By Finding aid prepared by Chris Petersen.
Title: Barney Keep Papers, 1918-2000
Predominant Dates: 1949-1990
ID: MSS Keep
Primary Creator: Keep, Byron William
Extent: 5.8 cubic feet. More info below.
Arrangement: The Keep Papers are arranged into five series: I. Audio, Video and Film Recordings; II. Scrapbooks; III. Photographs, Correspondence and Memorabilia; IV. Awards; V. Retirement Keepsakes.
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Barney Keep Papers document the life, career and celebrity of Barney Keep, a popular Portland radio broadcaster and Oregon State alum. The Keep Papers include scrapbooks, various audio formats and other materials that reflect Keep's broadcasting style, rise to fame and persistent success over thirty-five years on the air at KEX-AM.
Several audio recordings held in the collection have been digitized and are available online through links included in this guide. Other items from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.
The Barney Keep Papers are comprised of audio and video formats, scrapbooks, loose photographs, paper records including correspondence, newspaper clippings and promotional publications, and three-dimensional objects including studio mementos, awards and commemorative items dating to Keep's retirement from KEX.
The collection's audio formats include reel-to-reel tapes, eight-track cartridges, standard audiocassettes and vinyl record albums, while its video content is held in 8mm film reels and a VHS videotape. In 2009-2010, the bulk of the collection's reel-to-reel audio was digitized by Scott Young and Bob Galluci at KBPS-AM in Portland. Selected audiocassettes and the collection videotape were digitized by the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2014. Much of this digitized content is available online through links provided within the body of this finding aid.
The five scrapbooks held in the Keep Papers comprise a major resource for individuals interested in Barney Keep's life and work. The scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, photographs, promotional publications and ephemera. One scrapbook is largely devoted to Keep's two years playing high school football for Portland's Washington High School Colonials in the mid-1930s. Two very rich scrapbooks detail Keep's radio career including his early shows and rise to fame, his numerous promotional efforts and the long-lived success of the "Keep Time" show. Two additional scrapbooks document Barney and Eleanor Keep's travels in Hawaii, western Europe, the Balkan Peninsula and elsewhere.
The remainder of the collection supports the audio-visual content held in Series I and the scrapbooks arranged into Series II. Smaller collections of loose photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, promotional publications and three-dimensional objects lend insight into Keep's activities and the culture at KEX during his thirty-five years of service. The collection's numerous awards provide an indication of Keep's acclaim within his profession and in the Portland community. On the same token, the retirement mementos arranged into Series V are suggestive of the esteem in which Keep was held throughout the region by the end of "Keep Time's" run in February 1979.
Several audio recordings held in the collection have been digitized and are available online through links included in this guide. Other items from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.
Byron William Keep was born on January 9, 1917 in Portland, Oregon, where he attended Washington High School, serving as president of its senior class and playing on its football team. He attended Oregon State College for six years from 1936-1942, participating his first year on the OSC freshman football team. Though a Forestry major, Keep discovered a love of radio through his involvement with the college station, KOAC, where he was a general announcer and contributor to the popular program "Foresters in Action."
Upon graduating, Keep returned to Portland where, as Barney Keep, he began a long career in broadcasting that would make him a local celebrity. Briefly employed by KXL Radio, Keep moved to KGW in 1943 and to KEX in 1945. Once arrived at KEX, Keep spent nearly ten years hosting a variety of shows including his first, "The Bugler X," and later iterations with names like "Keep Smiling" and "Keep-ing Up with Sports." In 1954 the show that built his reputation made its premiere: "Keep Time," airing on the station's powerful 50,000 watt signal every morning from 6:00-10:00 AM. Blessed with a quick wit, the personable Keep - who referred to himself as "Sweet Loveable Ol' Barn," or SLOB for short - rapidly established himself as the leading voice of Portland's morning commute. By the late 1950s Keep was among the highest-rated disc jockeys on the West Coast and by the mid-1970s he was thought to be worth $5,000 in monthly advertising billings for KEX.
Keep maintained his popularity in part through a vigorous promotional agenda which, over the course of his career, included numerous appearances as Santa Claus; competing in a hot air balloon race and cigar ash flicking contest; spending a night at the top of Mount Hood; and attempting to wrestle a tiger. Keep also involved himself deeply in civic affairs, frequently serving as master of ceremonies at local events and participating in area theatre productions, bowling leagues and handball tournaments.
In 1939, while still a college student, Keep married Corvallis native Eleanor Cleveland and together the couple raised two children. Keep regularly incorporated stories about his wife - whom he referred to on air as "the Biscuit Burner" - into his show. Other staples of "Keep Time" included daily read-outs of the Portland Public Schools lunch menu - always preceded by the ringing of the "Goodie Gong" bell - and the "Today's Chuckle" feature from page one of the morning Oregonian. Additional show signatures included character skits such as regular appearances by "Four Yard Frank Ferguson," who would attempt to predict the scores of upcoming football games, Keep's own willfully bungled commercial live reads and, over time, a growing inclination to poke fun at local politicians and other powerful figures. In this, Keep was among the region's first true radio personalities capable of attracting an audience interested in what he himself had to say.
After thirty-five years at KEX, Keep's final show was broadcast on Valentine's Day 1979, before a full house assembled at the Portland Civic Theatre. The show included visits from former Oregon Governor Tom McCall and outgoing Portland Mayor Neil Goldschmidt, as well as phone calls from Governor Vic Atiyeh and U.S. Representative Bob Duncan. Keep passed away on July 22, 2000 in Gresham, Oregon, a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.
More Extent Information: 450 photographs, 35 reel-to-reel tapes, 11 vinyl record albums, 9 standard audiocassettes, 6 eight-track cartridges, 4 8mm film reels and 1 VHS videotape; 9 boxes, including 4 oversize boxes
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research.
Related Materials:
The lengthy history of student radio at Oregon State is documented in the KOAC Records (RG 015), KOAC Photographs (P 207), Mike Club Scrapbook and Sound Recordings (MSS Mike) and Jimmie Morris Papers (MSS MorrisJ). Other collections containing substantive records pertaining to KOAC include the Library Records (RG 009) and President's Office Records (RG 013).
A web exhibit marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of KOAC Radio is also available online as are a collection of photographic images digitized from the Keep Papers. Keep's OSC senior thesis, "An analysis of the opinions of high school students in Oregon toward the lumber industry," is also available within SCARC's History of the Pacific Northwest book collection.
Preferred Citation: Barney Keep Papers (MSS Keep), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
Keep, Byron William
Keep, Byron William
KEX (Radio station : Portland, Or.)
Radio broadcasters.
Radio personalities.
Radio programs--Oregon.
Radio stations--Oregon.
University History
45 rpm records.
Audiocassettes.
Home movies.
Photographic prints.
Scrapbooks.
Tape reels.
Video recordings (physical artifacts)