570 KVI (News-Talk) Sinclair Broadcast Group

Transcription

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570 KVI (News-Talk) Sinclair Broadcast Group -SEATTLE
Originally licensed to Tacoma back in 1928 [1280/1060/760] With over 80 years of history serving the Pacific Northwest, KVI is known as one of the pillars of Seattle radio. From humble beginnings in November 1926 in Tacoma, the station bounced around the AM dial a little bit before settling at its current 570 position at 5000 watts in the 1930s.
We were located in the historic Camlin Hotel (now a private residence) for awhile, as our first move from Tacoma to Seattle. When Gene Autry’s Golden West bought the station in the late 1950’s, it moved to the nearby Tower Building (7th and Olive) into what were considered state-of-the-art studios at the time. We carried the “pre-Mariners” (Seattle Rainiers) for many years, and stepped up to the real major league team when the Mariners showed up in town!
Through the 1960’s, 70’s and early 80’s, KVI was a dominant personality station, featuring incredible talent such as Robert E. Lee Hardwick, Jack Morton [came to KVI from KMO in 1963], Robert O. Smith, Michael O’Shea, Bill Taylor, Jack Spencer, along with so many others.
In the mid-1980’s, KVI moved to an “oldies” format. True to the heritage of the station, it not only “did” the format, but became an “Oldies Powerhouse” with a unique emphasis on Northwest artists as well as worldwide artists such as Elvis, the Beatles, and Rolling Stones. Dick Curtis and Scott Burton were among those who defined and grew this format over the years.
In the early 1990’s, KVI led the way as one of the first conservative talk stations in the country. Soon, it became one of the most emulated and most successful, and helped establish Rush Limbaugh as a nationally-known talent.
A few years later, Gene Autry’s estate was liquidated and KVI (and sister KPLZ) were sold to Fisher Broadcasting, owner of KOMO-AM and KOMO Television. That move brought three of the most exceptional radio stations with Seattle heritage under one roof, and the three continue to operate collaboratively today.
In 2002, the station left its home of over forty years in the Tower Building (although it had moved in 1990 from the 8th floor to the 2nd floor) to join the rest of the Fisher operations in the brand new Fisher Plaza, a state-of-the art communications facility on the site of the old KOMO Television building across from the Space Needle. [kvi] November 7, 2010 [Sunday, one day ahead of scheduled switch] – KVI switched from conservative talk to Oldies rock ‘n roll. DJs to be introduced in January 2011: Tom Hutyler and Marina Rockinger mornings, Mark
Christopher PM drive time, and Ric Hansen in the evening. “Seattle’s Greatest Hits – 570 KVI” – KVI switched back to Conservative Talk in January 2013. Fisher Communications sold their TV and radio properties to Sinclair Broadcast Group in August 2013.
Seattle Times-June 4, 1992
Radio Personality Commits Suicide, Police Report
By Tomas Guillen, Kit Boss
Longtime Seattle radio personality Bob Hardwick was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound yesterday, Chelan County Sheriff’s Detective Bill Patterson said today. Robert E. Lee Hardwick, 61, of Kent, was once the king of Seattle morning radio, making his mark on KVI-AM. In 1978 he was Billboard magazine’s Radio Personality of the Year.
He was found dead about 3:20 p.m. yesterday in a pickup truck on an embankment of Highway 2 just east of Stevens Pass. He had been shot in the head with a handgun. It was undetermined when Hardwick apparently killed himself, but a suicide note was dated 10 p.m. on Tuesday, said Patterson. The note, Patterson said, simply asked police to notify his wife and “be gentle with her.”
Hardwick wrote several notes before he killed himself, said Patterson. One note indicated “he was getting older and unemployable and he didn’t want his wife to support him,” Patterson said.
Apparently Hardwick first tried to asphyxiate himself with the exhaust of his truck, Patterson said. When that didn’t work, he shot himself in the right temple with a .38-caliber automatic pistol.
`A TRUE SEATTLE LEGEND’
Most recently, Hardwick was morning co-host at news-talk KING-AM. He joined KING in February 1990 and was released last April because of ratings – the morning show was rated 14th in the Seattle-Tacoma market – and because the
station wanted a younger audience. Hardwick was replaced by Pat Cashman. Said Jack Swanson, general manager of KING-AM-FM: “Over the years, his talent brought happiness to hundreds of thousands of radio listeners. He was, and always will be, a true Seattle legend. . . . All of us in the Seattle radio industry were better for what he gave us, and all of us feel a real loss at his passing.”
For years, Jack Morton worked with Hardwick at KVI. Morton now does the weekend marine report for KIRO-AM.
“It was a big shock,” said Morton. “They don’t come any bigger or better than Robert. That’s a fact. I’ll always remember his laugh. He loved to set people up and laugh in the background.
“He’d always mention that we were getting older. The business is getting younger. You have to scratch to hang on.”
ADVENTUROUS LIFE
Hardwick worked at KVI from 1959 to 1980. Those 21 straight years were interrupted only by a four-month sojourn at Los Angeles station KMPC-AM in 1963.
On his KVI morning show, Hardwick would sometimes play only two or three records an hour. The rest of the time was filled with jokes, skits, ad-libbed advertisements and promotions for his latest escapade. In 1965, Hardwick piloted a tugboat to British Columbia to haul back Namu, the killer whale, for the Seattle Aquarium.
He jet-skied 740 miles from Ketchikan to Seattle, about the time it was reported he had was the highest-paid radio personality in Seattle, hosting the highest-rated program on local radio.
In 1980, he swam the Bremerton-Seattle ferry route. That same year, disgruntled with KVI’s decision to abandon its successful music format and switch to all-talk, he quit – walking out in the middle of the 8 a.m. newscast.
“I was so frustrated. Emotionally I was a wreck,” Hardwick said later. “I don’t know what happened. I took my briefcase and walked out the door. That wasn’t a businesslike way to do things.”
Later he popped up at the old KAYO-AM. Several months passed. One Friday he called in sick and didn’t return the following Monday. “Seattle radio is a bore and I have been boring right along with it,” he said at the time.
DEALING WITH TRAUMA
His two disappearing acts were not publicity stunts, Hardwick said, but “an emotional trauma in my life.”
He eventually landed at an AM station in Tacoma, did another hitch at KVI, had a failed venture to transmit computer programs via radio and spent a year at KIXI-AM.
Then in 1987 the Seattle native left the medium altogether. He worked for a time as communication director at Pacific Institute and helped several local drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation centers market their programs.
Said Hardwick, when asked once to sum himself up: “I’m a professional smartass. I love to tease people. I love to make people laugh. I’m a communicator.”
KVI Personalities:
Harry Stewart [Yogi Yorgesson] in the 1920s, when KVI was located in Tacoma], Bill Goff, Jack Hemingway, Harry Holland, Buddy Webber [appointed Program Director in 1962 when Bob Cooper left for KEX/Portland], Buck Richey [23 years at KVI], Jerry Dexter, Lou Gillette, Dick McGarvin, Don Riggs, Cliff Murphy [Air Traffic reporter], Dick Stokke, Robert Hardwick, Dick Keplinger, Lee Lucas, Ray Court, Jack Morton, Tracy Steele, Don Furhman, Dick Cross, Ed Kaufmann, Jim Blossey, Bob Hawkins, Dave DeSoto, Roall Erickson, Humble Harve, Dick
Curtis, Jack Allen, Brian Gregory, Al Vanik, Sky Walker, Paul Thompson, Johnny Carver, Heidi May, Kirby Wilbur, Michael Medved, Dave Allen, Scott Burton, Art Kevin, Peter Boam, Greg Aust, Joe Fiala, Jim Martin, Terry McManus, Clark Race, Bill Taylor, Bill Cavanah, J.J. Valley, Michael O’Shea, Ron Erak, Bill Cooper, Brian York [news], Buzz Barr, Perry Allen, Tam Henry, Tom Reddick, Robert O. Smith, J. Michael Kenyon, Jack McDonald [promotion director], Rip Collins (newsman), Dave Henderson (newsman), Jack Spencer (news director), Bob
Roberts (newsman and commentator), Bill O’Mara (newsman), Jack Barton (newsman), Bob Robertson (sportscaster), Bill Schonely (sportscaster), Al Cummings [1972] (DJ), Dave Clarke (DJ), Jim French (DJ), Terry Rose (DJ), Ron MacDonald (DJ), Bill Doane (DJ), Johnny (Bolton) Novak (program director) [thanks to Bill Taylor for filling in some of the gaps and jogging my memory, I should have remembered how to spell “Roall Erickson” — I grew up listening to KVI! Oldies 570: Tom Huytler, Ric [Richard Mattson] Hansen, Mark Christopher, Marina
Rockinger; SMART TALK 570: Mark Christopher, Elisa Jaffe, Scott Carty;
630 KCIS (Christian) Christa Ministries -EDMONDS
KGDN signed on in November 14, 1954 [3 P.M.] and for many years was a 6am – sunset daytimer [info: Mike Cherry] KCIS personalities: Bill Wippel, Dick Harris [host] and Glen Lambertz [Anchor] mornings, Suzanne Strickland/Suzanne Thunder, Loren Hoy [host] and Roger Grossenbacher [anchor] afternoon, Mike Kellogg, Roger Basick;
680 KBRD (Big Band/Swing/Jazz) BJ & Skip’s For The Music Foundation
-LACEY
AM 680 originally KLDY, owned by Josie Baine [July 1985], wife of KMO Tacoma owner, Jim Baine. KBRD from 02/17/1995; KLDY, station was purchased by Larry “Skip” Marrow in 1995. When the KBRD call letters became available, Marrow moved the KLDY calls to 1280, he had just purchased 1280 KTOL. The KBRD call letters went to 680. Marrow died in 2005, but the eclectic format of KBRD still runs today through donations from listeners to the non-profit group operating the station.
According to KBRD website: KBRD was founded in 1995 by Larry “Skip” Marrow and was named in honor of Skip’s Moluccan Cockatoo, BJ. As the story goes, Skip would play songs for BJ from his extensive compilation of recordings, and if BJ danced along to the song then it was deemed fit for the radio.
Skip was as eclectic as his, or BJ’s, taste in music would suggest. Before moving to the Olympia area, where he founded Apex Mailing in addition to KBRD, Skip was a United State Marine and then lived in San Diego and owned a topless bar (the kind with waitresses, not dancers). The gentleman’s club closed at 6 PM as per Skip’s desire. The bar was always back open for breakfast though, and was frequented by many an FBI agent who were rumored to be fond of the flapjacks.
True to form, Skip set up KBRD on a Sunup-to-Sundown frequency so that he could shut the station down and then have a few hours for himself around the house before going to bed. Each month the startup and shutdown times change corresponding to the corresponding sunup and sundown times on the 15th day of that month. After dark 680 AM beams a San Francisco sports radio signal. One time, according to DeBee, Skip forgot to turn the station off for a couple of hours past dark. After hurriedly shutting down the station he called down to the
San Francisco station and said, “Sorry. I think I may have ‘stomped’ on your signal a little up here in Olympia.” The station replied with a baffled, “Who are you?”
In the 17 years since its inception, KBRD has danced around the dial a bit, beginning on the FM side of the dial before Skip curiously, yet also predictably, wanted to move to AM. After purchasing a new tower in Oakville, KBRD was up again on 1310 and 680 AM simultaneously. The 1310 AM signal was eventually traded for what amounted to roughly $1,000 in station operating finances. Some years later, Seattle media powerhouse KOMO purchased the 1310 AM signal for one million dollars from its new owner.
Shortly after celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the station, Skip died of cancer. In his will, Skip transferred ownership of the station to a newly formed non-profit foundation, BJ and Skip’s For the Music Foundation. During the flagship years of KBRD, Adrian DeBee and Skip Marrow forged a bond over their shared enthusiasm for obscure music, and their passion for restoring and converting their original recordings for preservation. As such, it was only natural that DeBee would pick right off where Skip prematurely left off.
The station still plays only “the music Skip likes,” explained DeBee. All of the songs played on KBRD are from Skip’s personal collection and were in his house when he died. And that is a lot of music. Skip had such a massive collection that his floor collapsed in 1997. “That’s why they are on hard concrete floors now,” says DeBee, being certain not to disclose the exact location.
Some of the songs were digitalized already but the rest are slowly being converted. “We clean them up, but if you process too much. . . All of a sudden you don’t have anything.” According to DeBee, that process is the most time consuming part of maintaining the station. By his estimate he converts 20 songs per day, whenever the notion strikes him. “This morning I woke up at 2 AM and said, ‘I think I will go do some songs now.’ I just do them when I feel like it!”
One time a Los Angeles based music company called up KBRD in search of a song that they owned the rights to but did not own a copy of. “We had three different copies!” bragged an ecstatic DeBee. Currently the station has an astounding 23,000 rare and forgotten tunes in its rotation.
As a part of KBRD’s non-profit legacy they are permitted free use of a large radio tower in north Olympia, so long as they pay for all of the required maintenance and associated costs. That radio tower is a whopping 465 feet tall, making it the tallest structure in Thurston County (the tallest building is The Great Wolf Lodge, in Grand Mound). From atop its mighty perch, the 250 watt KBRD signal can be heard as far south as Chehalis, all the way around the south Puget Sound, and north up to Seattle, before skipping the cities’ tall buildings and
remerging again around Edmonds.
710 KIRO (Sports/ESPN) Bonneville -SEATTLE
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1926 KPCB [650] KIRO [650] KIRO began broadcasting on April 1, 1927, as the 100-watt station KPCB 650. Its founder was Moritz Thomsen of the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company. Among its announcers was Chet Huntley, later of television’s Huntley-Brinkley Report. In 1935 Saul Haas’s Queen City Broadcasting Company took over the station. He changed the call letters to KIRO and increased its power to 500 Watts. Haas, who was well connected in liberal politics and the business community, wanted a simple, pronounceable, and recognizable word
for his new station. KING, after King County, Washington, was not available at that time.
In 1937, KIRO was assigned the 710 frequency and increased its power to 1,000 Watts. Soon after, the Seattle CBS affiliation moved to KIRO from KOL. Known as “The Friendly Station,” KIRO personalities broke from the formal announcing style that was commonplace during the early days of radio.
On June 29, 1941, KIRO’s new, 50,000-Watt transmitter on Vashon Island became operational. From the 1930s through the 1950s, KIRO recorded countless hours of CBS programming for time-delayed rebroadcast. These electrical transcriptions are, in many cases, the only recordings made of World War II-era news coverage over the CBS network. The discs were donated to the University of Washington in the early 1960s and are now held at the National Archives as the Milo Ryan Phonoarchive Collection.
In 1948, the original KIRO-FM (now KKWF) took the air at 100.7 MHz, initially rebroadcasting its AM sister’s programming. Preparing for a future television allocation, KIRO moved in 1952 from downtown studios to a larger building on Queen Anne Hill. This peak was already home to the KING-TV transmitter and would soon be the site for KOMO-TV as well. Queen City Broadcasting was awarded Seattle’s last remaining VHF license in 1958.
Haas sold KIRO in 1964 to Bonneville International Corporation, part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bonneville executives Lloyd Cooney and Ken Hatch arrived in Seattle to lead the combined broadcast group, which included KIRO AM, in 1964. Like many network radio affiliates following the demise of full-time block programming, KIRO spent the 1960s playing Middle of the road music in addition to long-form news and interview shows. Morning host Jim French spent many years broadcasting from the rotating restaurant atop the
Space Needle and was live on the air from that perch during a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in April, 1965. Bonneville moved its Seattle radio and TV stations to the newly constructed “Broadcast House” at Third and Broad in 1968.
In 1973, KIRO ended a 35-year affiliation with CBS—an affiliation it has since resumed—and switched to the Mutual Broadcasting System. Around this time, KIRO also picked up Herb Jepko’s “Nitecap,” a groundbreaking overnight telephone-talk show from Salt Lake City sister station KSL. KIRO “Newsradio 71? debuted in June 1974, with news and talk segments replacing most music programming.
Station leadership and ownership remained constant through the next decades. In 1980, Cooney left to run for US Senate and Hatch became President, CEO and Chairman – a position he held until 1995. Under Hatch’s leadership, KIRO Inc. (which included KIRO TV, AM, FM, KING AM, FM and Third Avenue Productions) became one of the nation’s premier regional broadcast groups. KIRO AM received much national recognition and was lead very successfully by General Manager Joe Abel during this period.
For 25 years, KIRO’s morning news, anchored by Bill Yeend, consistently placed at or near the top of the Seattle Arbitron ratings. Yeend now anchors the morning news at cross-town rival KOMO AM. Gregg Hersholt was the station’s morning news anchor for the next 10 years until he left the station on May 28, 2010, ending his 26 year career there. Linda Thomas now hosts Seattle’s Morning News.
