SHOW OF THE MONTH
 
Due to a personal emergency, we have unfortunately had to cancel the Superchunk "Show of the Month" party, which was to be held next Tuesday, Oct. 14, at La Cruda.

Crusty News
 
We are very sorry to announce that this is the final "Crust" comic.
 Rick Pinchera is moving east. He will be missed, and we wish him the best of luck.

The idea of an AM station playing the newest rock with little or no corporate or governmental interference is the pipe dream of many in radio today, but 30 years ago, when KVAN was at 1480 on the dial, that was the reality.

This Saturday night at the Roseland, more than 20 of the station's former employees (who, proud of their AM signal, dubbed themselves "the Monomaniacs") will hold a reunion. British blues-rock pioneer Long John Baldry will perform, with the Jim Mesi band opening and Ed Whelan acting as emcee.

The station began broadcasting in the summer of '67, the so-called "summer of love," when hippies, light shows and LSD were the subject of stories on the nightly news.

Former KVAN program director Bob Ancheta organized the reunion. "The Big BA" is now a disc jockey at Earth 105, after many years at KGON. Many of the best-known KVAN personalities still work in the Portland market: Gloria Johnson at KUPL, Iris Harrison at KGON, Jeff Clarke at KINK, Valerie Ring at Z100 and Bill St. James at K103.

"We'd been talking for some time that we needed to do a reunion," says Ancheta. "We got hold of engineers, sales people...we've probably rounded up about 20 ex-employees in all."

Until the mid-'70s, KVAN had no competition to speak of. KISN was Top 40, and KINK was already settling into mellow rock. Only on KVAN could you hear the Move, Frank Zappa and Tim Buckley. When KGON adopted programming formatted by super-consultant Lee Abrams in 1977, the rock wars kicked into high gear. KVAN, on the air only from 6 am to sunset and without an FM stereo signal, fell by the wayside.

 During its heyday, KVAN sponsored most of the significant rock shows to come to Portland: "Everything from Bonnie Raitt and Muddy Waters, to Lynyrd Skynrd when they first came to town, to Aerosmith when they first came to town," says Ancheta. "They swarmed on us. They knew we sold product and we sold tickets. AM was where the music was until KINK and KGON came along."

 In this time of station mega-ownership, focus groups and demographic experts, this anniversary is a chance to remember that radio was not always like that. "You could play anything just as long as you stuck to rock and blues," says Ancheta. "We depended on disc jockeys being creative."

Reunion tickets are available from FASTIXX, 224-8499. --Dan DePrez

TIM JEWETT

Since we sent the NXNW program guide to press (it's in the center of this week's paper), there have been a few changes to the schedule. A Portland band called Ladybug (a Taiwanese punk group with the same name plays Friday at LaLuna) will fill the 1 am slot Thursday at the Bean. A Sacramento hip-hop group called Socialistik will play Mount Tabor at 10:30 pm Saturday. Tina and the B-Side Movement's 1 am Saturday performance has moved from Jimmy Mak's to Berbati's Pan; Anton Neutron from Seattle replaces Tina at Berbati's. !TCHKUNG!, Matt Nathanson and Vitamade are all unable to perform.

Look for our picks in next week's paper, as well as information about the newly added bands.

NXNW wristbands are still on sale for $20 through Fastixx (224-8499 or 800-992-8499 outside the Portland area), or at Willamette Week, Ozone Records and Music Millennium. The price increases to $25 on Monday, Oct. 13.

We'll also be giving wristbands away at the upcoming Willamette Week personals party. The Big Time Singles Swing Dance, featuring the Art Abrams Swing Machine Big Band, is at the Adrianna Hill Ballroom (918 SW Yamhill St.) this Friday, Oct. 10, from 8 pm-12:30 am.

The introduction of children into a perfectly decent television show is usually a desperate cry for help. When Samantha gave birth to Tabitha on Bewitched, the show may have broken water, but it failed to break new ground (the ol' Darrin bait-and-switch didn't help matters either). And when owlish Oliver was grafted onto The Brady Bunch in its final season, that delicate Brady balance fell like the house of cards toppled by Marcia's charm bracelet.

 With its comprehensive coverage of outdoor recreation, local wildlife and ecological issues, OPB's beloved über nature show, Oregon Field Guide, seemed a perfect example of the axiom, "If it ain't broke don't fix it." But after receiving a picture of host Steve Amen flocked by schoolchildren publicizing the show's ninth season kick-off, I feared the worst. As OPB radio slashed classical music from its format to "make ends meet," was OPB television acting in kind, retooling its eclectic format to broaden appeal?

Oregon Field Guide's Kids Quiz edition is not the signal of a radical format change for the enduring show. But the episode--where several dozen questions posed by Oregon school children are answered by experts--is surprisingly fun and informative.

"We get letters from kids all the time, and sometime the questions they ask are really good," says Amen, who is also the show's executive producer. "With this show, the kids came up with questions I thought I knew, but actually didn't." Granted, some of the questions are in the "trick" category, such as, "What is the biggest animal in Oregon?" (Here's a hint: Oregon's official boundary is three miles off the Pacific coast.)

Other questions, such as the characteristically kid-like query "Were there ever any dinosaurs in Oregon?" reveal less tricky but more involved responses. (Answer: The only dinosaur remains found in Oregon more than likely arrived from California, since Oregon was submerged under water until roughly 200 million years ago.)

Oregon Field Guide is seen in more than 27 countries around the world (where it is repackaged with the shamelessly sensationalistic title Adventures from the Wild West) and is one of the three highest-rated locally produced shows in the nation.

 "I grew up in Wyoming, and a Wyoming Field Guide wouldn't last a year," Amen laughs. "Here, every year we have a story conference and come away with 140 different story ideas. There's no end to the possibilities out there."

Oregon Field Guide begins its new season at 8:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 9, on the television stations of Oregon Public Broadcasting.--Dale E. Basye

Bargain Basement

All year the Friends of the Multnomah County Library solicit used books from the citizens of Portland to sell at their annual fund raiser. For 12 months, book-room manager Katherine Sadler sorts through the donated texts, getting them ready for the sale. To keep the mood in the book basement light, Sadler keeps count of her wares, and jokingly names one "Portland's Discarded Book of the Year." This year's proud winner is...The Bridges of Madison County. Second runner-up is a slightly less famous volume: 144 copies of I was Morgan Fairchild's Love Slave were anonymously granted. Sadler's favorite gift was a badly chewed and gnawed edition of Animal Behavior. If you have a pup--or love slave--stop by Portland State University's Smith Memorial Center between 9 am and 6 pm Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 11 and 12. More than 100,000 bargain-priced books, records, CDs and videos will be on sale. --Brooke DeNisco