Rock and Roll Was Born Here

Yes, I know…a pretty nondescript picture. What is now the Roseburg Rescue Mission Office was once the center of our rock and roll universe. This was the headquarters of Roseburg's one rock station, KYES AM, 950 on your dial. From Pine Street we could see the backs of the local DJs as they spun the Dave Clark Five, the Rolling Stones, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and The Beatles to us in the local listening environment. Their signal wasn't strong - 35 to 40 miles, tops - and they went off the air when the sun went down, the victim of an FCC ruling that allowed only the strong, 50,000 watt stations to broadcast after dusk. But the tunes that flowed from this ugly, squat little building influenced so many here in the 1960s. Now it's the Roseburg Rescue Mission, but back then it served its mission well. Chuck Berry, Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, Hermen's Hermits, Bob Dylan, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds…your voices and your tunes spilled out into the 100 valleys of the Umpqua from here. Pretty cool.