Sports play-by-play has been a staple of the KIRO schedule throughout its years as a news/talk station. Since the team’s inception in 1976, KIRO has been the flagship broadcaster for the Seattle Seahawks. About that same time, it was the flagship station for the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League.[citation needed] From 1985 to 2002, the station originated Seattle Mariners baseball broadcasts; the broadcasts returned to KIRO in 2009. From 1978 to 1987 they were the flagship station of the Seattle SuperSonics. Additionally, KIRO
has carried Washington Huskies and Washington State Cougars college football for stints during the ’80s and ’90s.
KIRO was also the radio home to popular sportscaster Wayne Cody, who did live sideline reports during Seattle Seahawks football games, Washington Huskies college football play-by-play, NASL Seattle Sounders pro soccer play-by-play, and hosted a sports radio talk show weeknights that was the only one of its kind at the time in Seattle.
Reporter Dave Ross joined the station from Atlanta station WSB in 1978 and took over as noon to 3 p.m. talk host in 1987. He moved to the 9 a.m. to noon timeslot after the retirement of Jim French in 1992. Ross unsuccessfully ran for Washington’s eighth Congressional district as a Democratic candidate in 2004. While Ross unofficially announced his candidacy in May, he did not leave his on-air position until just prior to the July filing deadline. In response to complaints from state Republican party officials, Ross claimed that he was contractually
bound to continue working for KIRO until he was a bona fide candidate.
Though he returned to the air immediately following the November election, the station’s ratings did not recover entirely, and Ross was moved to the afternoon drive-time shift in February, 2005. Ross moved back to his 9am-noon shift in May, 2006.
In addition to his KIRO work, Ross does a daily commentary on the CBS Radio Network and is a frequent substitute for Charles Osgood on CBS Radio’s “Osgood File” segments.
After selling KIRO-TV to A.H. Belo Corp. in 1995, the Bonneville Seattle radio stations moved to facilities on Eastlake Avenue. KIRO (AM), KIRO-FM (now KKWF) and KNWX (now KTTH) were sold to Entercom Communications of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, in 1997. Bonneville reacquired KIRO, KTTH, and KBSG (now KIRO-FM) from Entercom in 2007.[2]
KIRO was one of the most listened-to stations in Seattle for several decades, but the recent switch of the news format to FM, coinciding with a new, more accurate ratings methodology (known as the Personal People Meter), dropped the station’s ratings significantly and it no longer has the stature it once did. [Wikipedia]
Recently featured at VashonRadio.com, this special newspaper insert hailing the power increase for KIRO 710 [1941]
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Personalities: KIRO- Pete Gross, Dick Bingham, Jim Gearhart, Mark Wayne, Ross McGowan, Steve Montgomery, Mike Altman, Bill Yeend, Bob Piatt, Bart Cronin, John Pricer, Ron MacDonald, Dave Ballard, Ron MacArthur, Ed Jacobsen, Jerry Mason, Robert L. Scott, Mike Moran, Steve Knight, Al Cummings, Wayne Cody (Sports), Dave Stone, Jim French [joined the station as morning man in 1959], John Burgess, Paul Brendle-traffic, Dave Dolacky, Gregg Hersholt, Jack Allen, Brian Gregory, Tommy Hough, Gary Ryan, Johnny Forrest – newsman, Rich
Johnson, Ken Levine, Bill Wippel, New York Vinnie Richichi, Ed Evans, Don Clark, Ed Jacobsen, Grant Neilsen; SportsRadio 710: Bob Stelton & Dave Grosby, Pete Gross, Brock Huard & Mike Salk, Kevin Calabro, John Clayton;
770 KTTH (News/Talk–FOX) Bonneville -SEATTLE
KTCL, leased by Birt Fisher in early 1925, using the old KFQX facilities, now in new location at Magnolia Bluff. [1926 KTCL became KOMO in preparation of Fisher’s lease on another station in Seattle. KOMO then moved to a new frequency, replacing what had been KGFA. Then, KTCL call letters assigned again to the old KFQX facilities. KTCL went dark, shortly thereafter – KTCL was purchased and renamed KXA, by Vincent Kraft in 1927, after he sold KJR. The new station, with new state of the art studios and equipment, operated from the Bigelow
Building in Seattle. The closer tie to bootlegger Roy Olmstead’s KFQX, was that Birt Fisher leased the old KFQX facilities for his station, KTCL “The Charmed Land.” KTCL became KOMO, until those call letters were moved to replace Harbor Island station KGFA. There were several frequency, facility and call letter changes for the old KFQX. If any station is more directly tied to Olmstead’s KFQX, it might be KOMO.
KXA call letter changes: KRPM [1985], KULL [1992], KNWX [1997] KKXA; **
Personalities: KXA: Bill Apple, Mike Altman, John Sherman, Rudy Perez, Al Cummings [playing classical music in morning drive 1976, quitting in November of that year to go into business repairing boat motors], Bill Taylor, Chuck Bras, Don Riggs, Ryan & Ryan, Lloyd Allen, Bill O’Mara, Dick Stokke, Bob Summers, Del Olney, Brent Larson, Pat O’Day, Jerry Kaye, Robert Wikstrom, Jeff McIntosh, Dale Parsons. KTTH: David Boze, Michael Medved; R.P. McMurphy, Ann D’Angelo, Mark Pierce, Tom Church, Dewey Boynton, Lia Knight, Brady Wright,
Romi Cole [KRPM],
820 KGNW (Christian) Inspiration Media Incorporated -BURIEN
850 KHHO (Sports) Clear Channel Communications -TACOMA
Originally at 1490 kc., 1942 KTBI [810 kc. – 1946] 1954-KTAC Tacoma, Wash .-Transfer of control of Tacoma Broadcasters Inc. to Jerry P . Geehan through purchase of 140 shares of stock for $9,000. [1966]KTAC-AM-FM Tacoma, Wash.: Sold by Jerry P. Geehan, Richard R. Hodge and other stockholders to M. Lamont Bean, Dan L. Starr and Ronald A. Murphy for $191,381. Mr. Bean is a partner in a Seattle investment firm; Mr. Starr has printing interests there. Mr. Murphy, a Seattle lawyer, has broadcasting holdings including KELA Central ia and KUEN
Wenatchee, both Washington, and KFQD Anchorage. KTAC went on the air in 1942 and operates fulltime on 850 kc with 1 kw. KTAC-FM was added in 1948 and operates on 103.9 mc with 830 w.–MOR format changed to Top 40 in the late 60s and KTAC competed with KJR & KING for at least the South Sound listenership; KTAC/KMTT later purchased by Entertainment Communications of Philadelphia [1973]. ENTERCOM 850 was briefly a simulcast of KMTT-FM 06/19/1992 and sported the KMTT-AM calls during this period.KHHO from 03/11/1996 – Sold to
Ackerley [owners of KJR] and later to Clear Channel. KHHO call letters “whispered” once each hour, barely audible, but apparently legal I.D. [2014]
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From the KTBI website, Tom Read explains the history of the KTBI call letters:
The call letters KTBI were first used in the 1920s when the Bible Institute of Los Angeles was granted a radio station. The B I stood for Bible Institute. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles became known as BIOLA which is now a Christian college in the LA area.
The next use of the call letters was in Tacoma, Washington. KTBI went on the air in the early 40s at 1490 on the AM dial with 250 watts which was the maximum power for what were know as Class 4 radio stations. KTBI was owned and operated by a corporation, Tacoma Broadcasters, Incorporated. Obviously the TBI in the call letters meant Tacoma Broadcasters Incorporated.
This is the station at which Tom Read, President of modern day KTBI, began learning the broadcasting business. After the war in the late 40s, KTBI was granted permission to move from 1490, 250 watts to 810, 1000 watts daytime. The studio was moved from the second floor of the Puget Sound Bank Building in Tacoma to a beautiful new, studio/transmitter located at 2715 Center Street, literally in the center of Tacoma.
In the early 50?s, KTBI received permission to move from 810 to 850 and go full time. On 850, the station call letters changed to KTAC. 810 was used for a short time by a station in Western Canada and then became available as a major 50,000 watt facility for Central Washington to proclaim the Gospel.
[40s & 50s] 810 KTBI presented local Tacoma Tigers baseball, local events and news with MOR music format. Call letter change in early 60s, MOR format, ABC Radio affiliate, local news and sports. Moving up the dial to 850, KTBI became KTAC and changed to Top 40 format late 60s competing head to head with KJR, KOL, and KING during those years. Adult Contemporary format adopted in mid-80s. [KTBI 1490 prior to move to 810]
Download audio file (zell.mp3)
Hear the resonant voice of Tom Read in this 1974 interview with the veteran radio announcer Harry Von Zell, from Tom Read’s radio commentary program, “It Seems To Me”.
May 90: Entercom, a small family-owned Philadelphia company, hires G. Michael Donovan to turn around their waning Northwest radio properties KTAC-AM and KBRD-FM. Donovan moves from Chicago to Tacoma to take over the simulcast beautiful music stations (”the perfect blend of relaxing vocal and instrumental favorites”). Donovan hires programmer Chris Mays from KLSY, and they determine that there’s a need in the market for a rock/adult contemporary radio station. Mountain Program Director Chris Mays is promoted to Station
Manager/Program Director, grabbing the office vacated by Mountain General Manager G. Michael Donovan, who is promoted to President of Entercom Seattle and moves across the street to KBSG [from an old KMTT web page about the station’s history]
1996 – The Entercom station at 850 AM becomes KHHO, with live and local Northwest personalities and a focus on the South Sound– This snippet from a Seattle Times column, TV-Radio Beat {Chuck Taylor}
Station of destiny: Here comes the new, South Sound-oriented news-talk station in Tacoma.
KHHO-AM (850), to be known as K-h3O, was expected to be on the air forthwith – perhaps today – when we chatted with Steve West, the longtime Seattle-Tacoma radio exec who’s one of the principals.
Listen for news during drive times, local talk during the midday and sports talk at night. National and international news will come from CNN. And traffic reports? “The bridge we will talk about is the Narrows Bridge” West said.
Among the voices: Charlie Johnson, former anchor and news director of Tacoma-based KSTW-TV (Channel 11); Bruce Cannon, a South Sounder since the days when 850 AM was Top-40 KTAC; former Metro Traffic anchor Sue Romero; and Jeff Dennonholz, most recently from KRWM.
ACKERLY GROUP BUYS KHHO [1997] SEATTLE, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ — The Ackerley Group announced today that it has signed a letter of intent with Southwave Wireless Communications, LLC to purchase KHHO Radio (Kh3O), an AM station with a community news/talk format and broadcast rights to the Tacoma Rainiers, WSU football and the Tacoma Sabercats hockey team. The sale is subject to the signing of a definitive purchase agreement and approval by the FCC.
“Currently we’re exploring the synergistic opportunities between KJR Sportsradio and Kh30 programming,” said Denis Curley, co-president of The Ackerley Group. “We want to retain Kh30’s distinct Tacoma identity, while also bringing Sonics games now broadcast on KJR to fans in the south Puget Sound region.”
Once a final purchase agreement is signed, The Ackerley Group will enter into a local marketing agreement
Personalities: Jim Nelly worked at KMO as GSM — was hired by Ron Murphy at KTAC and was General Manager at 850 KTAC/Tacoma 1969-1974. KTAC was purchased by Joe Field [Entercom] in 1973. Jim Nelly was let go shortly after the purchase of KTAC by Entercom. Nelly had a short career, approx. 3 months, at KZAM/Bellevue in 1974. From there, he became GM at KORL/Honolulu – hiring Lan Roberts in 1975. In 1976, Jim Nelly purchased KUJ/Walla Walla, he acted as GM & PD there until selling the station in 1980; Roall Erickson, Bill LuckhurstChief Engineer in the 60s, Murray Morgan, Del Courtney [News], Clay Huntington [KTBI], Jerry Geehan, Len Higgins [KTBI], Burt McMurtrie, Rich Ellis, Dick Weeks, Ric [Richard Mattson] Hansen, Gary Crow, Bruce Cannon, Bruce Bond (KTAC Production Director late 80s), Bobby Simon [1973 mid-days and mornings in 1988], Steve West, Chris Hill/Dale Unruh, Rick Austin, Bobby McAllister, Bob Case, Robert E. Lee Hardwick, Paul Thompson, Derek Shannon, Greg [Grant Broadwell] Cook, Dudley, Robert O. Smith, Fred Ross–News, J.J. Valley, Don
Wade, Ron Ericson/Ron Hoon [FOX 10 News/Phoenix], Ed Jacobsen, Doug Klippert, Joe Fiala, Bill Ogden [Marc Taylor], Jefferson Kaye [Roger Dale], Dale Hubbard, Lou Robbins, Jaynie Dillon, Steve Lloyd, Todd Mitchell, John Nelson, Sean [Vic Orlando] Carter, Rick Donovan [moved to KING AM in 1973], Tom Reddick, Dudley [weekends at KJR 1972], Lee Askervold, Program Director-1967 [from KING Radio], Bob Robertson, Rob Sherwood, Paul Chambers, Kacie Sommers, John Williams, Ken Copper, Dick Haugen, Nick Diamond, Don Patrick, Chuck
Bolland, Mike Garland, Scotty McKay; and the following info from Bill Taylor, news director 1967: Jack Allen (DJ); Dave Allen (DJ); John Welch (DJ); Lee Knudsen (DJ) from KING FM -1967; Bruce McMichael (news director, 1966).
Download audio file (GregKIFMNov2012.mp3)
Here is a recent aircheck from Greg Cook, working over hot audio decks at San Diego’s KIFM.
880 KIXI (Nostalgia) Hubbard -MERCER ISLAND
originally at 910 AM which was previously 910 KLAN [Renton-1947] KXRN [1220 Renton] KLAN [1947 1230/910 in 1957] Interlake Broadcasting Corporation KQDE [1958] == Music Concessions Inc/Dolton Records & Wally Nelskog 1958 [910] – Cutie Radio Inc. KQDE call letters changed to KUDY 1960 — Wally Nelskog maintains 50% ownership and Hale Bondurant, president of KWG Broadcasting Co. (KWG Stockton, Calif.) purchases 50% interest in KUDY (formerly KQDE) Seattle, Music Concessions/Dolton’s interst in the station, in June 1959, Rock
format continues. Call letters changed again to KIXI 1961 Beautiful Music [910] also aired 18 hrs of Negro programming, as it was called, each week. From Wikipedia: A partnership led by J. Elroy McCaw, owner of Tacoma television station KTVW and father of future cellular telephone tycoon Craig McCaw, purchased a 50-percent interest in KIXI in 1963. The group [Metropolitan Radio Corporation] also acquired FM beautiful music station KGMJ from Rogan Jones, founder of the pioneering radio automation firm IGM. KGMJ became KIXI-FM and
simulcasted the AM station’s programming. McCaw died suddenly of a stroke in 1969, exposing a considerable amount of debt accumulated from his speculation on radio and television stations, including WINS in New York and KYA in San Francisco. With the exception of a small cable television system in Centralia, McCaw’s entire broadcasting portfolio was sold off to pay down the debt service. Wally Nelskog and two Richland physicians purchased KIXI and KIXI-FM in 1971. The beautiful music simulcast ended in 1980, with the AM side adopting
an Oldies format and the FM station programming adult contemporary as “KIXI Lite.” In 1982, KIXI (AM) began running a satellite-fed adult standards format. A move to the 880 kHz frequency a year later allowed for a daytime power boost to 50,000 watts, and in 1986, a nighttime increase to 10,000 watts. That same year, Nelskog sold the station to Thunder Bay Communications, who in turn sold the AM station to Sunbelt Communications. The FM station, which had become KLTX, was sold to Ackerley Communications.
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Personalities: KLAN: Mike Altman; KQDE: Dave DeSoto, George Hayes DJ/PD, Bob Carmichael replaced Hayes as PD in 1959, Les Williams, Les Beigel—-KUDY: Bob Carmichael, morning DJ/PD [from KREM Spokane] *see KQDE. He was PD for KIXI in 1963; Lee Hurley, Jerry Sweet, Steve Wray, Les Williams, Gene Hosteter; KIXI: Bob Carmichael/PD, Norm Bobrow, J. Scott Harrington [News], Jack Spencer, Ron McArthur, Dave Langley, Ken Stuart [News Director replacing Martin Tobin], Logan Stewart (from KOL), Phil Johnson, Robert E. Lee Hardwick,
Jim Martin, Del Olney, Penny Tucker, Mike Webb, Jim Dai, Jack Morton, Bob Liddle, Jim Kampmann, Bob Dearborn, Jack Hemingway, Bobby Rich, Bill Wippel, Don Riley, Martin Tobin, Dave Ballard, Wally Nelskog, Rudy Perez, Jim Willis, Janet Wilson, Bill Harvey, and Dean Smith
The VOICE of KIXI Radio has died. Bob Liddle passed away at the age of 88, on May 19, 2010. Bob Liddle…
((((LISTEN))))
920 KGTK (Business-Talk) KITZ Radio Inc. -LACEY
KGTK from 03/30/2004 – KGHO from 12/23/1999 – KAYO from 04/13/1999 – KGHO from 05/24/1996 – KCPL from 07/31/1993 – KQEU from 02/17/1982 – KITN Olympia _____ KITI October 1954: 1420 kc; 1 kw-D. St. Helens Hotel (98531). 748-3370. KITN-KITI Corp. (acq 7-1-55). Donald F. Whitman, pres, gen mgr, prog & sis mgr; Elizabeth M. Whitman, vp; Lee Hurley – engineer Sold by KITN Corp. to National Communications Inc. [1981] for $700,000. Seller is owned by Donald F Whitman (98.8%) and son, Douglas R. (1.2%), who have no other broadcast
interests. Buyer is owned by S. Walter Richey and F. A. Koscielak (50% each). KITN is 1 kw day and 500 w night.
