KOAP-TV was first housed in a leased building at what is now known as 2828 SW Naito Parkway, with the transmitter being located on Council Crest.

The network was spun off from the state board of education in October 1981 and renamed Oregon Public Broadcasting.

As early as March 5, 1997, OPB's experimental HDTV station transmitted a random-bit data stream.

Then on October 11, 1997, at 4:37 p.m. KAXC became the first TV station in Oregon and one of the first on the west coast to transmit an HDTV picture.

The station's signal is multiplexed:[6] KOPB-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate.