OPB has been a major producer of television programming for national broadcast on PBS and Create through distributors like APT, with shows such as History Detectives, Barbecue America, Foreign Exchange, Rick Steves' Europe, and travel shows hosted by Art Wolfe.

OPB traces its roots back to January 23, 1923, when KFDJ signed on from the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis.

OSU physics instructor Jacob Jordan is credited with building the station's first radio transmitter near campus in 1923.

[5] KOAC won its first Peabody Award for Outstanding Public Service by a Local Station in 1942 for Our Hidden Enemy, Venereal Disease.

At first, KTVR rebroadcast programming from two Washington stations—KWSU-TV in Pullman and KSPS-TV in Spokane—until OEPBS completed a transmission link to La Grande.

KOAB-TV in Bend began broadcasting on February 24, 1970, as KVDO-TV, a commercial independent station licensed to Salem.

As a result, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed Liberty to buy KVDO-TV on the condition that it sell the station within three years.

Nine days later, on February 28, a disgruntled viewer protesting KVDO's sale to OEPBS cut guy wires, toppling the channel 3 transmitter tower.

On September 20, 1976, KVDO signed back on the air with a new tower; from then until March 31, 1981, the station broadcast an alternate program lineup to KOAP-TV and KOAC-TV, featuring time-shifted OEPBS programs, shows for the Spanish-speaking population in the Willamette Valley, and several local productions in Salem.

OEPBS consistently eyed moving the station elsewhere to reduce duplication, which became more acute when budget cuts prompted KVDO-TV to drop its separate programs in 1981.

The network pursued and won approval from the FCC to move the channel 3 allocation and license to Bend, which had no PBS coverage.

KVDO-TV ceased broadcasting in Salem on July 31, 1983; on December 22, channel 3 signed back on the air as KOAB.

[9] On December 4, 2007, OPB launched opbmusic, a 24-hour online radio channel spotlighting Pacific Northwest musicians.

On Dish Network, KOPB-TV, KEPB-TV, and KOAB-TV are available on the Portland, Eugene and Bend local broadcast station lineups, respectively.

The station's digital channel allocations post-transition are as follows:[19][20] Low-power translators in Elkton, Glendale, Mapleton, Myrtle Point, Newport, Oakland, Oakridge, and Swisshome have been discontinued.[when?]

[26] OPB produced a 2018 podcast hosted by Leah Sottile entitled Bundyville that discussed Cliven Bundy and the sovereign citizen movement.