KQEU [1982] Tom Cook-News Director/KQEU 1984…Cook, named program director 1985; Don Wesel from KQEU(FM) Olympia joins KNBQ(FM) Tacoma, as account executive 1986; (oldies) 2004-2008 – automated oldies with a large playlist and PAMS jingles.
950 KJR (Sports) Clear Channel -SEATTLE
Pat 0’Day station manager leading the station to dominance in the rock & roll era of the 60s. KJR battled KOL, KAYO, KING, KTAC and other challengers, beating them all – hands down. The station went to a Classic Rock format in 1988. Four short years later, the music died, 95 KJR switched to a Sports format as an ESPN affiliate.
Seattle’s oldest radio station, founded as an experimental station in 1921 by Vincent Kraft. Dial position for KJR varied, from 950, 970 and 1000, switching with co-owned KOMO when the stations were operated by the Fisher family. KJR and KOMO operated as NBC radio affiliates. See: KOMO
Personalities: Al Priddy and Bill Gunning [1940s], Gil Henry, Terry Rose, Bill Shela, Lou Gillette, Del Olney, Larry Lujack, Pat 0’Day, Dave Clark, Rod Hammett, Ward Lucas [News], Don Clark, Don Hedman, Bob Reece, Sandy Hamilton, Chris Lane, Les Parson [news], Dale Starkey, Bob Salter, John Stone, Lee Perkins, Lan Roberts, Steve West, Delilah Rene, Scott Forrest, Tracy Mitchell [hired June 1975], Dick Keplinger, Jerry Kaye, Emperor Lee Smith, Frank Thompson [news], Nick Anthony, Ichabod [Randy Hansen] Caine, Don Burns, Buzz Barr, B.R.
Bradbury, Scotty Brink, Chris Hill/Dale Unruh, Charlie Brown, Norm Gregory, Gary Shannon, Tom Hood, Bwana Johnny, Tom Larson, Gary Lockwood, World Famous Tom Murphy, Kevin O’Brien,
Download audio file (MikePhillipsKJR64.mp3)
Mike Phillips from 1964
Bill Rice, Dick Stokke, Bobby Simon, Jim Martin, Chuck Ellsworth, Tom Connors, Chuck Knopf, Stacy Hanson, Jim Sims, Marion Seymour, Scott Forrest, Bob Brooks, J.J. Valley, Chuck Bolland, Ted Bryant, Wally Beethoven, Alan Walters, Sky Walker, Eric Chase, Ric [Richard Mattson] Hansen, Candi Chamberlain, Matt Alan, Ross Shafer, Mike Morgan, Kacie Sommers, Tom Watson, Dancin’ Danny Wright, Mark Allen, Scott Campbell, Diane McKenzie, Craig Edwards, Jimmy Darren, Jimmy Anderson, Dan Packard, Chet Rodgers [real name Ron Favor],
Bob Wright-weekends, Steve Mills-weekends, Allen Stewart-weekends; SportsRadio 95: Dick Fain, Mitch in the Morning, Dave ‘Softy’ Mahler, Ian Furness, Mike “The Gasman” Gastineau. Rob Tepper/Rob Dibble [FOX]
KJR announces new airstaff – December 1959
Tom Murphy began his radio career in his hometown of Portland, Oregon while still in high school. After working at a couple of small stations he joined KISN in 1959. Tom stayed at KISN for almost six years, enjoyed big ratings and enjoyed the company of another KISN employee, Connie, whom he married. Radio station romances are not known for their longevity but this one “took” and they’ve been together ever since.
Next stop was Seattle and the “Legendary” KJR. It was at KJR that Larry Lujack and now “World Famous” Tom Murphy would work together for the first time. Another six year run at KJR came to an end when Tom moved to Los Angeles and KRLA. After KRLA, Tom would head east to Chicago where, once again, he and Larry Lujack would work together at the former WCFL. (There seems to be a pattern emerging here!) After three years in Chicago, and a quick stop in Cleveland, Tom headed back to Los Angeles where he worked at several stations
including KIIS-FM and KFI. In the mid-80s, Tom began working in radio syndication writing, producing and hosting a variety of radio shows. Tom also did commercials and voices on cartoons Recently, Tom wrote, programmed and hosted a weekly oldies show heard on satellite and cable systems nationwide and that brings us up to “Most Recently.”
“Most Recently,” Tom has returned to Chicago radio here in the afternoons on Real Oldies1690. This is the third time Larry and Tom have worked together. [Editor’s note: Real Oldies 1690 now defunct, Murphy is “retired” and lives outside Los Angeles] Finally, regarding “World Famous” – “The simple truth is, I became ‘World Famous’ when it dawned on me that I wasn’t. Amazingly, ‘World Famous’ stuck and when you pull one off like that, you stick with it.” [from his bio at Real Oldies 1690 – Chicago] ******* Murphy is now retired — living in Los
Angeles.
1000 KOMO (News–ABC) Sinclair Broadcast Group -SEATTLE
“What happens NEXT, happens HERE.” KOMO positioner [2012] – Call letters originally used/temporarily, at the old KFQX facilities, call letters had been KTCL. The station was operated by Birt Fisher. When Fisher took possession of KGFA on Harbor Island, he changed those call letters to KOMO. 1926 KGFA changes to KOMO [980] –KOMO [980/1080/980/920/970/950] In July 1926, KOMO was founded on Harbor Island as KGFA 980 by Birt F. Fisher, whose lease on Seattle radio station KTCL was about to run out. [Birt Fisher, in partnership the Fisher
brothers of Fisher Flouring Mills (no relation), who had been on the island since 1911.] In preparation for the switch to the new station, he changed KTCL’s call letters to KOMO. In December, his lease ended, and he took the call letters with him to KGFA. KOMO 980’s first broadcast was December 31, 1926. Studios moved to Downtown in 1927. The station also began a long-running affiliation with NBC that year as well, primarily with the Red Network, but also with the short-lived west coast Orange Network from 1931 to 1933. Over the following years,
KOMO’s frequency would go from 980 to 1080, back to 980, down to 920, up to 970, then back to 920, and settled at 950 after the NARBA frequency shakeup in 1941. Fisher Communications sold their TV and radio properties to Sinclair Broadcast Group in August 2013.
Fisher’s Blend Station, owner of KOMO, bought NBC-Blue affiliate KJR from the network in 1941. In 1944, KOMO switched frequencies with KJR (then at 1000 kilocycles) and sold KJR off two years later. At its new frequency, KOMO began broadcasting with 50 kilowatts of power from its current transmitter site on Vashon Island in 1948. New studios at the corner of Fourth and Denny, near what is now the Seattle Center, were also inaugurated that year and included space for an expansion into television broadcasting.
KOMO Radio/TV’s former broadcast facility photographed circa 1948-1959. Note the “NBC Affiliate” script on the facade.
KOMO-TV’s former broadcast facility at the current site of Fisher Plaza, taken in March, 1995, near the intersection of 4th Avenue North and Denny Way. This building was completed in 1948, expanded in 1975, and demolished in 2000 to make way for building 2 of the Fisher Plaza complex.In 1953, KOMO-TV took the air on Channel 4 as an NBC affiliate. Channel 4 swapped affiliations with KING-TV in 1958 and became an ABC station. KOMO radio followed suit the next year. By 1964, old-line network programming had been phased out and KOMO
carried a MOR music format. Long-time morning drive personality Larry Nelson began in 1967. From 1967 to 1978, KOMO was the original flagship station of the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association with Bob Blackburn on play-by-play. Norm Gregory, formerly of KJR and KZOK, joined the staff as afternoon disk jockey in 1984. KOMO carried a full-service diet of music, personality, news and Washington Huskies sports well into the early ’90s. Dayparts gradually changed from music to talk and by 1995, the conversion to newstalk was complete.
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In January 1981 former FM Rock Programmer Ken Kohl joined the team at KOMO and put a fresh coat of paint on this gray lady of the Pacific Northwest. When Kohl arrived the station had fallen from grace and its ratings languished in the middle of the pack. After building the station’s news commitment and implementing KOMO’s first major marketing effort, Kohl and his KOMO team inched to within a tenth of a point of market leader KIRO. In January 1987 Kohl departed Seattle for KFI Los Angeles. For the next several years, KOMO unsuccessfully
attempted to directly compete with market leader KIRO. Following an outcry from loyal fans following his firing at KIRO-FM (“The Buzz 100.7?) in 1999, local comedian Pat Cashman took over as morning-drive host. In late 2002, Fisher Communications announced a six-year contract for Seattle Mariners play-by-play rumored to be worth at least $10 million annually, a record for any Major League Baseball radio broadcast agreement. To shore up the surrounding broadcast schedule, KOMO dropped its talk shows and became an all-news station with
reports from an enlarged radio news staff and material from KOMO-TV newscasts. Some notable anchors include Bill Yeend, Manda Factor, Brian Calvert (who also works as a reporter and weathercaster on KOMO-TV), Lisa Brooks, Bill Rice, Art Sanders, Nancy Barrick.
It was announced on May 11, 2009 that KOMO will be simulcast on KFMY, an FM station in Oakville, starting on May 15, 2009. The station is now known as “KOMO Newsradio.” KFMY changed its call letters to KOMO-FM in August 2009 to reflect the new ownership of the station and the simulcast. The move was made to improve KOMO’s daytime coverage in the southern part of the market. Fisher Broadcasting has stated that there are currently no plans to move KOMO Newsradio to the FM band only, as Bonneville did with KIRO earlier in the year.
[wikipedia]
Personalities: KOMO: Bruce Vanderhoof, Gil Henry, Larry Nelson, Al Cummings, Bill McDonnell, Bill Chase, Don Allen, Jay Ward, Rod Hammett, Nick Lacy, Larry Walker, Eric McKay, Don Cannon, Katherine Wise, Lisa Foster, Keith Jonasson, Norm Gregory, Joe Coburn, Buddy Webber, Jaynie Dillon, Jon Ballard, Harry Sloane (News), Ed Ives, Dick Goodman, Dick Courier, Lloyd Allan, Gary Hoffman, Lee Duncan, Brian Gregory, Bill Yeend, Manda Factor, Lee Hall, Tom Hood, Tim Hunter, Bob Mathers, Bryan Johnson [news], Bill Rice, New York Vinnie
Richichi, Greg Hersholt, Herb Weisbaum, Jane Shannon, John Carlson, Ken Schram
1030
KMAS (News-Talk) Olympic Broadcast & Media -SHELTON
KMAS Sept 21, 1962: 1280 kc; 1 kw-D. ABT Inc. Robert E. Sheetz, pres, gen mgr, prog dir & chief engr, Thomas C. Townsend, coml mgr; Bruce E. Jorgenson, stn mgr. Format: COUNTRY & WESTERN;
Changed frequency and format in 1984 to 1030/Adult Contemporary, same ownership. In 1987, Harold S. Greenberg became pres, gen & gen sls mgr [Sound Broadcasting Co.]; the station was purchased by Olympic Broadcast & Media (President and General Manager Dale Hubbard, Secretary, Treasurer Jerry Eckenrode) in 2006. KMAS went to the Oldies format in August 2007.Switched to News-Talk format January 3, 2012 [America’s Radio News Network & ABC News] Personalities: Dale Hubbard, Dedrick Allen [News], Randy Roadz, Jeff Slakey
1050 KBLE (Catholic) Sacred Heart Radio -SEATTLE
1948-KRKL personalities: Jack Hemingway; Anita Busek [AM Operations/FM Station Manager], Bud Harrington [PD]; 1953-KNBX [Kirkland]; 1963-KNBK; 1964-KBLE
1090 KFNQ (Sports-Talk) CBS Radio -SEATTLE
KGBS 1926 licensed to Arthur Dailey in 1926; became 1370 KVL 1927, sharing the frequency with KRKO Everett; KVL becomes 1120 KEEN 1937; KEEN becomes 1400 KEVR 1940 – switched to 1090 kc in 1941; [1947] KING, KINF [when KING was acquired by Bonneville from the Bullitt family in 1995 – frequency later switched to 770 replacing KULL which had been simulcasting country KRPM FM], KKNW, KRPM, KYCW; KPTK/Progressive Talk format with call letter switch in November 2012 to KFNQ, in anticipation of switch to CBS SportsRadio format
January 2, 2013.
In 1947, Bullitt bought a small AM radio station, KEVR. She immediately applied to the Federal Communications Commission to change the station’s call letters to KING (for King County, Washington), but KING was already registered to an old merchant ship, the SS Watertown. Undaunted, Bullitt negotiated with the freighter’s owner and acquired the letters. (According to legend, Bullitt personally rowed out to the freighter with a bottle of champagne to meet the captain, who didn’t care what call letters he used and asked only that Bullitt make a
donation to his church.) The following year, Bullitt received a license for an FM station, KING-FM, and used it to broadcast classical music, her favorite.
In 1949, Bullitt purchased an eight-month-old television station, KRSC-TV, and renamed it KING-TV. Initially an affiliate of the then-poor-performing ABC network, KING-TV became an NBC station in 1959 after Bullitt persuaded the more successful network to switch its affiliation from rival station KOMO-TV. KING-TV remains an NBC affiliate today.
Bullitt turned the presidency of King Broadcasting, as the company was called, over to her son Charles Stimson “Stim” Bullitt in 1961, remaining on the board as chairperson for several years thereafter. Dorothy and Stimson both believed strongly that the stations of King Broadcasting should serve the public, and not just be driven by ratings and revenue. At Bullitt’s insistence, KING-TV built one of the first local TV news operations in the country, and through the 1950s and 1960s the station’s news programming earned a national reputation for
quality, on the strength of its locally produced documentaries and tough investigative journalism. Through the influence of the Bullitts and King Broadcasting executive Ancil Payne, KING-TV and its sister stations developed a corporate culture characterized by political liberalism, expressed through broadcast editorials and a dedication to the Bullitts’ notion of public service. In 1952, Senator Joseph McCarthy threatened to have KING-TV’s license revoked after the station barred the senator from delivering an allegedly libelous attack on the air. In
1966, Stimson Bullitt himself made the only televised appearance of his career when he delivered an impassioned and controversial editorial against the Vietnam War, long before the American public as a whole began to turn against the conflict’s prosecution. [Wikipedia]
KING 1090 Personalities: Charles Herring, Bill O’Mara, Dan Hemingway, Mark Wayne, Jonathan Spring, Frosty Fowler, Russ Norman, Al Cummings, Andy Barber, Bruce Murdock, Buzz Lawrence, Steve Knight, Ed Ives, Stu Collins, Bill Terry, Al Vanik [Gary Mitchell], Joel Martin, China Smith, Tim Hunter, Rob Conrad, Dan Foley, Joe Cooper, Freddie Mertz, Phil Harper, Buzz Barr, Tom Franklin (News), Hal Widsten [PD], Jim Martin, Bob Adkins, Kirk Wilde, Dick Roth, Irving Clark Jr [talk show in the evening], Jim Johnston, Joe [Fleischauer] Michaels,
Tony Miner, Bob Hardwick, Deb Henry, Rick Donovan, John Erickson, Jeannie Lockhart, Dean Shepherd, Scott Lawson, Jim Althoff, Chris Brecher, Mike Siegel, Gary Lockwood, Ron Mercer, Eric McKay, Robin Mitchell, Bob Shannon, Frank Catalano, Russ Norman, Bruce Vanderhoof, Mark Allen, Mike Brody, Steve Lloyd, Mike Rivers, Ray Court, Dan Shannon, Scott Forrest, Jim French, Lee Askervold, Greg Connors, Tom Connors, Ted Bryant, Pat Lewis, Jack Frost, Dick Albertson, Dick Guthrie, Harry Jordan, Dick Staub, Jack Barton, Al Wallace, Gerry
Gawne, Tracy Smith, Pat Cashman, Lisa Brooks, Dori Monson, Rick Mauser, Jim Kelly, Dana Middleton, Steve Alexander [News], Dave Smith [News], John Hinterberger, Rick Miller, Andee Beck, Jane Shannon, Fran Martin, Candace Siegel, John Burgess, David Arneson, Carl Gardner, Colleen Patrick, Karen Denard, Carl Dombeck, Dennis Kelly, Steve Becker, Ed Scott, Doc Maynard [Charlie Busch], Bill Gardner [in an email to Brian Lord, Gardner writes: I was the afternoon, (3-7PM) guy from late 1971 to early 1973. I’ve still got a picture of that great old
studio with the turntables mounted in sand for stability. I left KING-AM to go to San Diego and work for Jack McCoy at the legendary KCBQ-AM San Diego as morning drive guy. By the way, virtually the whole list of where I’ve been is at my website, under “resume.” –Bill Gardner]
Download audio file (April 1977 KING 1090 Dan Foley.mp3)
1977 KING 1090 Dan Foley
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1150 KKNW (Alternative Talk) Hubbard -SEATTLE
Buck Ritchie aircheck @ Seattle Radio Greats ((((LISTEN))))
[1926] In 1952, Jessica Longston, who owned newspaper & radio stations in Oregon and Montana, bought a radio station [KRSC originated in 1926 by the Radio Sales Corporation, located at 5th & Seneca. The station was located at the home of P.K. Leberman, President of the company, 252 40th Ave. North. Some early programming was rather simple and inexpensive, such as nightly rebroadcasts of KDKA Pittsburgh programming, from over the air reception at Leberman’s Seattle home.] in Seattle from J. Elroy McCaw, and gave it the call letters
KAYO – “for knockout,” her son said – and built it into one of the top-earning radio stations in the region for decades to follow. Pictured: Buck Ritchie, the best Country music DJ Seattle has ever had. Picture dates back to 1964.
