I am still up in the Pacific Northwest and getting an opportunity to take a better listen to a great deal of radio stations in their best habitat — my car while driving down the road.  As I have gotten to experience at length some stations in three different markets — Portland, Olympia, and Seattle — I realized that I needed to make a few additions to my Radio page as well as three subtractions.

Before I get to all of those to give them a proper highlight, I need to give some well-deserved kudos to a station already on the original version of the list.  While driving around the greater Portland, Oregon area, no station of any format has been such a pleasure to listen to than KMHD out of Gresham.  I am normally not one that listens to a lot of jazz especially while driving as I normally prefer something with a lot more pep.  However, the quality of the music played on KMHD is so well thought out that it seems to absolutely fit the conditions of the day whether cool and cloudy or hot and sunny.  There are several great jazz stations in my list right now but I highly recommend taking some time to check out KMHD.  As I said, they have already been in my list, but here is their link for easy reference:

http://www.kmhd.org/

The first new addition I will bring up is an extremely unique station in at least three ways.  First, it is one of the very few non-commercial stations remaining on the AM portion of the radio dial in the United States of America.  Second, it is one of the few remaining daytime-only stations as it must sign off the air at sunset to avoid interfering with 50,000 watt KNBR in San Francisco (although they do stream 24/7 even though they are not going over the air).  Third, it is one of the extremely few stations that play what is best called a “nostalgia” format.

This great little find is KBRD-AM (K-Bird) in Lacey, Washington next to the state capital of Olympia.  The stream plays right through the website so no outside player will be needed.  As for describing this station…well, if it’s old — really old — they play it.  Other than that, I just highly suggest visiting KBRD-AM’s site at least for a little while if only to feel good that somebody out there is still playing and preserving this kind of material…plus to learn why it is called K-Bird.

http://www.kbrd.org/

The next addition is another station of historic importance but, this time, is much more modern.  If you were fond of the “grunge rock” scene that came out of Seattle, KGRG-FM had a lot to do with that.  It was this station that helped to break all of the bands that led up to bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and all of the rest.  They are still attempting to break new ground today although I might quibble with how much new “alternative rock” is truly all that alternative since so much of it sounds very similar.  That being said, this is still a great station especially when you need to annoy somebody in the car next to you. >:-)

http://www.kgrg.com/

The next station is KSER which is the Seattle area’s version of the typical left-wing style community/variety station.  Their music selection seems quite good so I feel it definitely warrants inclusion even though they also run some of that repetitive Pacifica Radio programming that I mentioned in my entry about KFAI.

http://www.kser.org/

KBCS out of Bellevue north of Seattle is similar to KSER but with their own take on great musical programming.  Of special note to many of this site’s readers would be the Sunday evening program Grateful Dead & Backtracks.  Their tag line of being “a world of music and ideas” is very fitting.

http://www.kbcs.fm/

The final addition for now is a standard classic rock station, KZOK out of Seattle.  It’s not all that bad especially for a station owned by CBS and it certainly has some of the coolest call letters in the area.  Many of you might not immediately recognize the name of the morning man, Bob Rivers, but you would every Christmas when radio stations begin playing his many parodies of holiday songs that have been popular for the past 15 years or so.

http://www.kzok.com/

Speaking of morning men, I now get to the first recent deletion from my list.  Gone is KGON out of Portland, Oregon.  The reason?  Running the syndicated and never-has-been-funny Mark & Brian Show out of Los Angeles.  That combined with the fact that KGON’s playlist was nothing spectacular compared to the other “classic rock” stations on my list just screamed to me that this station was not fit for sharing.

The two other deletions are due to a discovery that I made by accident although something a few weeks ago should have tipped me off earlier.  I was out very early one Sunday morning while I was still wallowing in the swill of the putrid Los Angeles radio market.  I tuned to my favorite radio station there, KSWD.  Instead of hearing the usual programming, they were broadcasting the church service from the big Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.  This was sort of unusual and sort of not.  It is not uncommon for music stations in the USA — even rock ones — to broadcast a church service at an obscure time of day to help them meet the weak public service requirements still required by the Federal Communications Commission.  However, it is unusual to have that program come from far away instead of from a local church or synagogue.

Well, while doing a little research on Seattle television stations a few days ago, I stumbled onto the fact that all of the stations owned by Bonneville International are actually owned by an entity called Deseret Management Corporation that is, in turn, owned directly by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints…a.k.a. the Mormons who I am greatly pissed at for interfering in California state politics over the recent battle over gay marriage.

I am all for freedom of religion and expression.  However, when a church already totally runs one state they should stop being greedy and trying to tell other states how to run their business.

Therefore, because I do not wish to be seen as supporting an organization that doesn’t truly believe in many of the things Jesus actually said in the Bible, say goodbye to KSWD, Los Angeles and WDRV, Chicago.  There are still plenty of other good “classic rock” stations for everybody to listen to without letting people be fooled into supporting a borderline cultist church.

