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Barney Keep Papers, 1918-2000

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Keep, Byron William.
Title
Barney Keep Papers
Dates
1918-2000 (inclusive)
1949-1990 (bulk)
Quantity
5.8 cubic feet including 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)
Collection Number
MSS Keep
Summary
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-FM. Several audio recordings held in the collection have been digitized and are available online through links included in this guide.
Repository
Oregon State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives Research Center
Special Collections and Archives Research Center
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis OR
97331-4501
Telephone: 5417372075
Fax: 5417378674
scarc@oregonstate.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

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.

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Content Description

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 (a portion of them digitized and available online), 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.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Barney Keep Papers (MSS Keep), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

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.

Custodial History

The collection was donated to the Oregon State University Archives in 2005 by Karen and Nancy Keep.

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 Collection (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.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

  • I: Audio, Video and Film Recordings, 1949-2000

    55 items

    The audio formats held in Series I include reel-to-reel tapes, eight-track cartridges, standard audiocassettes and vinyl record albums. The series also includes 8mm film reels and a VHS videotape. The bulk of the audio and video content held in the series has been updated to a digital format and the resulting DVDs created by this process are physically held adjacent to the original formats. Likewise, most of the series' digitized content has been made available online, as indicated below.

  • II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989

    6 items containing 416 photographs

    The scrapbooks held in Series II are the collection's primary resource for study of Keep's life and career. Of particular note are the "Barney Scrapbook" and "Barney's Book," both of which provide detailed insight into Keep's work in radio broadcasting and promotion, and the growth of his regional celebrity in the 1950s-1970s. Additional scrapbooks are devoted to the exploits of the Washington High School football teams of which Keep was a member in the mid-1930s, and his later travels with his wife Eleanor to Hawaii, Europe and elsewhere.

    • Description: "Scrap Book"

      This scrapbook is devoted almost entirely to newspaper clippings documenting the 1934 and 1935 Washington High School football seasons. Keep, who then went by his given first name Byron, played quarterback and left guard for the WHS Colonials, winners of the Portland Interscholastic League championship in both years chronicled by the scrapbook. A single article also records Keep's participation on the WHS track team as a javelin thrower. Additional clippings reveal Keep to have been an active and successful high school student - he was president of the WHS senior class, received the Senior Activity Cup for outstanding work over his career, participated in the senior class play "Double Door" and served as sergeant-at-arms for the WHS Lettermen Club.

      Dates: 1934-1935
      Container: Box 4
      Location: II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989
    • Description: "Barney Scrapbook"

      The "Barney Scrapbook" is comprised primarily of newspaper clippings, but also photographs (5), promotional items and keepsakes. The volume documents Keep's first job at KGW, his move to KEX in 1945, and his gradual rise to prominence in the Portland media market. Abundant throughout the scrapbook are clippings of the Oregon Journal's "What's on the Air?" column, which noted early Keep stunts including his "Hey Mr. Motorist" impromptu interviews with passing drivers and "Try and Find Me" promotion, in which KEX listeners were invited to spot Keep walking on Broadway Street while wearing shoes of mismatched colors. The variety of programs that Keep led in his early years is chronicled throughout the book: Keep was variously the host of morning shows including "The Bugler X" (his first solo show) and "Keep Smiling," as well as afternoon slots "Sunny Side Up," "Keep-ing Up with Sports," and the "Barney Keep Show." Keep frequently did both morning and afternoon shows on the same days. The scrapbook likewise records the birth of "Keep Time" in 1954, just shy of Keep's tenth anniversary at KEX. Also included are clippings that document Keep's community involvement and individual pursuits, including his winning a city league handball championship in 1953.

      Dates: 1945-1954
      Container: Box 4
      Location: II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989
    • Description: "Barney's Book"

      "Barney's Book," bound with wooden covers decorated by a hammered copper likeness of Barney Keep, uses newspaper clippings, promotional materials, photographs (208), correspondence and ephemera to richly document Keep's career as a regional media star and cultural figure. Most abundant among the scrapbook's 100+ pages are newspaper clippings detailing Keep's emergence as a Portland-area celebrity, well-known for his "Keep Time" program which dominated the airwaves from 6:00-10:00 AM each weekday morning. The scrapbook reveals how Keep maintained his popularity for over three decades, in part through a vigorous promotional schedule. Various stunts including his participation in a hot air balloon race and an "ash flicking contest," the hanging and subsequent theft of a nude painting by Keep at a Portland bar, Christmas-time appearances as Santa Claus and a faux wrestling match with a tiger are all recorded in the volume. So too are several of Keep's personal exploits, including his participation in two civic theatre plays, his successes as an amateur bowler and his regular gig commentating on professional wrestling matches held in Portland.

      The scrapbook is filled with Keep's celebrity endorsements of products and people, and is clear indication of his huge popularity in the Portland metro area: he was once voted "Mayor for a Day" by listeners participating in an Easter Seals contest and also served as Merrykhana King of Fun during the Portland Rose Festival. His regular engagement with community interests are reflected throughout the volume as is his long-lived relationship with OSU, which honored him at Barney Keep Day during a 1970 football game. Keep's major anniversaries at KEX and his retirement are also thoroughly documented through greeting cards, retrospective articles, the broadcast schedule for his final show and contact sheets of photographs taken at the event.

      Dates: 1927-1987
      Container: Box 4
      Location: II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989
    • Description: Loose materials from "Barney's Book"

      A folder of loose items from "Barney's Book" contains additional promotional and biographical materials, including Keep's grade school health report, program descriptions for "Hey, Mr. Motorist!" and "The Bugler 'X'," assorted flyers and blank copies of "Keep Show" stationary.