Sold to Obie Communications in 1979 News/Talk format, then back to country – 1982 KSPL MOR [KAYO call letters picked up by an Aberdeen, WA broadcaster] and then AC “MusicRadio 1150 KSPL, 1984 then became KEZX [Park Broadcasting] soft AOR/Jazz, KGNW from 09/24/1984 – KGMW from 12/23/1986 – KEZX from 12/31/1986 -KSRB R&B (Sandusky) 01/01/1999 – KKNW from 06/01/2001
: Bill Shela, Bill Goff, Rod Hammett, Ron Dini, Hal Raymond, Ray Willis, Bobby Ryan, Gary Ryan, Don Chapman, Russ Norman, Andy Nilsen, Claude Brimm, Herb Hall, Johnny Knight, KC O’Hara, Bob Dean, Chris Lane, Jeff Mitchell, Lee Perkins, Bill Taylor, Chet Rodgers, Don Chapman, Martinn “Marty Party” Mandles, Bill Schonley, Brian Calkins, Ray Golden, Buck Richey [10 yrs at KAYO, died in 1973 at age 58 of cancer], Wally Nelskog, Pat O’Day, Bobby Wooten, Skip Piper, Al Vanik, BR Bradbury, Jaynie Dillon, Dick Ellingson, Jack Hemingway, Tom
Kelly, Mark Roberts, Mike Phillips, Jerry Kay, Bob Hardwick, Jerry Dimmitt, Dick Harris, Mark Wayne, Paul Scott, Ben Peyton, Bo Wiley, David Buckle, Don January, Bob Fredericks, Norm Apple, Tad Jones, Russ Norman, Lee Lucas, Paul Smith; KSPL: Gary Mitchell, Chuck Urban, Steve Lawson/Scott Terry, Joe Micheals, Colleen Patrick [News], Bill Taylor, Chet Rogers, Steve Nicolet, Ron Hansen, Joe Sargent, Jack Spencer, Hardwick, Bob Robertson, B.R. Bradbury (formerly Bill Munson, KOL), Deb Henry (a future Mrs. Bradbury), Bill Baker (former
KING TV newsman), Gary West, and Dick Goodman (former KOMO newsman).
KKNW: Cedric James
1180 KLAY (News/Talk) Clay Huntington Estate -LAKEWOOD
KLAY from 06/28/1990 – KDFL from 05/01/1990 – KLAY from 03/24/1980
Clay Huntington has operated stations KFHA-Lakewood, KLAY FM Tacoma, KQLA-Lakewood and now KLAY 1180-Lakewood, serving the Tacoma and South Sound area for well over 50 years. Huntington’s early sports broadcast career includes stints at KTBI, KTNT and KMO radio stations and both KTVW and KTNT television. All of this, as well as sports broadcasts on a 14-station network that covered Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. His vast record of community involvement includes helping to fund the construction of Cheney Stadium in 1960
and bring Triple A baseball back to Tacoma.
KLAY 106.1 FM was the first STEREO FM station in the Puget Sound region. At that time, KLAY FM was a Beautiful Music station. Ahhh…the sounds of Mantovani, Enoch Light and Richard Claydermann. Beautiful music orchestrations, programmed as background music, pleasant, relaxing and suitable for the office, home or in the car. Listeners stayed with KLAY FM for hours each day at work and at home. This format was relaxing and almost hypnotic when programmed right.
Competition for this format grew during the 60s and early 70s, with several stations adopting the format for some period. Over time there was KEZX, KBRD, KSEA, KIXI and KBIQ. Oceans of Beautiful Music emanated from some great Puget Sound area radio channels.
KLAY FM switched to a very different sound in the latter part of the 60s, Progressive Rock. Again, the station performed well and many people still recall that era and the DJs of KLAY. For example, Steve Slaton, who went on to a career at Album Rock stations in Seattle.
The FM was sold in the early 80s and became KRPM FM [now KBKS]. Clay Huntington continued to operate the AM Talk-formatted station, located in Lakewood, until his death in 2011.
June 2, 2011–Clay Huntington, the sports and civic icon whose contributions ranged from wooing Triple-A baseball back to Tacoma in 1960 to the formation of the Tacoma Athletic Commission, died Wednesday at Allenmore Hospital. He was 89.
Born in Vancouver, B.C., on April 21, 1922, Huntington moved to Tacoma with his family when he was 5 months old. Huntington’s grandfather, Samuel Adams Huntington, was an early influence. A journalist and sports-facilities promoter, Samuel Adams Huntington helped lead the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce’s effort toward the construction of one of Tacoma’s first baseball parks, at 12th and I streets, in 1910.
Clay Huntington’s interest in broadcasting began as a child, “at the age of 10 or 11,” he recalled in “Playground to the Pros: An Illustrated History of Sports in Tacoma-Pierce County.”
“The neighborhood gang would play games in a vacant lot that we converted into a football and baseball field, and we attached a hoop to an old barn at the end of the lot for basketball. When I wasn’t playing, I’d climb up into a tree and sit on the branches overlooking the field and practice my play-by-play.”
By the time the former Lincoln High School student was 19, in the fall of 1941, he was conducting radio interviews on KTBI. His first guests were Vic and LaVerne Martineau, local baseball players.
Huntington would remain in the broadcasting industry for the next seven decades, working behind the microphone on radio and TV and, later, at KLAY, the Lakewood radio station had he owned since 1991.
Between 1946 and 1951, Huntington was the voice of the Class A Tacoma Tigers of the Western International League. (A signature call: “Two out, two on, two in – deuces prevail!”)
During the 1950s, Huntington and Rod Belcher re-created wire accounts of big league baseball games for a 14-station radio network in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
“When I was growing up, every kid in Tacoma knew Clay,” former broadcaster and longtime sports public-relations fixture Doug McArthur once said. “When he wasn’t working on the radio, he was handing out a trophy at some all-star game, or organizing an event with the Tacoma Athletic Commission.”
Huntington’s role in the creation of the TAC was typically astute. A high school student interested in organizing a benefit football game on behalf of former Lincoln star Billy Sewell – then on duty with the 2nd Bomber Command in Spokane – Huntington presented his proposal to Tacoma mayor Harry Cain.
Although the exhibition game fell through, Huntington’s proposal paved the way for the Tacoma War Athletic Commission, which begat the Tacoma Athletic Commission.
In 1960, Huntington answered another call to civic duty by leading the effort to build Cheney Stadium, a crucial step toward relocating the Pacific Coast League’s Phoenix Giants to the South Puget Sound.
“Not to say this in a bragging way,” Huntington said in a 1999 interview, “but I was instrumental in getting Cheney Stadium built – exactly 50 years after my grandfather helped put up a ballpark.”
Warm, accommodating and naturally inquisitive, Huntington’s charm rubbed off on everybody from casual acquaintances at the ballpark to national celebrities. He managed to persuade the likes of Henry Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Arnold Palmer, Joe Namath and Frank Leahy to attend state Sports Hall of Fame banquets as honored guests.
“One of the things I admired about him,” said Ron Huntington, “was his ability to make friends. Wherever he went, he was the brightest light in the room.” [Excerpts from article in the Tacoma News Tribune]
Featured are many local hosts, such as well known civic leader Mike Lonergan and longtime horse racing expert and broadcaster, Vic Cozzetti, known as Victor the Predictor.
Personalities: Bruce Bond, Lynn Benson, Mike Lonergan
1210 KMIA (Spanish) Bustos Media -AUBURN
June 30, 2010, transferred to NAP Broadcast Holdings LLC, a company named for and controlled by its senior lenders, pending FCC approval. Bustos Media of Seattle was in default to the lenders.
KASY [originally broadcasting on 1220 AM, switched to 1210 and increased daytime power to 10kW and added nighttime broadcasting with 1kW] went on the air from Auburn studios in 1957. KBSG from 07/26/1989 – KTTH from 12/30/2002 – KNWX from 01/06/2003 – KDDS from 12/17/2004 – KWMG from 06/22/2005 – KTBK from 11/02/2007 – KMIA from 11/07/2011
Personalities: KASY: Mike Altman, Bruce McMichael, Brian Calkins, Carl Sawyer, Lou Robbins, Sandy Hamilton, Gary Crawford, Bruce Cannon, Bill Doane [news], Bill Ogden [news], Mark Allen, Rockwell Smith
This is classic MOR [middle-of-the-road] Radio from the 60s. These are airchecks of the best small market radio station in the Pacific Northwest at the time, KASY Auburn. These airchecks showcase the great music, that “KASY Kind of Music”. The commercials and newscast are the only short breaks in the flow of the music. These airchecks from the summer of 1968 – when music still reigned on AM radio, are unscoped. At an MOR station, such as KASY, the delivery was kind of laid back and presented in an adult manner. No morning zoo types here.
Sit back and enjoy! [Cue the Bert Kaempfert music]
Download audio file (1220 KASY Summer 1968_1.mp3)
Part 1 :33 Minutes
Download audio file (1220 KASY Summer 1968_2.mp3)
Part 2 :33 Minutes
aircheck courtesy of http://www.engineer-exchange.com/
Rockwell Smith, Radio Engineering Manager, Journal Broadcast Group – Idaho, KJOT, KQXR, KRVB, KTHI, KGEM-AM, KCID-AM.
1230 KWYZ (Korean) Radio Hankook -EVERETT
In the 1930s, this frequency was the home of KVOS AM, which moved to 790 in 1945. This station signed on the air in 1947 as KXRN owned by Robert McCaw, of the famed wireless telephone company – station became KQTY broadcasting with 250 watts of power on a frequency of 1230 kHz. KQTY was originally licensed to the Snohomish County Broadcasting Company which, along with stations in California, North Dakota, and Montana, was part of the Walter N. “Wally” Nelskog stations group. In 1960, the station was granted a construction permit
by the FCC to increase its daytime signal power to 1,000 watts while maintaining a 250 watt signal at night.
On April 1, 1962, the station was acquired by the Snohomish County Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Clifford H. Hansen who also served as the station’s general manager. The new owners had the FCC change the station’s call sign to KWYZ. This situation remained stable until February 16, 1972, when the Snohomish County Broadcasting Corporation was acquired by Robert Brown. The new owners dropped the station’s middle of the road music format in favor of country music. In May 1975, Brown changed the name of the license holder to
Prime Time Broadcasting, Inc.
Facing a petition to deny its license renewal and a financial crisis, the broadcast license for KWYZ was involuntarily transferred in November 1991 from Prime Time Broadcasting, Inc., to Richard D. Carlson acting as receiver. The transfer was approved by the FCC on November 14, 1991. In June 1992, receiver Richard D. Carlson reached an agreement to sell this station to Quality Broadcasting Corporation. The deal was approved by the FCC on March 29, 1993, and the transaction was consummated on June 28, 1994.
In March 1999, Quality Broadcasting Corporation agreed to sell KWYZ to Jean J. Suh, doing business as Radio Hankook, for a reported price of $480,000. The deal was approved by the FCC on April 27, 1999, and the transaction was consummated on August 3, 1999. Until this deal was consummated, KWYZ maintained its traditional country music format. Suh applied to the FCC in October 2002 to transfer the broadcast license for this station to her company, Radio Hancook, Inc. The transfer was approved by the FCC on November 15, 2002, and the
transaction was consummated on December 1, 2003.
Jean J. Suh worked for five years as an actress as South Korea’s Korean Broadcasting System before emigrating to the United States in 1964. While studying at Columbia College Hollywood in 1965, Suh began hosting a 30-minute weekly program of music and news in Korean on a Los Angeles radio station. In 1966 the program was extended to one hour per week and in 1967 to two hours each weekday. In 1970, Suh and two financial partners launched an independent Korean-language radio station in Los Angeles, the first in the United States. Suh
purchased KKBY (1450 AM, now KSUH) in 1997 and KWYZ in 1999 to cover the southern and northern halves of the greater Seattle metropolitan area, respectively, as Korean-language “Radio Hankook” [Wikipedia] KWYZ personalities: Jack Allen, Jim Reed, Wayne Cordray, Dick Knapp, Rich Johnson, Bob McCoy, Larry Sharp, Dennis Arlington, Al Monroe, Tony McCullough, Bill O’Mara, John Lawson, Robert O’Brien, Dennis Wills, Athen James, Paul Richards-weekends, Sally Rae-weekends
1240 KBUP (Catholic Religion)
Sacred Heart Radio -OLYMPIA
KGY is one of the oldest radio stations in the state of Washington. It was licensed in 1922 and began broadcasting at St. Martin’s College, for a while out of a log cabin, as 7YS. “The log cabin station, where the cedars meet the sea.” The affiliated station KGY-FM began operations in 1992. The AM and FM stations’ studios are both now located on Port of Olympia property at the southern end of Budd Inlet.– The Kerry family sold KGY AM 1240 to Sacred Heart Radio in 2014, ending family operation of the station held since 1939. Call letters changed to
KBUP November 2014. KGY’s morning show was hosted by General Manager Dick Pust, who has been at the station since 1959. He has continually hosted the morning show since 1967–the longest continually running morning radio show in the state of Washington, until Pust was fired after nearly 50 years at KGY. [Wikipedia] KGY personalities: Ty Flint, Bob O’Brien, PJ Kirkland, Willy Kelly, Smilin’ Jay Andrews, Randy Roadz, Rick Schaeffer
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UPDATE– January 6, 2011
Olympian– After a career spanning 51 years with KGY Radio, local broadcasting legend Dick Pust’s career with the station ended suddenly Wednesday when he was let go as the station’s general manager.
He hosted his final early-morning radio show Wednesday at the iconic station that overlooks Budd Inlet, the last installment of a six-day-a-week broadcast that began at 5:30 a.m. and has run since 1967.
“I’m in shock,” said Pust about the sudden end to his connection to KGY, which broadcasts at 1240 on the AM dial and at 96.9 on FM.
“It’s going to be really terrible; I’m so used to getting up at 2:30 in the morning,” he said.
After he left the station, Pust, 70, had to break the news to his mother, Margaret, 93, at their weekly Wednesday lunch together.
“She’s going to miss me in the mornings; she always relied on me,” he said.
Accounts varied Wednesday about why Pust no longer is with the station.
Pust said he was fired and that tensions had been building between him and KGY Inc. President and Chief Executive Jennifer Kerry, a resident of St. Petersburg, Fla., who visited the station in December and was there Wednesday.
Pust said Kerry approached him two weeks ago and asked him to prove his loyalty to the station by firing a particular staff member. Pust says he told her he could not, in good conscience, do that.
“It was so abhorrent to me that it felt like I was being initiated into a gang,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t “play their game” and was fired.
Kerry, whose mother, Barbara, used to own the station, sees it differently.
She said the station likely faces a typically slower first quarter for advertising revenue. With that in mind, she asked Pust to step down as general manager, likely taking a salary hit, because the station could not afford to continue paying a general manager. He was asked to continue with his show and work in the community, she said.
“Dick made the decision to leave the company because he did not choose to continue on in a lesser role,” Kerry said.
There were no other staffing changes Wednesday, but Kerry wouldn’t rule them out. KGY Inc. has a staff of 25.
Kerry said she told Pust the station likely would be going in a different direction with its sales-management leadership, and that he then “issued an ultimatum.”
“Regardless of how things transpired, (the sales manager) has not been let go” but is considering an alternative position, Kerry said. After Wednesday’s show, Pust was escorted to his car by Kerry and the station’s program director, although Pust and Kerry agreed that part of that had to do with the need to retrieve a post office box key from Pust’s car. Pust said he shook hands with the program director and wished him good luck.
“And that was it. I drove off,” Pust said. Severance was not discussed; Kerry said that will be addressed later.
Pust started his day at 2:30 a.m. Before going to the station, he would stop by the Olympia Police Department or the Thurston County dispatch center to check on breaking crime news. If the weather was bad, he’d check for road or snow-related closures and power outages. By 4:30 a.m., he was at the station, ready to begin his show, Pust said.
He said he “put his life” into the business and worked with many good people. He acknowledged that the station was struggling financially but said that’s the case with all media.
“I think we could’ve made it,” he said.
Although the circumstances surrounding Pust’s departure were unclear, those in the community were not, saying Pust would be missed.
Bill Pilkey, who frequently runs for local elected office, often was a guest on Pust’s show.
“I know Dick, and I have the greatest respect for him,” he said. “He could run for the state Legislature and win. That’s how popular he is.” He added that losing Pust likely spells trouble for KGY’s future.
Community Youth Services Executive Director Charles Shelan, also a longtime listener and frequent guest, said Pust “knew Olympia like nobody else.” Shelan called him the “voice of Olympia” and compared him to Dave Niehaus, the longtime Seattle Mariners broadcaster who died last year.
“Our community has lost a treasure,” he said. Shelan added that Pust is a good interviewer, always curious, probing and insightful, and that he always made his guests feel at ease.
“Dick Pust gives that radio station credibility and clout in our community, and that’s been lost,” Shelan said.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/bizblog
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/01/05/1495656/pust-longtime-voice-of-kgy-no.html#ixzz1AGqhpYn3
Personalities: Mike Altman, Dick Pust, Bob MacLeod
1250 KKDZ (Kids) Disney -SEATTLE
[1920] KTW shared broadcast time on 1250 Kc. with station KLAN. KTW owned by the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle, changed ownership a couple times between 1965 and 1975. Owned by Wonderful Sound of Seattle, the format catered to a teen audience. This was short-lived, the format changing within a year to Country music. KTW became a Beautiful Music station in 1965. Later, under Nordawn Inc ownership, a slight format switch to MOR.
KTW challenged KIRO in 1974 with news blocks and that battle is related in this story: http://www.seatacmedia.com/?p=21320
and KTW affiliated for a time with Group W Network for news…Read about that here. Talk shows were popular with KTW listeners. The station competed with KIRO, KTNT, KING AM, and other stations in the talk genre. Articles HERE and HERE, where Bill Carter’s Party Line goes way back to 1959 at KTW. Carter was a pioneer in talk radio for Seattle.
When 1460 went to an Album Rock format under new ownership of Glo-Lee Broadcasting, Carl-Dek Inc acquired 1250 in 1975 and changed the call letters to KYAC, instituting their R&B (Soul) format. 5/20/1981 -Financial issues ended the KYAC run and the station call letters became KKFX with a Contemporary Hits format under new owners, North Star Broadcasters and later purchased by Bingham Communications which kept the KKFX call letters but switched to an R&B format. Became a Radio Disney affiliate in 1993.KKDZ from 04/07/1993
Here is an account of the KTW history from the vantage of a KTW employee of the time:
KTW AM, prior to their sale to David M. Segal of Denver, Colorado in 1964, was a daytime only station and owned by the First Presbyterian Church with studios at 710 Madison Street. KTW played “beautiful music”, and the two full time radio personality’s were Hal Links and Lee Knudsen. Prior to the sale to Segal, the Church had bought a construction permit for an FM on 102.5. Segal hired three radio personality’s from Butte, Montana’s KOPR AM and one who said he had worked at KISN in Portland. Later, it was found out that he had lied about
that. Segal thought he was being funny when he gave the 4 radio personalitys their names. He called them Tom Morgan, Dick Jones, Harry Smith, and Sam Kelly. So it was Tom, Dick and Harry….and of course, Sam. At midnight on Aug. 1, 1964, Segal took control and KTW switched to top 40. At the time, only KJR was playing top 40. A funny thing did happen right away. Segal was listening to Harry Smith stumble over the news in his afternoon till sunset slot, got fed up and two nights later he had switched the radio personality known as Sam Kelly
with the one known as Harry Smith. So they guy called Sam Kelly became Harry Smith and visa versa and they switched time slots. Another thing that happened was the station fired they guy known as Tom Morgan after a few months and brought in another guy and he became Tom Morgan.
Unfortunately, KTW had to sign off at local sunset. A teen station signing off in the late afternoon shortly after kids got home from school was a real ratings killer. The stations hours were 11:15 PM until local sunset average the following day. They were a share time station with KWSU in Pullman which had priority over them, but they signed off at 11:15 PM.
Segal hoped that when they signed on KTW FM on January 1, 1965, simulcasting the format would bring in more listeners. But there weren’t that many FM radios out there, so KTW struggled. It also didn’t help that the FM antenna was installed on the AM tower at Pigeon Point in West Seattle. It should have been installed at a higher location from the start. “The Wonderful Sound of Seattle” lasted only 9 months and the format was changed to a so-called “Nashville Sound” country station. The only radio personality holdover to the new format was the
guy called Tom Morgan and he started using his real name, but I don’t remember it.
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[pictured: Rhys Berryman/KTW] Brian Lord [A part-timer at KTW during this period; Later a part-timer at KSCR, Renton] —November 1966 Segal sells KTW AM & FM to Norwood Patterson & wife for $250,000. Patterson, a consulting engineer, owner of radio & TV in Fresno, CA.
KTW personalities included: Bill Wade, Jerry Holzinger [fired May 1971 from his morning talk show for being too controversial, and voicing opions against many station policies and methods], Hal Links, Lee Knudsen, Johnny Hayden, Al Vanik, Dick Jones/Rick Knapp, Tom Morgan/Leo Minton, Harry Smith/Rhys Berryman, Brian Lord, Don Riggs, Greg Palmer, Wayne Cody, Joni Balter, Harry Smith/Bill Bray and Kevin Kelly, Rick Richards, Mike Hamilton, Dick Byrd, Kearney Barton, Linda Sullivan, Linda Gist, Burt Light, Phil Cogan, News Director, Dave
Newton, Bob Warnes, John Dayle, Bill Wade
Bill Bray, the original Harry Smith who ended up as Sam Kelly almost immediately. [thanks to Brian Lord for the pictures from KTW’s early days!] KYAC: Robert L. Scott, Tom Reddick, Don Shorter, Sonny Buxton, Robert Summerise, Frank Barrow, Tom Cross, Tam Henry, Lloyd Jones, Cliff Winston, Vince Ash, Barbra Carol, Tee Alexander, Harry Robinson, Eddie Modkins, Marty Wyatt, Paul Cutchlow, Andrew Alexis, Robert Nesbitt; KKFX: Mike Webb, Steve Mitchell, Steve Walker, Tom Reddick, Nikki Hill-Garrett, Deacon Baker, Eddie O., Les Metro,
Robert L. Scott, Brandi Walker
1280 KLDY Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin-LACEY
[rebroadcasts KBRO-KNTB] – Station began as KTOL [Lacey/Olympia], then KLDY under operator Skip Morrow, KLDY’s final days under Skip Marrow were an all-classical format; Before KTOL signed on, 1280 was the original daytime-only frequency for KMAS Shelton (now on 1030 full time) [thanks for the info, cjjazz] KTOL personalities: Jay Andrews, KLDY personalities: Jimmy Anderson, Bill Carter, Bob Hards, Brian Burgett, Bruce Pedersen, Dennis Lloyd/Dennis Soapes, Don Winget, Doug McDowell, Jeannie Lucke, Jim Kenney, John DiMeo Jr.,
John DiMeo Sr., Lisa Church, Terry A. Swartos
Dennis Soapes recalls: The programming was primarily from the Satellite Music Network, the Country Coast to Coast format. KTOL was one of the first SMN affiliates in the US and one of the first and few AM Stereo stations in the US.
After a year or so we dropped SMN for local Country programming. Bob Hards did morning drive, I was on mid days. Jim may have been on PM drive.
The station was purchased in 1984 of 1985 by Pioneer Broadcasting and the format was changed to AC. Doug McDowell (now in Grays Harbor with Jodesha Broadcasting) did morning drive. I was on the air in mid-days (as Dennis Lloyd) I left the station in November of 1986.
Also on the staff at various times were radio veterans Bill Carter (recently retired from Bicoastal Centralia,) and Bruce Pedersen. The late Brian Burgett, Lisa Church, Terry A. Swartos and many others were on air at various times.
The station was later sold to the late Skip Morrow, who through a series of facilities changes wound up at 680khz as KBRD-AM. But it was the acquisition of the 1280 frequency that started the change. This station was part of a Northwest chain of stations broadcasting (ESPN Desportes) owned by Seattle Streaming Radio LLC until sold to Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin in April 2015, which put a Spanish-religious format on the small network.
1300 KKOL (Business News) Inspiration Media Incorporated -SEATTLE
1922 KDZE, KFOA, KOL, 1975-KMPS — In the early 1960s KOL was owned by television producers and game show moguls Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. In 1967, the station was purchased by Buckley Broadcasting, which also owned KGIL Los Angeles. In the 1960s and early 1970s, KOL battled KJR as the Number 1 top 40 station in Seattle. Also, during its days as KMPS, it simulcasted KMPS-FM/94.1.
In 2002, due to losing its broadcast location, KKOL installed a temporary 1000-watt transmitter on a moored boat and began to broadcast from a 175-foot/61-meter ship in one of the waterways in Seattle. This was the only floating radio station in the US. In 2007 the station has a new broadcast facility with a 50,000-watt transmitter in the Port of Tacoma and is dedicated to news/talk. [Wikipedia]
KOL Personalities: Rod Belcher [Sports], Art Gilmore, Johnny Forrest – Newsman, Ron Bailie, Charlie Van, Chuck Ellsworth, Ray Ramsey, Paul Oscar Anderson/Paul E. Brown, Bill Shela, Ric Thomas, Mike Altman, Les Williams, Jim McGavick, Martin Tobin [news], Lee Chase, Frank Roberts [news], Fenwick, Ray Hutchinson, Art Simpson, Steve Davis, Ken Mattler [news], George Lester, John Stone, John Chambless, Jim Gearhart, Gary Todd, Jay Mack, Ed Kelly, Paul Coburn, Jeff Mitchell, Al Cummings, Ron Reynolds, Buzz Barr, Jerry Kaye, Tom
Phelan, Don Chambers, Martinn “The Thriller” Mandles, Bill Munson, Les Beigel, Bobby Simon, Robin Mitchell, Chris Hill/Dale Unruh, Lan Roberts, Gary Spinnell [news] [aka Gary Loving on KUUU later moving to KIRO from KOL** ****Thanx to Brian Lord for this info****], Bill Taylor, Tommy Vance, Don January, Don Burns, Gene Collins, Burl Barer, Robin Sherwood, Jon Kertzer, Gary Crow, Rhett Hamilton Walker, Bob Waldron, Al Vanik [Allan MacKenzie], Tom Connors, Phil Johnson, Don Wade, Greg Connors, Terry McManus, Lee Perkins, Danny
Holiday, George Garrett, Bob Fleming, Bill Wippel, Paxton Mills, Bill Ford, Jack Morton, Paul Cutchlow, Don Clark, Bob Watson KMPS: Don Riggs [BIO here], Rick Stuart, Lee Rogers, Phil Harper, Bob Kelly, Mike O’Connor, Roger Dale, Ron Norwood, Patti Par, Gary Vance, Jim Williams, Art Lind, Big Ed Dunaway, Dewey Boynton, Charley Parker, Becky Brenner, Jay Lawrence, Don Riggs, Ichabod [Randy Hansen] Caine, Scallops, Stubbs, Tony Thomas, Jennifer Wood, Johnny Novak [Jack Boulton], Derek Murray, Jaye Albright, Jack Allen, Steve
Michaels, Frank Catalano, Bill Minckler, Brady Wright, Dick Ellingson, Daryl Webster
1330 KGRG (Album Rock) Green River Community College -ENUMCLAW
KFKF – MOR/Easy Listening – Kemper Freeman – [Bellevue] -Owned by Seattle businessman Kemper Freeman, KFKF went on the air in 1958. The format was Easy Listening music simulcasting with KFKF FM 92.5 [AM was a daytimer] KFKF moved to the 1540 kc. frequency in 1968
1330 frequency lit up again in 1982 as KENU; call letters changed to KQZQ for less than a month in 1988 then back to KENU; In 1992, KENU became a simulcast of KJUN 1450 AM in Puyallup, WA and became part of the new Country Gold Network along with KBLV 1540 AM in Bellevue, WA, and KTOL 1280 AM; In early 1996, the Country Gold Network discontinued operations due to financial distress. KENU went silent and was put up for sale.
In November 1996, The Green River Foundation purchased the silent radio station, so that Green River Community College students would have internship possibilities at KENU — 1330 is now used by Green River Community College, for their student-run station, KGRG-Enumclaw
KFKF personalities: Steve Montgomery, Jerry Holzinger, Jay Ward, Jim McGavick, Jack Hemingway, Johnny Forrest, Dick Stokke, Lou Gillette, Warren Wilson, Don Vicroy, Bob Summerise; KENU: Michael Buzgo, John Porterfield.
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1340 KUOW (Classical – Public Affairs) NPR – University of Washington
-TUMWATER
Previous call letters: KVSN which had been KCIF [Evergreen Broadcasting Inc./religion]; KCIF originally at 1500 kilocycles. Evergreen Broadcasting had originally applied for, and was granted call letters KCIG. KVSN, Donald Trosper, opns mgr & progmg dir; Lawrence Adams, gen mgr, stn mgr, sis dir, adv dir & engrg mgr.
University of Washington purchased 1340 KVSN/Tumwater in 2005 for a price of $500,000. KUOW used 1340 AM to simulcast of its news, information and National Public Radio programming. Call letters were changed to KUOW-AM. This purchase helped KUOW solve the issue of its weak signal in parts of Thurston County, which was particularly annoying to both the station and listeners given KUOW’s news and public affairs programming on state-government issues.
KVSN is a 20-year-old station owned and operated by Gregg Neilson (he’s also the general manager for KNHC-FM at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle) and Larry Adams (who taught radio at Nathan Hale before his retirement). It had been broadcasting religious, music and news programming, both local and national, as well as local high school sports. It actually started at 1500 as a daylight-only station. KVSN was sold due to an “adverse revenue situation that has not shown needed improvement in recent years.” The deal was brokered by Public
Radio Capital, a Colorado-based organization that aims to preserve and extend public-radio service. This isn’t its first deal in Washington. It acquired an FM station from Bates Technical College in Tacoma. That station was simulcastimg Seattle-based KEXP-FM (90.3) for the Tacoma and Olympia areas as KXOT-FM (91.7). KUOW-FM also broadcasts its signal at 90.3 in Bellingham. [Seattle PI]
1360 KKMO (Spanish) SeaMar Community Health Center -TACOMA
1922-KMO 1180, 860, 800, 1330, 1340 kc, 1984-KAMT, 1987-KKMO, 1997-KZTS, 1998-KKMO KMO Tacoma, Wash.-As a joint venture of the Tacoma Times and Love Electric Co., KMO first broadcast in April 1922. The station was taken over by the Tacoma Radio Supply Corp. during the next four years. In 1926, Carl E. Haymond bought the outlet. Mr. Haymond increased the power to 500 w, then in 1954, sold the station to Tacoma Radio Corp. The station operates on 1360 kc.
KMO, once co-owned with KMO TV Channel 13 [later known as KTVW], by Carl Haymond. Haymond was forced to declare bankruptcy and sell the station to J. Elroy McCaw, father of cellular phone magnate Craig McCaw. Later, the station was purchased by J Archie Morton and Dana J Hunter, then sold [1962] to Edward Wheeler, who owned a station in Evansville, In. In later years, KMO was owned and operated by Jim Baine. Anyone who worked for Jim will have interesting stories to tell. He was something else…more later.
Personalities: KMO: Ted Knightlinger, Joe Lyons, Jerry Dimmitt, Tony Brooks, Murray Morgan, Ed Evans, Lonnie Bell, Chubby Howard [The Night Hawk], Burt McMurtrie, Ed Dollar, Dick Weeks, Jim Bennett, Hal Lavers, Cliff Wilson, Halley Cole, Mike Garland, Bill James, John Trimble, Buzz Barr, Mark Edwards, John Managan, Dave Perry, Tucker Simpson, Tom Connors [Program Director-1977], Harry Holland, Chuck Ellsworth, Roall Ericksen, Jack Spencer, Jack Morton [1957, his father Arch Morton owned the station. In 1963, Morton moves to KVI],
Don Chapman (Woodland), Tom Henning, Greg O’Neill, Steve Avery, Dave Allen, Bill Taylor [regarding Jim Baine, “He hired me as news director in 1966, succeeding Tom Henning. And, yes, Baine was a piece of work.”], Bill Graham, Les Cole, Win McCracken, Gisela’s Original German Hour — KAMT: Mike Darling, Lou Robbins, Scott Phillips [Photo: courtesy Tacoma Public Library Northwest Collection] KKMO: Bob Alek, The Johnny Dakota Polka Show on Saturday
FROM KKMO-AM IN FIFE, BOB ALEK SPINS VELVETY SONGS THAT BRING BACK MEMORIES FROM A MORE INNOCENT TIME.
