Radio Monitoring Station (demolished) – Portland OR

Description

As part of war efforts, “on 26 February 1941, the FCC received funding to launch the ‘Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service,’ the first name for FBIA. The service began its monitoring duties [in Washington, DC] at 316 F Street, NE. On 1 October, FBIS opened its first bureau outside Washington—in a farmhouse at 13005 NE [Glisan] Street in Portland, Oregon—to monitor Japanese broadcasts.” (Inside CIA)

The federal facility was constructed with Treasury Department funds.

“On 17 September 1941 Graves announced that 20 persons were being transferred to Portland to set up a new monitoring station. Included in the 2 were the three Japanese and one Chinese linguists currently on the Washington staff. Most of the group left by train for Portland on 27 September 1941, and were ready for operations about 1 October. They were stationed in a farmhouse 10 miles from Portland …” (FBIS History)

“In its simplest terms a radio monitoring station has two functions: First, to “police” the airwaves and detect illegal or suspicious broadcasts; and second, to locate these transmitters by the use of direction finders and similar equipment.” (Amarillo)

The facility was relocated and discontinued postwar.