Romantic warhorses beside music written last year.
Students at Benson Polytechnic High School bought a transmitter from a local electric shop in 1923 and put KBPS on the air, and sixty years later the school district added 89.9 FM for classical music. It became Portland's only full-time classical station when Oregon Public Broadcasting dropped the format in 1997, and in 2003 a nonprofit foundation bought the license from the schools, paying off $5.5 million over nine years. It took the KQAC call letters in 2009.
Hosts are on air around the clock and the music leans Romantic, with Classical-era and Baroque pieces making up most of the rest. On Thursdays Christa Wessel brings local and touring musicians into the studio for a live hour in front of an audience, and on Sundays Brandi Parisi's Played in Oregon airs concert recordings from the region.
Black tie strictly optional.