Over the many years that I can remember traveling over America’s roads, I have seen a lot of things beside them that have attracted my attention.  This runs the gamut from solemn monuments to silly things like Harvey to the hilarious of those few poor souls that just cannot make it far enough off of the road to not be seen taking a badly needed whiz.  However, I don’t think that I have ever seen a town display something quite like what I have for today’s K-POD.

I was on the last leg of my tour of the greater Olympia, Washington area and heading up Washington State Route 3 into the very nice little town of Shelton.  Upon approaching the city from a hill that overlooks it, I saw this giant wheel and, at the last moment, realized that there was a little pull-out from the road so it could be viewed more closely.  As it turns out, this is an amazing piece of historic machinery.

The “Big Wheel” is left over from the days when the timber industry ruled the Pacific Northwest.  It was originally used elsewhere to saw spruce logs used in airplanes built to fight World War I.  It came to Shelton in 1926 and remained in use until 1967.  It is one of the largest saw wheels ever built at 11 feet in diameter (approximately 3.35 meters).  During its time of use in Shelton, it sawed through three billion board feet of lumber which is enough to house over one million people.

While the timber industry is still important in the Shelton area, it is certainly not to the extent of days past when things like the Big Wheel were needed to slice up the huge trees left in the old growth forests before the remainder were set aside for preservation.  Yet, Shelton has made sure that this part of its past is not forgotten.  While we all know better now about the logging practices of the past, there is still nothing wrong with being proud of their once mighty sawmills and how they helped to build this country.

The Big Wheel may no longer turn but it still serves a great purpose as it greets residents and visitors alike with a message of, “I got your attention, didn’t I?  Now look at that nice little town down there!  This is where it came from.  Now, come on down the hill and see what we’re up to today!”

The Big Wheel in Shelton, Washington USA - Copyright © 2010 by KoHoSo

Back in the old days of the United States of America before so much of it became an over-regulated, cookie-cutter mish-mosh of blandness, there was a time when giants ruled the land.  Big cars rolled across the landscape and, very often, the signs designed to attract travelers desirous of food, entertainment, sleep, and other services were just as outlandishly huge.

Of course, not all of those things of the past were bad to leave behind.  As certain cities and towns grew, signage became so big and overdone that it eliminated the real personality a place had and blocked the view of any of its surrounding natural beauty.  The country also got to a point where some of the old ways of attracting business became passé and downright un-cool.

During the rise of the Interstate Highway System and McDonald’s, many of the old giants of the past began to be sent to the scrap heap.  These included beautiful neon signs, Sinclair Dino dinosaurs, juice stands shaped like oranges, motels shaped like big tee-pees, and — perhaps most famous and prevalent of all — the plethora of Muffler Men and their various offshoots that once dominated many a roadside.

Thankfully, not all of these giants have been lost.  With a wave of nostalgia that has it roots in when the last section of US Route 66 was finally decommissioned in 1984…well, some people began to realize some of the memories and fun that had been lost.  Later, with the advent of the commercialization of the Internet, more and more people began to seek out information on the old roadside attractions of the past and, better yet, started organizing to preserve many of them.

In other cases, some businesses refused to yield to modernity.  Their giant sign or cheesy mascot was going to stay and that was that.  They would not make the mistake of designing a new logo or trying to reformulate themselves in any way.  That is what I have here for today’s K-POD.

Harvey Marine is a business located in Aloha, Oregon (pronounced AL-o-wa) which is a western suburb of Portland.  Placed right up on the edge of what is known locally as the “TV Highway” (short for Tualatin Valley), it has been serving boaters of the area for many decades.

Whether one likes to boat upon the local waters or not, Harvey Marine is a local favorite and even nationally known — not just because of it service or prices but because of its appropriately-named giant mascot who’s toes almost touch the road itself.

This particular animal might seem like a strange choice to many.  After all, when thinking of boating, one usually conjures up images of fish, frogs, and birds.  However, for those that like and/or remember classic movies of the past, it doesn’t take long to find out that Harvey is extremely appropriate.

I like that Harvey sits in front of the US flag especially as this photo was taken earlier today on Independence Day.  It’s a weird but nice reminder that this country was founded on individuality and that not everybody has to be “extreme,” live in a cookie-cutter existence, or morph their company into a name and logo that means absolutely nothing…as I still await an answer as to exactly what a Verizon is.

So…on America’s birthday, I salute Harvey and all like him.  May Harvey and all of his fellow giants continue to stand proud while simultaneously sticking it to the man by pissing off yuppies on local planning commissions.

Harvey Marine in Aloha, Oregon on July 4, 2010 - Copyright © 2010 by KoHoSo