KEZI (channel 9) is a television station in Eugene, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on Chad Drive in Eugene, and its transmitter is located on East Prairie Mountain near Horton, Oregon. History Channel 9 was originally assigned to Eugene for noncommercial use along with one commercial channel on the very high frequency (VHF) band, 13 (occupied by KVAL-TV beginning in 1954), and two UHF frequencies. However, by 1957, interest emerged in changing the classification of channel 9 for Eugene to commercial. A group of Eugene investors organized as Liberty Television—including president Donald A. McDonald—applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for redesignation of the channel. While educational interests fought the redesignation attempt, the Eugene city council approved by majority vote a resolution urging the addition of a second commercial station for Eugene to increase the number of national network programs broadcast to the city as well as the advertising inventory available to local businesses. Liberty also noted the fact that a second commercial station would give Eugene viewers a choice and extend TV service to new areas. After Liberty successfully convinced the FCC to change channel 9 to commercial use, it then applied for a construction permit to build a station on the channel in December 1957. Springfield radio station KEED also filed for the station, leading to the beginning of a comparative hearing between the applicants in December 1958. However, KEED struggled with an issue that had affected the radio station: the sale of commercials longer than one minute in duration, a discouraged practice. FCC hearing examiner Thomas Donohue recommended Liberty Television over KEED in September 1959, citing Liberty's superior proposed programming and docking KEED over the commercial issue. The full commission followed the examiner's recommendation and awarded channel 9 to Liberty Television in March 1960. The construction permit was not awarded until July. Liberty began construction and considered which network it wanted to take for an affiliation. KVAL-TV was then a primary NBC affiliate, so the choice was between CBS and ABC; at the end of August, it was announced that the station would be an ABC affiliate. After delays prompted by a strike at General Electric, KEZI first went on the air at 6:30 p.m. on December 19, 1960. Its original studios and offices were located at 2225 Coburg Road, with the transmitter being sited