Rest in Peace, Lloyde Livingstone and Marty Soehrman

We are very sorry to announce the passing of two KBOO volunteers: Lloyde Livingstone and Marty Soehrman.

Lloyde Livingstone, the co-founder of KBOO, has died. She came to Portland as a teenager, entering Lincoln High School as a junior. By the next year, she won the competition to be Lincoln's Rose Festival princess. She went on to be chosen the queen of Rosaria that year, 1946.

In 1964 she learned that the owner of Portland's only classical music station was going to abandon the format in favor of "easy listening". She couldn't abide by that, and said so in a letter to the daily newspaper.

She invited anyone who agreed to contact her, and soon a meeting was held at her home, with several music faculty from Reed College, the director of Portland Opera, and others. They quickly formed a non-profit called Portland Listener-Sponsored Radio. They soon connected with Lorenzo Milam, founder of Seattle's community radio station KRAB, and the two groups got together.

KBOO began broadcasting in 1968, and it wouldn't have happened without this charming, cheerful woman. Lloyde Livingstone was 82 when she died recently after a long illness. The Oregonian published an obituary on March 27th.

Marty Soehrman, 60, a member of the KBOO Board of Directors, passed away recently after a short illness. Raised in the Chicago area, he went into broadcasting as a career, and truly loved both commercial and amateur radio.

He was associated with the Society of Broadcast Engineers in Portland and had many friends in the broadcast industry. Marty cared deeply about KBOO and community radio. He will be missed.