“Romance,” Bob Alek says. I nod. Romance.
We’re inside one of the oldest, funkiest control booths of any commercial radio station in the Puget Sound. No modern equipment here, just old carpeting. Wolfman Jack would have been right at home here, at KKMO on Pacific Highway East in Fife, 1360 on the AM dial, pure monaural sound as it was meant to be heard.
“Wonderful memories,” Bob Alek says. I nod. Wonderful memories.
Even if you didn’t have those kind of memories because you weren’t born then, or were just a toddler, listening to his old records you could imagine them.
Wonderful memories: It is 1959 and you’re in Paris and accordion music swells on the jukebox.
OK, maybe it’s really Paris, Idaho, but you get the idea. It is that notion of romance that’s tucked somewhere in the recesses of your brain; you know, the one starring Audrey Hepburn in that movie that still shows up on American Movie Classics.
I started listening to Bob Alek a few home remodels ago, twirling the radio dial on the weekend, trying to find something to listen to while bashing out sheetrock.
Suddenly, way on the right side of the dial, I heard – and it actually does sound like it – this velvety voice.
“It is time for `International Interlude.’ It is time to travel around the world with the world’s most beautiful music,” the soothing voice of Alek would speak to me through the radio. “We’ll travel to Europe, South America… Now, let’s travel to . . . Brazil! This is `Brasilia Carnival,’ ” and on would come a samba tune, and that home remodel would just cruise along.
Ever been to a garage sale and flipped through a box of LPs being sold at 25 cents a piece? Records like “Antonio Tormo Sings Old Favorites from Argentina” and “Under Paris Skies with Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra”? That’s what Bob Alek plays on his weekend shows, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 1 p.m.
These days, “cocktail music” has come back in vogue. A Mexican band leader named Esquivel, who was big in the early ’60s, now has his records re-released as alternative music. There are even bands of young kids who now look up to easy-listening artists such as Martin Denny and Perez Prado. These days, Alek’s collection of 8,000 records and 2,000 cassettes is probably worth quite a bit.
So if you were to ask me to name the hippest radio personality in the Puget Sound area, I’d tell you it is Bob Alek, 63. No gimmicks, no raunch, certainly no big corporate promotion budget behind him. He’s the real thing: radio and show biz because he loves it, not the bucks.
For 22 years it’s been Alek working mostly alone, buying radio time on KKMO, which these days costs about $150 an hour. The station is the only one around here that I know “brokers” its time, meaning that if you want to put on a Hispanic, or a Vietnamese, or a religious show, and you pay for the time, you’ve got the slot.
Alek puts on the show and hustles up advertisers, everybody from Harrison Hot Springs to a Tacoma car dealer. It isn’t easy, as brokered stations such as KKMO aren’t included in ratings surveys.
But Alek has managed to keep going, his income supplemented with shows that he does with his “International Connection” dance band, for which Alek sings and is the emcee. On a good night, the four or five members in the band might earn $100 each playing at a lounge or wedding party.
Back at the station, Alek turns on the mike. He is reciting the lyrics to the next tune; he figures he knows more than 1,000 by heart in English, with an additional 150 in everything from Spanish to Italian.
At some other station, a sports jock might be babbling babbling about the latest Dennis Rodman tirade.
At KKMO, Alek’s velvety voice confides to us, “No hardship should refuse love, and lucky are the ones who choose love, but if you should lose love, you’ll have the right to love again . . .” Then it’s on to a rhumba.
I ask Alek to name his favorite tune. It is “Solamente Una Vez,” which translates to “Only One Time,” by the Mexican songwriter Agustin Lara.
“I love the melody and the lyrics are beautiful . . . I love the ending of the song, `Now we own all the stars and a million guitars are still playing and my dear you’re the song . . .’ I open all my radio shows with that song. It applies to so many of us. It’s about how you only get one chance in a lifetime. It’s one of those real songs, know what I mean?”
It all might seem hokey to some, but this has been Bob Alek for 22 years. This is the truth for him. Romance. What can you do but nod in agreement?
[February 1997] Erik Lacitis’ column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. His phone number is 464-2237. e-mail address – electronic mail address is: elac-new@seatimes.com
1380 KRKO (ESPN Sports) S-R Broadcasting -EVERETT
KRKO station history from their website:
Few know one of the oldest radio stations in the Pacific Northwest in continuous operation from the same City of License started in the garage of an auto repair shop at 2814 Rucker Avenue in Everett, Washington. Otto Leese and his brother Robert were business owners and mechanics, and the spare parts available to them in their shop enabled them to experiment with the most exciting and still relatively unknown technology known to America at the time: broadcast radio. A car battery, some vacuum tubes, a microphone, and a long piece of copper
wire for an antenna allowed the Leese Brothers to create a land-based radio station to transmit voice instead of Morse code. On August 17, 1922 when it was finally officially licensed by the United States Department of Commerce (The Federal Communications Commission wasn’t created until 1934), the Leese Brother’s experimental radio station received its first call-sign: KFBL. Later authorizations were provided under the signature of Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce. (Hoover went on to become President of the United States in 1929).
The station was said to have enough battery power to run an electric chair!
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While some believe the call-sign had particular significance as an acronym for “First Broadcast License” alluding to a long-held belief in the station’s heritage as the first on the air in the Northwest, it’s more likely that the call sign corresponded with the timing of the application review and approval by the Department of Commerce – shortly after another famous west coast radio station was assigned its call letters for the first time: KFBK, Sacramento. The fact that the Leese Brothers had been experimenting with their radio station since at least 1920
had nothing to do with their interesting call letter assignment. It was simply a function of assigning call letters in alphabetical order!
The Leese Brother’s license granted authorization to operate in a portion of the newly established radio spectrum reserved for “general entertainment” at 833 kHz and “…used for broadcasting news, concerts, lectures, and such matter.” Like virtually all stations on the air at this time, broadcasts were at irregular intervals, and KFBL shared this frequency with stations as close as Seattle. Receivers were still not widespread, and they were expensive. Hand-held radios weren’t even possible, yet. By 1927, KFBL was assigned its first numerical
frequency of 1340 kHz with 100 watts of operating power. The station evolved toward a more consistent programming schedule, but shared its time on the air with KXRO until almost 1929 when KFBL moved up the dial to 1370 sharing time with radio stations KVL and KKP.
The Leese Brothers operated their radio station until May 15, 1934 when they transferred control of the radio station to a staff member, Lee Mudgett. It was also in 1934 that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created by the Communications Act of 1934. Mudgett moved the main studio from Rucker to the Clark building on the corner of Wetmore and Hewitt Avenue, across from Everett’s famed “Speakers Corner” where every day at noon, people would gather to hear the thoughts of anyone bold enough to take the podium. On July
12, 1934, call-sign KFBL was retired and call-sign KRKO was assigned to the radio station. (Call-sign KFBL now resides with the United States Coast Guard.) In September, the studio and transmitter were moved to 1804 Hewitt Avenue.
Mudgett made a point of requesting special authorization from the FCC to operate the radio station during non-authorized times for the purposes of airing city, county, and national election returns. He also requested special authorization to broadcast the World Series.
Mudgett remained as the licensee for almost 10 years. During five of those years, he attempted to upgrade the facilities of KRKO, and he attempted to sell KRKO several times, but those upgrade efforts weren’t realized until he sold control of the radio station to another local Everett family led by William H. “Bill” Taft in 1940. Though not listed on the license, Bill’s wife, Thelma, played a major role in the station from the beginning. Thelma describes the first day at KRKO as “walking arm in arm” into what was to be a true business partnership as well
as a marriage.
By 1941 the Taft family constructed KRKO’s first vertical antenna just north of the northeast corner of Wetmore and Wall Street and west of the First Presbyterian Church of Everett on land now occupied by a parking lot. KRKO moved farther up the dial from 1340 kHz and began to broadcast at 1400 kHz from the Clarke Building (now U.S. Bank). The station had a whopping 100 watts and later 250 watts during the four years it was located on Wetmore. The station used a single vertical antenna until they purchased the KEVE studios and transmitter
site south of what’s known as the Hilltop Drive-In in north Everett.
Those familiar with Everett know the area of the circa 1944 transmitter site as nearly midway down fairway 15 at Legion Memorial Golf Course. The Tafts donated land to Everett Community College to create access from Old Highway 99. The access road became known as Tower Road. It ran next to the transmitter site and exists today, a reminder of a long-gone facility. At the time, the area was a swamp with scattered homes to the west on the ridge in the area where Everett Community College now resides.
The Taft family wasn’t able to finalize the acquisition of KRKO from Lee Mudgett until October 3, 1945 in the name of the Everett Broadcasting Company, Inc. Bill Taft and his brother Archie Taft, Jr. were listed as the licensees. With the transaction complete, Archie left Bill with KRKO and moved to Seattle to operate another legendary family owned radio station: KOL. Right about this time, long-time employee and local celebrity news staffer Shirley Bartholomew joined KRKO and began her nearly forty-year run at the radio station.
Documents from this era provide evidence of KRKO’s long-standing service record in the community and provide tantalizing insights into how different the economy of Everett was following World War II. Beginning at 6:00 a.m. on a weekday, the station broadcast a mix of music, a 15 minute block of farm report news including on-air classified ads for farmers wishing to buy and sell, farm market reports, and news from the Washington State Extension Bureau, followed by a 15 minute block of national news at 7:00 a.m., back to “…musical variety with
a humorous slant” at 7:15. The station then aired recorded religious programming for a good portion of the morning, including shows like the Hebrew Christian Hour, Rings of Healing, and Dr. Talbot. Thelma Taft read news, handled much of the internal business operations, and began her annual tradition of reading Christmas letters from children over the air at noon as “Mrs. Clause.” Bill handled sales and management of the station.
In 1949, the Tafts received approval for a change to KRKO’s frequency again, moving it from 1400 to 1380, increasing the power from 250 watts to 1,000 watts, and adding a second vertical antenna to push (directionalize) the extra 750 watts northwest at night to protect other stations on the air to the east, south, and southeast. The north Everett transmitter site performed poorly and didn’t cover Everett’s expanding population to the south very well. The Tafts attempted to modify the night signal in 1951 to get better coverage but the effort must have
been an exercise in futility. By 1957, the Tafts purchased land for a new transmitter site 1.3 miles south of Lowell along the Lowell-Larimer Road in rural farm land within the Everett city limits.
The Lowell transmitter site was a step-up for KRKO. Two modern 225-foot steel antennas were erected along with a new building, and the station was authorized to increase its power five-fold to operate at 5,000 watts 24-hours a day. Eight acres of farmland were cleared for a new building to house the business office, studios, and equipment. The studios, designed by Thelma Taft, were state of the art for the time featuring four turntables and a top-of-the-line RCA console. The transmitter was a brand new Gates – the best available in 1959.
7115 Larimer Road is the current transmitter site for KRKO today and served the majority of it’s existence as the main office for both studios and sales until the main studios were relocated to the 14th floor of Key Tower on the corner of Colby and Everett Avenues, just two blocks from where the Leese Brothers hooked up car batteries to a home-made transmitter. The “state-of-the-art” 1959 Gates transmitter remains in place as the only back-up transmitter for KRKO and is used intermittently even today. The RCA console shown in the photo of the
main studio of the new building was decommissioned in 1997 after serving its final years in an editing studio at the Larimer Road site. The antenna system in use today is the same one as originally installed in 1959.
KRKO personalities: Robert O’Brien, Mike Lehnen, Jeff Chase, Jack Allen, Tom Connors, Jim Brady, Matt Alan, Mark Edwards, Rich Johnson, Jim Kampmann, Moose Moran, Renae O’Keefe/wife of Moose Moran, Bruce Stier, Bruce Butterfield- (Program Director and Middays · 1980 to 1981 and KUBE (Weekender · 1981 to 1983). Left radio to work for Prudential Northwest Realty, Toby Ryan, Al Vanik, Dick Wahl, Al Cummings [hosting an afternoon talk show in 1974], Mike Purdy.
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1420 KRIZ (Blues & Oldies) Kris Bennett Broadcasting -RENTON
simulcasts on co-owned KBMS 1480 Vancouver/Portland; Old call letters: KREN Personalities: Don Riggs, Rudy Schroeder, Steve Wray, Les Belgel, Jerry Sweet; KSCR: personalities included Jeff Bach, Brian Lord, Dale Owens, Dave Keefer, Bob Campbell; KRIZ: Robert L. Scott, Bailey Coleman, Sheila Kay, Eric Dawson, Greg Miles, Jay Thomas
1450 KSUH (Korean) Radio Hankook, Inc -PUYALLUP
This station began regular broadcasting on December 1, 1951, with just 100 watts of power on a frequency of 1450 kHz. Licensed with call sign KPUY, the station was owned and operated by Clarence E. Wilson. By early 1953, KPUY had upgraded to 250 watt operation and Clarence E. Wilson took on P.D. Jackson as a partner in station ownership.
Puyallup Valley Broadcasting Company acquired KPUY from Wilson and Jackson in April 1953. This proved short-lived as by 1955 the broadcast license had been transferred to Henry Perozzo’s Radio Station KAYE, Inc. – The station was owned [1/3 interest by Buck Owens – this interest purchased in 1958]
The sale by Radio Station KAYE, Inc., to KAYE Broadcasters, Inc., was completed on March 27, 1966. The station continued the country & western music format even after a 1974 change in call sign to KUPY.
July 1978, KAYE Broadcasters, Inc., reached an agreement to sell this station to Shortsleeve Broadcasting, Inc., co-owned by Ray Courtmanche and wife Cheri, 50% each. The deal was approved by the FCC on July 3, 1978, and the transaction was consummated on October 12, 1978. The station, as KRPM AM, co-owned with KRPM FM, aired a country & western music format with weekly specialty shows, including one in the German language and one on Native American issues.
October 1981, Shortsleeve Broadcasting, Inc contracted to sell KUPY to Monroe Enterprises, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on December 11, 1981. The new owners had the Federal Communications Commission change the station’s call sign to KJUN on December 23, 1981.
June 1986, Monroe Enterprises, Inc., announced a deal to sell KJUN to 777 Broadcasting, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on August 15, 1986, and the transaction was consummated on September 5, 1986.
June 1990, 777 Broadcasting, Inc., agreed to sell this station to Joy Broadcasting, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on August 1, 1990, and the transaction was consummated on October 31, 1990. As part of a rebranding of the station’s classic country music format as “The Cowboy”, Joy Broadcasting had the FCC change the station’s call sign to KKBY on August 16, 1996. The KJUN call letters were then assigned to a station in Tillamook, Or.
February 1997, Joy Broadcasting, Inc., contracted to sell KKBY to Jean J. Suh. The deal was approved by the FCC on April 4, 1997, and the transaction was finally consummated on August 3, 1999. New owner Jean J. Suh had the FCC change the station’s call sign to KSUH after her family name on September 15, 1997. [ask.com]
KPUY,KAYE, KUPY, KJUN, KKBY
Personalities: KAYE: Jim Nicholls, Dick Curtis, Herb Smiles, Bobby Simon, KUPY/KJUN: Johnny Clark, Lou Robbins, Sunshine Smith, Randi Thomas, Ray Brown, Heidi May, Bill Ogden [news], Kathy Magda, Bob McCoy, Steve Swan, Gisela’s Original German Hour;
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1460 SILENT as of February 2014 James Dalke -KIRKLAND
KCDI Country [1961 owned by Carl Haymond] sold to group with Haymond as principal [Thank you, Mike Cherry for the info!] Carl-Dek Inc — and became KYAC R&B in 1964, personalities included: Al Cummings, Tam Henry, Robert L Scott; 1975-KILO Progressive Rock [Glo-Lee Broadcasting]; 1979- Kirkland Broadcasting Corp {Community Pacific Bcstg- group owner) bought the station and ran an MOR format; Monroe Broadcasting [KGA Spokane] bought the station in 1982 and the call letters were changed to KGAA with Format changed to Country.
1984 station format remains Country, ownership stays the same, but the call letters change to KARR. 1986 Family Stations, new owner and new format: Religion. 1460 AM Sold to broadcast engineer James Dalke, a local gentleman, for $3000 in 2015.
Personalities: [KGAA] Ken Southern, Alex Ray, Charley Parker; [KYAC] – Pat Wright, Spencer Haywood
1480 KNTB Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin-LAKEWOOD
[rebroadcasts KBRO-KLDY] ; [original station established in 1958 KFHA] went dark in the 1960s, then became KOOD; Was later KQLA and later changed to KLAY before Clay huntington applied for move to 1180 kc. [see: KOOD/KFHA/KLAY 1480 history] KDFL-AM Lakewood Hank Perozzo operated KDFL Public Radio Associates (acq: 5-1-90) News/Talk and religious programming; Help Ministries Inc., (acq: 1993) Christian programming/German specialty program, Richard Ellison- Pres, Marty Hamstra – GM, Bud Henthorm – Ops Dir, Larry Lee- Prog Dir;
Dailey Broadcasting Inc. (acq 6-12-95). Format: Contemp Christian, Black gospel, urban. Target aud: 25-54.B Ed Dailey, pres& gen mgr; Ted Dailey, mus dir.
