Longtime radio station owner remembered
Gordon Capps started KSRV in Ontario
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Saturday, August 9, 2008 10:49 PM PDT
ONTARIO—A pioneer radio broadcaster, community and civic leader in Ontario and Eastern Oregon died Thursday at Holy Rosary Medical Center.
Gordon Capps, 95, was the longtime owner of KSRV radio in Ontario, and its parent company Inland Radio Inc., which also owned KLBM in La Grande, KBKR, Baker City, and KEEP, Twin Falls.
“Gordon was a gentleman’s gentleman — a man of real class,” Jim Mosier, Ontario resident and a member of St. Matthews Episcopal Church, where Capps attended services, said.
Mosier noted that Capps, up until his death, continued to regularly attend the men’s meeting at the church.
“He was active,” Mosier said. “We are going to miss him greatly.”
Capps’ local radio career kicked off just after World War II. In 1946 Inland Radio Inc. received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to operate a radio station in Ontario, and Capps directed the construction of the station while he also managed its operations.
“He played a big role in the community for many years,” Mosier continued, and commented that Capps had served on the Ontario City Council. “He had the ability to quietly get things done. He was about always bringing people together,” he said.
Fran McLean, former publisher of the Argus Observer, said Capps was a good manager of the radio station.
“It was a good community station,” McLean said of KSRV during Capps’ tenure. “And it still is. He was very generous.”
Capps later owned part of a cable television system that served the La Grande and Baker areas, the second such system in the United States.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Ontario.
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