permission to paint the walls and make the space their own. However, some of the students drew some graffiti-style pictures that were crude and lewd, upsetting the leadership team in Kenna. After sincere apologies, KDUP painted over the graffiti.
A local radio engineer was called in as an advisor and hired to help move and install the equipment into Kenna. The engineer worked part time over the course of the year, helping to identify and secure necessary equipment upgrades and software. He configured the studio layout and advised on sound-proofing material. He connected them to a web-streaming service provider, AmperWave. He also appropriately advised the students to stop using Spotify playlists for ethical and legal copyright reasons and return to playing music they own.
In the summer of 2022, the radio engineer abruptly retired. The unfinished installation project was picked up by an adjunct Electrical Engineering faculty member, who worked for approximately four months in Spring 2023, but his contract was not renewed, once again leaving the student staff to scramble.
In Fall 2023 with the support of ASUP, KDUP acquired a large amount of new music. Staff members completed training on its new automation software Zetta/GSelector and worked with the IT department to pave the way for web-streaming with AmperWave. KDUP returned to live broadcasts on February 1, 2024.
In February of 2025, KDUP returned to hosting DJ shows live in studio, the schedule for which can be found here.