FTP Corp. (acq 2-5-99). Format: Hits of the 60s, 70s & 80s. Chris Hanley, gen mgr aired automated oldies with a large playlist mid-2000’s before switching to a short-lived gay/lesbian based talk format.
KNTB [call letters previously used in Bakersfield, CA.] is basically a repeater for KBRO 1490 Bremerton. This Lakewood station, at 1000 watts daytime, 111 watts night, can barely be heard in West Tacoma/University Place. An FM translator at 92.1 FM rebroadcasts this station for Tacoma/University Place. This station was part of a Northwest chain of stations broadcasting (ESPN Desportes) owned by Seattle Streaming Radio LLC until sold to Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin in April 2015, which put a Spanish-religious format on the small network.
Personalities: KFHA- RW Burdon-owner, Clay Freinwald PD/Chief Engineer, Clay Huntington-sports; 1969-KOOD The Golden Sound – Jerry Holzinger, Doug Taylor, MOR format in 1972 [GM];
1490 KBRO Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin -BREMERTON
This station was part of a Northwest chain of stations broadcasting (ESPN Desportes) owned by Seattle Streaming Radio LLC until sold to Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin in April 2015, which put a Spanish-religious format on the small network.
1520 KKXA (Classic Country) CAAM Partnership -SNOHOMISH
On the air during testing July 15 2011. Continous loop of songs mentioning “radio”.
The KKXA studios are shared with sister station KRKO at the Key Tower building in downtown Everett, Washington. Known on-air as “KXA” as a tribute to pioneering radio station KXA (770 AM). On October 11, 2011, KKXA began regular broadcasting at 4:00 pm with a classic country format branded as “Classic Country 1520 KXA”. The first song was “Simple Man” by Charlie Daniels.
KKXA broadcasts with 20,000 watts of power during the day and 50,000 watts during pre-sunset/post-sunrise hours and overnight utilizing a directional antenna. The station has an application on file with the FCC to broadcast full-time at 50,000 watts.
1540 KXPA (Spanish) Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee LLC
-BELLEVUE
1964 – KBVU owned by Northwest Broadcasters Inc ; KFKF [Kemper Freeman] moved KFKF from 1330 AM purchasing 1540 AM in 1968. Call letters of Freeman’s AM changed to KBES, 1975-KZAM – KZAM-AM was KZAM-FM’s sister station. From 1979 through 1981 it played exclusively punk and new wave music as the “Rock of the 80s”. DJs included: Greg McClure (Spudboy), Cindi Bemel, Kerry Loewen, Michael Stein, Leroy Henry and Stephen Rabow. In the spring of 1981 the station’s call letters were changed to KJZZ, with a jazz format that
foreshadowed the arrival of “smooth jazz.” 1983 call letters were KLSY, then in 1992-KBLV -briefly ran an automated R&B format [wikipedia info can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZAM_%28defunct%29
KBVU: Lee Knudsen, Charles Sheppard, Neil Richards, Jim Hartt, Bill Newland, Bob Gill; KFKF Personalities: Johnny Forrest – Newsman, Larry Nelson, Terry McManus, Don Riggs, Bill O’Mara, Jack Hemingway; KBES Personalities: Steve Montgomery, Frank Taylor, Jim O’Brien, Don Riggs, Chuck Mahaffey, Dick Cross, Kevin Kelly, Dave Allen, Mark Kaufman; KJZZ personalities: Jeff Hanley, Kasia Wilk, Chops Carlson, Nick Morrison, Mike Clover
1560 KZIZ (Gospel) Kris Bennett Broadcasting -PACIFIC
1590 KLFE (News/Talk)
Inspiration Media Inc. -SEATTLE
KTIX [owned by Hugh Ben Larue 1956], KETO 1964, KSND 1968 [Oldies], 1969: KSND’s experiment as one of the early pioneers of all-oldies rock, gave up and switched to Contemp. Country before switching back to oldies with the KUUU calls KUUU [Oldies then switched to MOR] 1972, KJET, KQUL, KZOK [Z Rock], KPOZ [Pozitive Christian Country], KLFE Changed from Christian talkradio to Conservative talkradio November 15, 2010.
Personalities: KTIX- Jerry Holzinger, Jack Hemingway, Russ Norman, Don Courtnay, Bill Chase; KETO: Dan Shannon; KSND: R.C. Bannon [PD], Bob Reece, Marco Marx, Robert O. Smith, Danny Holliday, Kirk Allison, Chris Hill/Dale Unruh, Bill Davidson, Squire Worthington, Jim Breedlove; KUUU: Scott Hodges/News Director, Mike Moran, Dave Day, Roger Dale, Bob Joy, John Ross, Gary Loving, Al Vanik [aka Gary Mitchell], Buddy Clyde/Hatton [Syndicated], Bob Summers, John Maynard, Kevin O’Brien, Fran Hawkins, Bill Rice, Mark Allen, Don Cristi,
RC Bannon, Ray Sebastian; KQUL- Brademan; KJET personalities: Steve Larson, Ernie Gilbert, Jim Keller and the all-nite fella Otto Pilot [didn’t say much, mainly spun the hits]
1620 KYIZ (R&B) Kris Bennett Broadcasting -RENTON
1680 KNTS (Spanish Religion) Inspiration Media Inc. -SEATTLE
88.5 KPLU (Jazz/NPR) Pacific Lutheran University *Studios in Seattle -licensed
to TACOMA
1966 up to mid-1980’s was 50% classical 50% jazz and a few NPR programs. Mid-80’s: dropped classical and added morning/afternoon news and NPR blocks to it’s all-jazz music programming [info: Mike Cherry] KPLU personalities: Dick Stein, Ruby Brown, Dale Bundren, Phil Harper, Jim Wilke, Carol Handley, Abe Beeson, John Maynard, Richard Hagar, John Kessler, Steve Slaton, Gary Crawford [thanks for the update, cjjazz!]
88.9 KMIH (Hip-Hop) Mercer Island School District -MERCER ISLAND
(formerly 104.5, moved when KMCQ moved-in to 104.5 Covington)
89.1 RadioU (Christian Modern Rock) Spirit Communications Incorporated of
Ohio – ISSAQUAH
Commercial-free, listener-supported with additional translators locally in Enumclaw 106.5 and Everett 91.5
89.3 KASB (Alternative) Bellevue School District -BELLEVUE
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89.5 KNHC (Hip-Hop) Nathan Hale High School -SEATTLE
1971; previously, 1969, the station was on the AM dial at 1210 [100 milliwatts] –After the Jack Straw Foundation sold KRAB 107.7 to commercial interests, they first applied to the FCC for a time-share on 89.5 with KNHC. This would have forced KNHC to reduce it’s full-time schedule and co-operate with the newly licensed station to divide up the broadcast day between the two stations. KNHC vigorously opposed this and managed to rally listeners, Seattle School District students, teachers, administrators and parents to mount a protest. After
wrangling in the courts for a few years, the FCC issued 90.7 Everett to the Jack Straw board, avoiding the time share issue — For many years KNHC aired black gospel on Sunday mornings
89.7 KWFJ (Religion/BBN Bible Broadcasting Network)
Calvary Baptist Church -ROY
89.9 KGHP (Rock) Peninsula High School -GIG HARBOR
KGHP-FM (89.9), is a student-run high school radio station operating on a non-commercial license in Gig Harbor, Washington. Owned by the Peninsula School District #401, the station’s studio is located on the campus of Peninsula High School. With its two translators, K207AZ 89.3 and K229BL 93.7, the station’s signal covers most of Gig Harbor, Key Peninsula and portions of Tacoma.
The station came on the air in 1988 and was one of three high school radio station in the state of Washington. The first manager and teacher was Don Hofmann, a former KNBQ-FM general manager. KSTW-TV technician Max Bice was the engineer.
The multi-format station is run by students at Peninsula High School and Gig Harbor High School during the day, and in the evening to night hours it is run by community volunteers. The station gives a variety of shows from the students which range from sports broadcasts to classic rock.
A variety of genres is played, including Jazz, Blues, Reggae, Roots & Americana, Classic rock and vintage music. As the station is also an educational tool for the students, KGHP also runs news briefs and fact segments, at various times throughout the day, along with taking requests via the phone. The station also provides emergency information during power outages and severe storms, and natural disasters.
89.9 KGRG (Top 40) Green River Community College -AUBURN
90.1 KUPS (Metal/Hip-Hop) University of Puget Sound -TACOMA
1975; previously operated as a closed-circuit campus AM station (1968)
90.3 KEXP (Alternative) University of Washington -SEATTLE
KCMU 1972 (90.5) switched to 90.3 frequency in 1986
Personalities: John Kertzer KCMU/KEXP
90.7 KSER (Talk) Jack Straw Foundation -EVERETT
(Former owners of KRAB)
90.9 KVTI (Classical-Northwest Public Radio NWPR) Clover Park Schools
-LAKEWOOD
For many, many years KVTI was “I-91? offering CHR/top 40 hosted by students.
Effective Monday, June 21, 2010, Washington State University’s Northwest Public Radio assumed management of Clover Park Technical College’s radio station KVTI, 90.9 FM. With this management change came a new music format, switching from Contemporary Top 40 to Classical and NPR News. Clover Park Technical College and Washington State University announced this new partnership in April with Northwest Public Radio, a service of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. While WSU will operate the station, Clover Park will
retain the license and ownership. As part of the transition, the station went off the air starting Friday, June 18 and remained off the air through the weekend. Monday morning began the first day of the new format.
[1955] KCPS, KPEC MOR/AC
91.3 KBCS (Folk, Jazz, Variety) Pacifica Foundation -BELLEVUE
91.5 RadioU (Christian Modern Rock) Spirit Communications Incorporated of
Ohio – EVERETT
Commercial-free, listener-supported with additional translators locally in Enumclaw 106.5 and Issaquah 89.1
91.7 KYFQ (RELIGION) Bible Broadcasting Network -TACOMA
Operated by Tacoma Public Schools at Tacoma from Voc-Tech from 1949-1969; Bates Voc-Tech 1969-1986: KTOY was a great launching pad for many radio people. Many are still in the business locally and across the USA. KTOY programmed Top 40 [with R&B on weekends]. Instructors included Lee Perkins, Chuck Ellsworth, Al McMillan, Darren Lamb, Ken Keigley & Bill Luckhurst; KTPS FM Variety 1986-1992, KBTC FM Variety 1992-2004; 2004- 91.7 KXOT (Variety) NPR – Public Radio Capital licensed to KEXP; May 2006 KUOW licensed the station to
broadcast secondary programming of its affiliation with the BBC and NPR. PRC had been seeking an operator for KXOT for a few years. From 2006 until July 2012 KXOT was operated by the University Of Washington as KUOW2, a secondary service of their 94.9 KUOW-FM Seattle. After a period off-the-air, KXOT was simulcasting the audio of cable public affairs network TVW, a local equivalent of C-SPAN since the start of 2013. SOLD to Bible Broadcasting Network for $2.4 million in February 2015 and given KYFQ call letters.
Personalities: KTOY- Lou Robbins, Brent Stier, Lynn Benson, Dewey Boynton, David Sawyer, Slim/Leslie Nielsen, Dennis LaMarche, Rick Nordlund, Mario Briones, Martin Moreno, Jim Bach, Pat O’Day/Paul Berg, Chuck Ellsworth/Lee Perkins/Russ Stringham/Al McMillan-instructors, Ken Keigley & Bill Luckhurst -Chief Engineers 60/70s — other alumni of KTOY? Contact us!
92.1
(K221FJ) Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin -TACOMA
[rebroadcasts KBRO-KNTB-KLDY] This station was part of a Northwest chain of stations broadcasting (ESPN Desportes) owned by Seattle Streaming Radio LLC until sold to Iglesia Pentecostal Visperia Del Fin in April 2015, which put a Spanish-religious format on the small network.
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92.5 KQMV (Rhythmic CHR)
Hubbard -SEATTLE
[Wikipedia info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZAM_%28defunct%29 ] 1961 KZAM Negro R&B, Jazz & Gospel, 1964 purchased by Kemper Freeman KFKF MOR simulcast with 1330 AM KFKF (the AM moved to 1540 frequency in 1968) In 1969, KFKF-FM was airing “Hit Parade 70? as a top-40 station before KIRO-FM picked up the format and syndicated/automated ‘Hit Parade’ package– 1972 call letters KBES MOR – 1975 KZAM AOR — Nick Morrison, Carol Handley, Joni Baltzer, Lelani McCoy, Marion Seymour, Bruce Buls, Steve Slaton, Jeff
Hanley, news director Denny Fleenor; Jon Kertzman, Wade Fisher/Chris Jeffries, Dean Carlson, 1983 KLSY Top 40, November 2010, KQMV GM Marc Kaye announces transition of Movin’ from [Hip Hop] to more mainstream “Top 40?.
Personalities: KZAM- [JAZZ} Joe Jones, Clarence Jones, Tee Alexander, Jim Babcock, Albert Tucker, Leroy Ray, Chris Wadsworth, Gordon DeWitty, Tommy Woolridge, Bob Summerise, Larry Braxton, Marty Wyatt, Sonny Buxton, Lou Coaston, Lonnie Williams …. ROCK: Tom Corddry (founding program director), Davidson Corry, Shelley Morrison, Leilani McCoy, Marian Seymour, Jeff Hanley, Jeff Heiman, Steve Suplin, Jude Noland, Lee Somerstein, Joni Balter, Nick Morrison, Jim Stutzman, Bruce Buls, Nils Von Veh, Carol Handley, Stephen Rabow,
Steve Slaton, news director Denny Fleenor; Jon Kertzman, Dean Carlson, Diamond Jack Brady, Larry Snyder, Dave Scott, Bruce Funkhouser, Robert L. Scott, Paul Carlson, Matt Reidy, Steve Ward, Ken Vincent, and Michael Soto; [thanks for the updates, cjjazz & Brian Lord]; KBES- Lou Gillette [News] KLSY- John Bates, Janet Wilson, Jeff Conwell, Bobby Irwin, Larry Lomax, John Nixon, Alice Porter, John Thomas, Jim Williams, Delilah Rene, Bruce Murdock, Tim Hunter, Dave Sloan, Bob Brooks, Charlie Bush, Tony Marcus, John Rohde, Kelly Marshall,
Bob Allen-weekends, Jim Bee, Jim Norwood, Randi Thomas-weekends [Lights Out], Pete Lukovich – Lights Out – Saturday; KFKF – Steve Montgomery, Ron MacArthur, Dick Ellingson, Stas Loutas, Larry Nelson, Gene Larson, John Forrest, Jack Hemingway; KQMV: Jim Kampmann, Jubal Flagg, Brooke Fox, Maynard, Mason, Justin, Kel, Cooper [weekends];
93.3 KUBE (Hip-Hop) Clear Channel Communications -SEATTLE
original 1962 application by owners of KNBX 1050 Kirkland asked for call sign ‘KOTO’. Eastside Broadcasting also owned KARI 550 Blaine and had an application for 104.3 Bellingham with the KBLE calls issued! 104.3 ended up being KERI and 93.3 KBLE-FM [1964] signed-on with “The Nashville Sound” and has a few religous programs late evenings presumably after the AM had signed off at sunset. KBLE-FM maintained this mix of country and religion for it’s entire duration. KBLE-FM was always hampered by it’s mono signal and lack of audio
processing which gave the music it played a very ‘flat’ sound
Personalities: KBLE- Norm Abel, Larry Wade, Al Workman, Al Clarke; KUBE- Charlie Brown, Eric Powers, Shellie Hart, Bob Case, Ty Flint, Tom Huytler, Barry Beck, Kelly Bridges, Stitch Mitchell, Jerry Hart, Diane McKenzie, Jeff West, Mark Andrews, Todd Baker, Scott Burns, Gary Bryan, Ron Erak, Michael O’Shea, Scott Ingram, Rick Reynolds, Bruce Butterfield, Bill Rice, Eddie Francis, Karen Wild, Nessa, Eric Powers & Dirty Harry, DJ Supasam. Weekender: Harrison Woods.
93.7 KLSY – (Spanish-Religion)
Centro Familia Cristiano – Ocean Shores/Montesano
formerly KANY-Josh Broadcasting LLC/Country “Big Foot Country” This station received its original construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission on March 25, 2005. The new station was assigned the KANY call sign by the FCC on October 13, 2005.
