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Greg Heller poses Thursday with the Sam FM 104.5 truck, used to travel across the county for various events.
Greg Heller poses for a portrait Thursday outside his office in Roseburg.
Greg Heller mixes audio tracks Thursday in the Best Country 103 radio station.
Greg Heller mixes audio tracks Thursday in the Best Country 103 radio station.
Greg Heller mixes audio tracks Thursday in the Best Country 103 radio station.
Greg Heller poses Thursday with the Sam FM 104.5 truck, used to travel across the county for various events.
Greg Heller poses for a portrait Thursday outside his office in Roseburg.
Greg Heller mixes audio tracks Thursday in the Best Country 103 radio station.
Greg Heller mixes audio tracks Thursday in the Best Country 103 radio station.
Greg Heller mixes audio tracks Thursday in the Best Country 103 radio station.
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a five-part series on the radio stations owned by Brooke Communications.
From the day Greg Heller was born, it was clear that music would be an integral part of his life.
His mother, Connie, even said he knew how to operate a record player before he knew how to walk.
As a child growing up in Roseburg, Heller would hang around a local radio station, KYES, when he was in grade school. A young musician who played the drums, he learned the process of analog audio mixing at a young age, and was instantly hooked.
After working as a DJ in an under-21 club during his junior high years in 1982, and working as an intern at KTBR during high school, he kickstarted his now decades-long career in the radio industry.
Heller runs SAM FM 104.5, a classic hits radio station in Roseburg, by himself — preparing the music, pulling together syndicated radio shows and running events across the community, from kitten adoptions to support for the American Cancer Society.
SAM FM 104.5 is one of five radio stations owned by Brooke Communications, all of which share a building with The News-Review. All five radio stations and the newspaper are owned by Lotus Media group, making it a rare combination to have broadcast and print operations under the same roof.
For Heller, his journey to return to Roseburg was a long winded one.
Heller traveled up and down the West Coast, working in radio stations across cities in California, to Portland, to Vancouver, covering a wide range of different communities of different sizes. Nine years ago, however, after getting a call from an old classmate of his who worked in Roseburg radio, he decided to return to his hometown, running his own station.
The classmate was Rachelle Carter, the company’s general manager and vice president.
“It’s a lot more personable here at this level,” Heller said. “It’s easier to focus on working intact with something, rather than if you’re in a big place, you’re doing five things at once. I just love the general focus of it, you know, and the directness of it. You can directly help something or somebody rather than going through three sets of people.”
Heller’s career began in the days of analog radio, using tapes and records to play music rather than the digital files used today. To record a voiceover, Heller used a razor blade and scotch tape to edit together tape recordings, taking, as he says, about 10 times as long as it does today.
But even with the convenience, Heller feels that there’s a certain magic missing without the tactile nature of physical music.
“When you’re picking out songs off a record and you’re laying down a needle, to a radio person it’s a lot more … ” Heller said before shivering in his chair, expressing an emotion that, for him, may have been impossible to express with words. “More than, saying, double click to queue it, you know.”
Advances in digital technology have clear benefits to Heller’s workflow, however. Decades ago, music would frequently be chosen by listener calls, who would make requests for songs the DJ to play, choosing from the thousands of vinyl records Heller said would be at a typical station. Now, Heller plans the day’s music in advance, allowing the radio to operate overnight while being the only person running the station.
“I mean, the convenience is worlds apart,” Heller said. “There’s things that I’ve done in the old days, like making a radio spot or something that would take an hour, that you can whip out in five minutes going digital.”
Even as the age of streaming services dramatically change the landscape of radio, Heller feels that there’s still a place for local stations like his — ones that serve as more than just a music playlist for the community.
“We can still count on small community radio to get pertinent information out there,” Heller said. “And you know, people will be a little more tolerant towards the commercial … when Spotify and all that came along, it hurt the radio business, but it didn’t kill it.”
Heller has no plans of stopping his work anytime soon — day and night, SAM FM will be running, playing the hits, sharing the news.
“My whole philosophy is if I can play a song that brings back memories for somebody and causes an emotion of some sort, I’ve done my job,” Heller said. “We’re here for our businesses, we’re here for our comm unity, we’re here for the people, the animals and everything in it.”
Will Geschke is a multimedia reporter for The News-Review. He can be reached at wgeschke@nrtoday.com.
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