Scotts Mills
Scotts Mills, OR · Arts & Culture
Statesman Journal
The tragic end of Salem's most famous hotel
The Marion Hotel was built in 1870 at the southeast corner of Commercial and Ferry streets in downtown Salem and hailed as the largest and finest hotel north of San Francisco. It soon became the center of social, cultural and political activities, perhaps best known as the unofficial second capitol. More deals were reportedly struck and laws shaped in its back rooms and basement lounge than in the official chambers of state government. The hotel’s storied history ended in tragedy 55 years ago, when a pre-dawn fire Nov. 12, 1971, destroyed the four-story brick building and left the grand old showplace a smoking heap of blackened brick and twisted metal. By then, the hotel complex had grown to cover the entire block, and local firefighters considered the 101-year-old portion a firetrap. “We knew it was going to happen someday — it was just predicting the exact time,” the Salem fire chief told a Capital Journal reporter. “It was the kind of thing firemen took bets on.” Marion Hotel had high-end amenities such as speaking tubes Salem’s most famous hotel opened as The Chemeketa House on the day after Christmas in 1870. The glitzy opening-night dinner featured a speech by then-Gov.
Statesman Journal
At 75, Salem's KYKN AM radio faces an uncertain future | Exclusive
KYKN 1430 celebrated its 75th anniversary with a special roundtable show featuring former disc jockeys and on-air personalities. They looked back on the AM radio station's history, including several call letter and format changes, and remembered former colleagues such as Eddie Edwards , who enjoyed a "rock star" career after leaving his morning show post in the early 1980s, and Mike Frith, whose vision for local programming rescued the station a decade later. Mike Allegre, the station's former sports director, organized, hosted and co-produced the show. It featured vintage promos of Tim O’Brian giving the time and temperature between country songs, Dick Bond broadcasting from Valu Mart on Hawthorne Avenue NE, and Warren Franklin reporting from Lancaster Mall. O'Brian, Bond and fellow former disc jockey Rick Allen joined Allegre and KYKN owner Jeff Morgan on air, reflecting back on their careers and the future of AM radio in the community. KYKN is one of three longtime AM stations in Salem-Keizer. KBZY 1490, founded in 1947, turns 80 next year, while KSLM 1220 launched in 1961. Each has changed formats and survived in an industry that has been in steady decline in recent years. “Radio is a lot of fun,” said