While still under construction, College Creek Media, LLC, reached an agreement in December 2006 to sell this station to Jodesha Broadcsting, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on January 23, 2007, and the transaction was consummated on March 16, 2007. KANY received its license to cover from the FCC on March 27, 2008. [Wiki] April 2012/FCC granted license assignment of license for KANY-FM 93.7 Montesano from Jodesha Broadcasting, Inc to Josh Broadcasting, LLC.
Personalities: Doug McDowell
94.1 KMPS (Country) CBS Radio -SEATTLE
[1961] 1961:KOL-FM mono, full-time Top 40 simulcast of KOL-AM; 1967: simulcast AM 6am-6pm w/Top 40? 6PM: “Progressive/Underground rock” – some of this was pre-recorded and voice-tracked by KOL-AM DJ Terry McManus, other shifts were hosted live. In 1970, KOL-FM boosted it’s output to 100,000 watts making it heard all over the northwest as far north as Vancouver & Victoria. To kick off their high power signal, they did a full weekend of live concert albums played in their entirety. Terry McManus and the KOL production team assembled
this to sound as if it was a continuous rock concert and billed the weekend as such.
Personalities: Bruce Buls (spelling??) Robin Mitchell Sept 1973: drops AOR, flips to automated Top-40; 1975: Purchased by Plough Broadcasting, flips to KEUT (beautiful/EZ listening); February 1, 1978:KMPS-FM (country) simulcast morning & afternoon drive, otherwise separate [thanks for the timeline: Mike Cherry] Personalities: KMPS- Fred Zaehler [KOL FM], Maxine Sartori, Dave Allen, Big Al Helseth, Peter Vail, Darryl Despie, Patrick McDonald, Rich Fitzgerald, John Chambless, Rick Stuart, Lee Rogers, Phil Harper, Bob Kelly, Mike O’Connor,
Roger Dale, Ron Norwood, Todd Stacker, Ken Moultrie, Tam Henry [Weekends], Buck Wade, Steve Blackburn, Patti Par, Gary Vance, Greg Thunder, Jim Williams, Art Lind, Big Ed Dunaway, Dewey Boynton, Charley Parker, Becky Brenner, Jay Lawrence, Don Riggs, Ichabod Caine, Scallops, Tall Paul Fredricks, Stubbs, Tony Thomas, Jennifer Wood, Derek Murray, Jaye Albright, Jack Allen, Frank Catalano, Brady Wright, Dick Ellingson, Daryl Webster, Johnson & Johnson, Stephen Kilbreath, Cornbread [named 2009 Country Music Association Major
Market Personality of the Year **WIL Radio], the Outlaw Pat Garrett, Dakota and Greg Valentine
94.5 KRXY (Contemporary & Classic Rock) Premier Broadcasting -SHELTON
Bobby Hart mornings, Kris Marshall, Gail Adams and Ron Harris
94.9 KUOW (Classical/NPR) University of Washington -SEATTLE
1948: KING-FM. Seattle’s first FM station, KRSC-FM was on 98.1. When KUOW launched, it was first on 90.5 which later would become the second station licensed to UOW as student-run KCMU (now KEXP 90.3). When the Bullitts purchased KRSC-FM & TV on May 6, 1949 for $375,000, (Jessica Longston retained ownership of KRSC-AM 1150), they moved KING-FM to 98.1 and donated the 94.9 facility to the Univ of Wash for KUOW [thanks for the timeline: Mike Cherry] Personalities: Mark Wayne, Bill Snoopy, Robert L. Scott, Carolyn Adolph, Ashley
Ahearn, Jenny Asarnow, Elizabeth Austen, Dave Beck, Ruby de Luna, Ann Dornfeld, Phyllis Fletcher, Nathan Friend, Jim Gates, Jeff Hansen, Jamala Henderson, Arvid Hokanson, Andy Hurst, David Hyde, Tami Kosch, Liz Jones, Sara Lerner, Patricia Murphy, Guy Nelson, Arwen Nicks, Bill O’Grady, Bernard Ouellette, Jason Pagano, Amy Radil, Ross Reynolds, John Ryan, Steve Scher, Katy Sewall, Marcie Sillman, Rachel Solomon, Megan Sukys, Sarah Waller, Jack Walters, Derek Wang, Deborah Wang, Amanda Wilde, Rob Wood, Jeannie Yande,
95.3 KYYO HD2 (Oldies KGY/CBS) Replacing the AM KGY, which was sold to
Catholic radio Sacred Heart, ending local, family operation of one of the oldest
radio stations in Washington State. – KGY Inc -McCleary
95.7 KJR (70s/80s)
Clear Channel Communications -SEATTLE
[1960] KGMJ co-owned with KVOS Bellingham, [1963] KIXI Easy Listening [1963], KLTX Adult Contemporary [1980], KMBX and then KBTB “The Beat” – KJR FM has flipped from Classic Rock to Oldies, most recently on December 26, 2010. THE JET moniker replaced KJR call letters in August 2014. Bob Rivers “retired” and Steve Slayton also left the station. Jodie Brothers Blau and Marty Riemer took over the morning show in October 2014 on the JET.
Personalities: KIXI: Robert O. Smith, Terry MacDonald, Dan Murphy, Jim Martin, Don Simon [PD], Bill Norton [PD], Paul Wallace, Dave Ryan [Dave Sawyer]; KLTX- Chad Douglas, Jimmy Anderson, Glen Martin, Jim Dai, Sandy Hamilton – weekends; KBTB: Bill Rice KJR FM: Todd Baker, Charlie Brown, Gary Bryan, Mark Edwards, Mike Forrester, Brian Gregory, Janet Wilson, Norm Gregory, Ric Hansen, JJ Hemingway, Jon Jensen, Jerry Kaye, Glen Martin/Glen McCartney, Michael O’Shea, Bill Rice, Kacie Sommers, Jackson Dell Weaver, Heidi May, Randy
Lundquist, Suzanne Strickland/Suzanne Thunder, Dave Yates, Mark Bronson, Bob Rivers, Steve Slaton, Jodie Brothers, Lori Bradley, Seth Thompson, Dan Roberts, “Spike” O’Neil, Joe “Downtown Joe” Bryant; Marty Reimer
96.1 KXXO (Adult Contemporary) 3 Cities -OLYMPIA
KXXO personalities: Smilin’ Jay Andrews, Larry Lomax, R.P. McMurphy & Ann D’Angelo, Jennifer Mathis, Jessica West, Dave Mann, and Joe Riley. Weekenders: JJ Syrja, Cari Palmer, Tip Felts and Tammy Tillinghast, Bill Ogden.
96.5 KJAQ (Adult Contemporary/Classic Rock) CBS Radio -SEATTLE
[1959] KLSN MOR/Easy Listening original owners= Sight & Sound, KYAC R&B 1973-1977, KYYX AOR owned by Pat O’Day, co-owned with KXA by Pat O’Day
Download audio file (kkmi.mp3)
KKMI Soft AC
KQKT Top 40, KXRX AOR sold in 1994 by Shamrock Broadcasting to Alliance Broadcasting, KYCW Country, KYPT 80s, KRQI Classic Alternative
Personalities: KLSN- Big Bob Anthony; KYYX- Lan Roberts, Eric McKay, Bobby Simon, Stephen Rabow, Matt Alan, Jimmy Anderson, Pat O’Day, Jerry Kaye, Brent Larson, Robin Mitchell, Moose Moran, Bob Summers; KKMI- Emperor Bob Hudson, Larry Lomax, Pat O’Day, Dick Curtis, Sam Lee; KQKT- Rick Austin, Myles Cameron, Howie Castle, Gary Semro; KYYX: Eric McKay; KYCW- Brademan, Scotty Brink, Uncle Wynn, Daryl Webster, Ken Moultrie; KYPT- Jason Prater, Tommy Hough, Bill Reid, Tami Bennett, ; KXRX- Gary Crow, Mike West, Beau
Roberts, Robin Erickson, John Maynard, Marty Riemer, Brew Michaels, Dean Carlson, Scott Vanderpool, KQKT “KQ96? aired “Art Good’s Jazztrax” syndicated show Sunday nights 7pm-11pm
96.9 KYYO (‘KAYO’ Country) KGY Inc. -MCCLEARY
Changed call letters to KYYO December 2013…February 25, 2012 KGY-FM changed their format to country, branded as “South Sound Country”. Previously, Contemporary with an Oldies mix July 2010. Previous Country format continued on an alternate HD channel.
Personalities: Doug Dahlgren, Nat George, Kevin “The Busman”, Brittni Jean, Val Vaughn, Smilin’ Jay Andrews, Kevin Huffer, Nathan Lee, Steve George [News Director], Brad Frederickson
97.3 KIRO (News/Talk–CBS) Bonneville -TACOMA
[1948] KTNT MOR [Country for a few years in the 60s], KNBQ January 1976 [Began as automated Top 40 syndicated music from Broadcast Programming Inc., Bellingham; PD was Ed Dollar]—1985 Top 40, KBSG 1985 Oldies; switched to KIRO FM August 2008;
Personalities: KTNT FM: Mike Altman; KNBQ: Tim Edwards, Dancin’ Danny Wright, Gary Bryan, Bob Reece, Ron Erak, Jay Philpott, Jaynie Jones, Matt Alan, Jerry Hill, Steve Randall, Beau Rockin’ Roberts, Sean Lynch, Ron Harris, Harve Allen, Jennifer Michaels, Sandy Louie, Jeff Randall, Joel Block, Romie Cole [Thanks! to Brian Lord for assitions to this list]; KBSG: Ric [Richard Mattson] Hansen, Fastlane Phillips, Kacie Sommers, Wade Fisher/Chris Jeffries, Vic Orlando, Chet Rogers, Mark Christopher, Joe [Fleischauer] Michaels, Kim Wilson; Keith
Abrams, Scott Burns, Laura Dane, Ron Erak, Roger Pasquier, Mike Forrester, Jay Coffey, Danny Holiday, Jerry Kaye, Jim LaMarca, Dan Packard, Fastlane Phillips, John Ross, Kacie Sommers, Bobby Ryan, Gary Ryan, Brent Stier, Corry Reynolds, Scott Phillips, Judy St. John, Jerry Hill [weekender].
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KIRO: Mike Jones, Janet Wilson [traffic reporter], Mike West, Linda Thomas, Dori Monson, Luke Burbank, Dave Ross, John Curley, Frank Shiers, Ron Upshaw, Don O’Neill, Bill Radke, Tom Tangney, Rachel Belle, Brandi Kruse, Jason Rantz
97.7 KOMO (News–ABC) Sinclair Broadcast Group -OAKVILLE
KFMY (Classic Hits “The Eagle”) South Sound Broadcasting
Personalities: KOMO- Greg Hersholt, Bill Yeend, Manda Factor, Herb Weisbaum, Jane Shannon, John Carlson, Ken Schram; KFMY: Norm Gregory
98.1 KING (Classical) Classic Radio Inc. -SEATTLE
[originally at 94.9 FM until August 25, 1949 when KING Broadcasting purchased KRSC FM/98.1 and KRSC TV 5 for $375,000] Personalities: Wayne Bryant, Mary Fain, Brad Eaton, Jim Wilke, Tom Olson, Tom Dahlstrom, George Sangrow, Bryan Lowe, Peter Newman, Dave Beck, Michael Brooks, Lisa Bergman, Marta Zekan, Sean MacLean
98.9 KLCK (Modern Rock) Hubbard -SEATTLE
1949 KOMO FM, silent in 1953; 1958 KMCS Easy Listening owner: MarketCasters Inc, [the people that brought you supermarket background music] and just a change of call letters in October 1965 KBBX Easy Listening – then in 1972 (Music Only For A Woman) –— December 1975 station sold to *Park Broadcasting and became KEZX Easy Listening; [Mike Cherry writes: “they were essentially an AAA/soft-rock format from the mid-eighties until it flipped to KWJZ in 1991. Their progressive, free-wheeling format included jazz, folk, reggae and vintage
tracks. To my ears, it was the logical successor to KZAM (the 2nd one)”] …As KEZX slowly morphed from beautiful/EZ listening to an AAA/adult-progressive station during its long life, Park Broadcasting owner Roy Park had no idea that this was happening. As an out-of-market owner, he assumed his property in Seattle was airing the same ‘elevator music’ heard on his other stations. As the story is told, somewhere around 1991 he made a personal appearance in Seattle and arrived in station manager Peg Dempsey’s office. To his horror, KEZX
wasn’t airing Frank Mills, Kenny G or The Carpenters but instead The Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, Robert Cray, Tom Waits & Quarterflash were blasting out of the hallway monitors with plenty of KEZX IDs – no mistaking what Mr Park heard that day!!! A few weeks later, suddenly one Monday morning with NO warning whatsoever, our beloved free-wheeling KEZX was gone and Frank Mills, The Carpenters and Living Strings were back!!! A rather vocal, noisy protest by KEZX listeners made no difference! Sometime shortly after, KEZX flipped to the
newly popular ‘smooth-jazz’ format and adopted the KWJZ calls…Smooth Jazz KWJZ; switched to a Modern Rock format as Click 98.9 on December 27, 2010
Personalities: KMCS: Mark Wayne; KEZX:Tami Bennett, Jill Kenly, Suzanne Strickland/Suzanne Thunder, Janet Wilson, Cedric James, Robert L. Scott, Dianna Rose, Carol Handley, Peyton Mays, Abbi Kaplan, Jay Phillips, John Nelson, Jack Allen, Leilani McCoy, Alice Porter, Neil Scott, J.J. Hemingway, Norman B., Gretchen Hart, Dean Carlson, John Posey, Wes Longino, Charlie Burd. KLCK: Dan Kennedy, Alicia, Tanner, and Nic.
99.3 KDDS (Hispanic) Bustos Media Holdings -ELMA
99.9 KISW (AOR) Entercom -SEATTLE
Original owner: E.W. Lippincott; Was a Classical music station in the 60s – 1969: the station was purchased by Kaye-Smith, a partnership of famed entertainer Danny Kaye and Lester Smith. At that time Kaye-Smith, owners of the number one pop music station in Seattle, KJR-AM. By 1971 KISW had switched to a rock based progressive or underground style of format pioneered by Tom Donahue at KMPX and KSAN in San Francisco. [Wikipedia] Personalities: Don Riggs, Dick Lawrence, Ron Lind, Dan Wilke, Al Cummings [1971], Jack Hemingway,
Steve Nicolet, Steve Slaton, Duane Smart, Tracy Mitchell, Terry MacDonald, Brent Alberts, Mike West, Jim Kampmann, Steve Norby, Brent Alberts, Spencer Haywood, Gary Crow, Lee Michaels, Bob Hovanes, John Evans, John Langan later known as C. Foster Kane, Ron Chavis, Paige Claire, Jim Arnold, Tommy Hough, Steve Akrish, Larry Sharp; “Sharpie”, Steve Cooper, Paul Chambers, John Lisle, Jesse Brandon, Dr. Rock Jeff McIntosh, Carla Steele, John Napier, Rick Evens, Mike Luchino, Dan Wilke, Marie McCallister, Beau Roberts, Gary Bryan,
John Maynard, Robin Erickson, Lisa Walker, Dean Carlson, Cathy Faulkner, Mike Jones, Damon Stewart, Sky Daniels, Steve Young, Jon Ballard, “Scott ‘the worm’ Vanderpool”, Mike Bell, John Rody, Twisted Radio (Bob Rivers, “Spike” O’Neil, Joe “Downtown Joe” Bryant), Steve O’Neill (Steve,O), Bill Reid, Mr. T (Mike Trochalakis), Andy Guyer, Adam Gehrke, John Sebastian, Lisa Wood, Reed Wacker, Rover, Kylee Brooks, Tommy Hough, Andy Schuon, Scott Forrest, Ditch, Kenna, Will Dixon, Seaman, Ricker, Double R, BJ Shea, Ryan Castle, Jolene,
Miles Montgomery, Steve “The Thrill” Hill, Ted Smith, Ben Muppet
100.7 KKWF (Country) Entercom -SEATTLE
[1948] KIRO-FM MOR – other formats included Album-Oriented Rock (1967-1970) Top 40 “Hit Parade 70 & 71; flipping to Beautiful Music in 1971 with ads that said “Goodbye Beatles, Hello Mancini” and similar), Beautiful music (1971-1989 as KSEA), Adult Contemporary (1989-1992 as KWMX), All-News (1992-1994 as KIRO-FM, again) and All-Talk (1994 to 1997 as KIRO-FM; 1997 to 2005 as KQBZ), flipped formats to its current incarnation on November 30, 2005. [Wikipedia] Personalities: KSEA- Steve Schy, Frank Shiers, Rich Germaine, Dave Young, Dan
Murphy, Jack Allen, Milo King, Mark Edwards, Bill Thomas, Bill Rice, Bill Wippel, Mike Moran, Greg Cook, Anne Barnaby, Tom Huytler, Frank Shiers; KWMX Mix 101: Greg Cook, Dan Murphy, Tom Huytler, Scott Burns, Dave Young, Fitz in the morning, DeAnna Lee, Nick at Nite, and Wingnut; [Thanks! to Brian Lord for some additions to this list]
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