      Dates: 1924-1989
      Container: Box 6
      Location: II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989
    • Description: "Scrap Book"

      This scrapbook is devoted in near totality to Barney and Eleanor Keep's travels. Of particular note are materials documenting two trips to Hawaii that were sponsored by KEX in 1964 and 1965. The radio station made these trips available to listeners who would pay a lump sum fee to tour Oahu with Keep acting as an informal host. Keep would also broadcast during the Hawaii trips, sometimes from the side of a swimming pool. Other vacation trips recorded in the scrapbook, which was likely created by Eleanor Keep, include visits to Palm Springs and San Francisco, California, and a 1966 tour of France, Germany, Belgium and England. The scrapbook's material types include brochures, playbills, correspondence, photographs (104) and various mementos. The book also contains photographs and pedigree information for the Keep family dogs, Beau and Dinky.

      Dates: 1962-1966
      Container: Box 5
      Location: II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989
    • Description: "Yugoslavia"

      This scrapbook serves as record of Barney and Eleanor Keep's trip to the Balkan Peninsula in September and October 1987. The Keeps traveled through what was then Yugoslavia and took a cruise of the Aegean, Ionian and Adriatic seas, visiting locations in Greece, Turkey, Italy and Yugoslavia along the way. The couple's travels are documented in the scrapbook through a combination of photographs (99), postcards, itineraries, brochures, daily cruise programs and assorted keepsakes.

      Dates: 1987
      Container: Box 4
      Location: II: Scrapbooks, 1924-1989

  • III: Photographs, Correspondence and Memorabilia, 1918-1990

    10 folders including 34 photographs, 4 three-dimensional objects and 2 books.

    Series III includes a wide array of materials including photographs, artistic renderings, correspondence, newspaper clippings and promotional publications. Also included are Keep's "Goodie Gong" bells as well as a selection of novelty trick props and reference books. A portion of the series' images have been digitized and are available online.

  • IV: Awards, 1951-1990

    21 items

    The numerous awards that Keep received over the course of his career are arranged into this series and include certificates, trophies, plaques and ribbons.

    • Description: Assorted Certificates

      Certificates include a declaration of "Barney Keep Day" in Oregon issued by Governor Tom McCall in 1974 and again by Governor Vic Atiyeh in 1979.

      Dates: 1951-1990
      Container: Box 6
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Oversize Certificates
      Dates: 1965
      Container: Box 7
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Trophy - Rosy Award for the Best Radio Disc Jockey, TV Radio Prevue
      Dates: 1956
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Trophy - Best Disc Jockey, Radio Prevue
      Dates: 1960
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Plaque - Top Flight Tour Organizer, Northwest Orient Airlines

      Award honoring Keep's outstanding sales performance in developing group travel to Honolulu.

      Dates: 1964
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Plaque - 25th Anniversary with KEX Radio

      Mounted on the plaque is the switch once used to turn on the KEX 50,000 watt transmitter.

      Dates: 1970
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Ribbon - King of Fun. Merrykhana Parade, Portland Rose Festival
      Dates: 1970
      Container: Box 9
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Plaque - Champion of the Pacific Northwest, Phoenix Inaugural DJ Golf Tournament
      Dates: January 1971
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Ribbon - Grand Marshal. Annual Parade, Milwaukie Festival Daze
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 9
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Trophy - Personality of the Month, Sterling Magazines
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990
    • Description: Plaque - "Our" S.L.O.B.

      Plaque is inscribed: "'Our' S.L.O.B. Life's Pleasure - To wake each morning with a friend who brightens the day. Clarence Ramseth Family, Hillsboro, OR."

      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 8
      Location: IV: Awards, 1951-1990

  • V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979

    10 items

    Keep's final broadcast from the Portland Civic Theatre on February 14, 1979, and the outpouring of affection that it generated, are documented in this series. In addition to the mementos held in Series V, audio and video records of the final airing of "Keep Time" are held in Series I.

    • Description: Metal Newspaper Printing Plate

      Metal plate used in offset printing of the Oregonian. Plate was used to print a full page ad reading "Thanks Barn'...for 35 years of LOVE on KEX." Back of plate is annotated: "Good luck Barn: Dan Tucker, Platemaking Dept., Oregonian."

      Dates: February 13, 1979
      Container: Box 4
      Location: V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979
    • Description: Mounted Newspaper Articles re: Barney Keep retirement

      Three articles mounted onto wood placards: "Barney Keep's finale sentimental air affair," The Oregonian; "Ol' Barn hangs it up," Oregon Journal; "Big last show for Keep," Oregon Stater.

      Dates: February-March 1979
      Container: Box 8
      Location: V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979
    • Description: Oversize Mounted Newspaper Articles re: Barney Keep retirement

      Two articles mounted onto wood placards: "Crowd overflows when ol' Barn' rings last gong," The Oregonian; "Barney's 'beautiful people' keep faith to end 35 years," Oregon Journal.

      Dates: February 14, 1979
      Container: Box 7
      Location: V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979
    • Description: Plaque re: Barney Keep retirement

      Plaque contains a portrait of Keep in the broadcast studio and reads: "Barney Keep - in appreciation for 35 years of service to the Portland community, we salute an 'uncommonly common' man."

      Dates: February 1979
      Container: Box 7
      Location: V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979
    • Description: Framed vinyl record album

      Album is annotated as follows. Front: "Barney Keep. Old disc jockeys never die, they just go off the record." Back: "From Rockey-Marsh, 1979."

      Dates: 1979
      Container: Box 9
      Location: V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979
    • Description: Orange Oregon State Beanie

      Keep wore this beanie during his last broadcast on February 14, 1979.

      Dates: ca. 1979
      Container: Box 9
      Location: V: Retirement Keepsakes, 1979

Finding aid prepared by Chris Petersen.
2014

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