The Gordon Greb Papers contain records related to three central activities in Greb’s professional life: the identification, documentation and establishment of the world’s first radio broadcasting station in San Jose, California in 1909; the documentation of the 1969 strike by faculty at San Jose State College; and the creation of San Jose State's Mass Communications program. The collection is divided into four series: Series I. 1969 American Federation of Teachers Strike at San Jose State College; Series II. First Radio Broadcasting Station Claim; Series III. Publications authored by Greb; and Series IV. Broadcast Journalism at San Jose State.

The first series contains documents issued by both the AFT and SJSC related to the faculty strike that took place in early 1969 on the campuses of San Francisco and San Jose State Colleges. Official statements, minutes from meetings, newsletters and other types of documentation authored by AFT and circulated among its members are included in this series. Documents from SJSC include letters from the then-President of SJSC, members of the public, and members of the Board of Trustees; and papers and newsletters issued by student organizations. Also included in this series are news recordings of the strikes, some of which were recorded by the Journalism department on the SJSC campus.

Materials related to Greb’s claim that Charles Herrold established the world’s first radio broadcasting station in San Jose, California in 1909 consist primarily of the recordings of interviews with individuals who worked at the station, including Herrold's wife Sybil True and Herrold’s student assistant, Ray Newby. Herrold’s station began regularly broadcasting content such as music and news reports to San Jose residents in 1909 and continued through 1934. New owners moved the station to San Francisco that year, where it eventually received new call letters in 1949, and is still on the air today as San Francisco’s KCBS. Greb presented his claim in 1959 when he published the Golden anniversary of broadcasting in the winter 1959 edition of the Journal of Broadcasting. A week-long celebration of that anniversary took place in April 1959 in San Jose, primarily at San Jose State College, much of which is documented in this collection. Other materials related to Greb’s research and defense of his claim include newspaper clippings, journal articles, and talks presented by Greb.

The third series consists of copies of Greb’s publications: the book that resulted from his research into the first radio broadcasting station, Charles Herrold, Inventor of Radio Broadcasting; and his memoir, entitled Google Brain: Making your memoir a "time machine" on the Internet. The fourth series consists of materials related to the creation and implementation of San Jose State's graduate program in Mass Communications, including photos and audio recordings.