Seattle Radio 1986

[davideduardo]

I came across a copy of the Blair Radio market competitive analysis for Seattle from 1986. Blair was a radio rep firms which presented its represented stations to national advertisers.

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Modern-Era-Miscellaneous/Blair-Radio-Combined.pdf

Scroll to the last pages in this PDF for Seattle.

 

[xmtrland]

Actually it's 1986. They have the power for KING 1090 wrong it should be 50,000 watts. Interesting read!

No KMO 1360 but 1380 KBAE showed up. Love the old KXA, last truly upgradable AM signal in Seaattle.

 

[AQH]

Clickbait by OP/"co-administrator" is okay.

Mention the passing of a Seattle radio pro, remove the thread.

 

[seatownmedia]

Yes, this analysis is from April 1986. Interesting stuff...a lot was going on in Seattle radio in the mid-80's. This was a period when the market had four Top40's, KPLZ, KUBE, KNBQ, and KHIT, (which was not included in this analysis, likely because it was licensed to Bremerton, though it could be heard in most of the metro.) The K-Plus moniker was changed to Z101.5 sometime in 1986, IIRC. Jeff King is mentioned here as giving up the PD duties and eventually leaving mornings, paving the way for Kent & Alan to begin their 30+ year run on KPLZ.

 

[davideduardo]

Clickbait by OP/"co-administrator" is okay.

Mention the passing of a Seattle radio pro, remove the thread.

The Radio Discussions board has a place for all notices of the passing of radio folks and people from related industries. There is no "re"-moving, just a moving.*

"Click bait" implies some kind of commercial gain from a link. My website takes no advertising, sells and charges nothing and is totally free; it's been sustained by, and for the visibility, of my consulting business for over a decade at a cost in the mid six figure area to preserve some of the journals and printed material from our heritage as broadcasters and listeners.

I was given the Blair market reviews, and I immediately thought that people on this board would enjoy seeing a 30-year-old detail of the formats and characteristics of the market done by a professional broadcast sales organization. If anyone else thinks that this reminder of Seattle radio history is inappropriate, I'll delete the thread.

I think someone got a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking.

* This was done because, otherwise, we had postings of the same losses in multiple forum sections, all saying the same thing.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually it's 1986. They have the power for KING 1090 wrong it should be 50,000 watts. Interesting read!

No KMO 1360 but 1380 KBAE showed up. Love the old KXA, last truly upgradable AM signal in Seaattle.

More interesting since KING was the Blair-represented AM in the market. They should know their own station!

 

[Kelly A]

I found the whole comparison of news coverage and type seemingly being the headline of each. Got a chuckle of the mention of news on KISW, which even back in the 80's, was very much a rock full-on music station. They did a tiny bit of news in AM drive, but it was pretty well buried.

 

[DMK]

David thanks for sharing this. This brings back lots of memories (I was a 9th grader in April 86). It's interesting to note how many stations provided news headlines and/or sports reports during the day.

 

[Kelly A]

Clickbait by OP/"co-administrator" is okay.

Mention the passing of a Seattle radio pro, remove the thread.

What's your deal? Rather than snarky remarks, why not bring something interesting or informative?

 

[crainbebo]

Transstar AC on KARR 1460 in 1986 - so they had soft rock off the satellite dish?
KEZX's format is completely wrong...was more of an Adult Album Alternative station, with the 'west coast sound.' Interesting that 95.7 could have been 'Sunny' and KSNE! Those calls are sitting at 106.5 Las Vegas now.

 

[TheBigA]

Transstar AC on KARR 1460 in 1986 - so they had soft rock off the satellite dish?

It's interesting to read how many companies were still distributing music formats on reel tape in the 80s, but TranStar was satellite. NPR was the first to distribute by Westar (owned by Western Union) in 1979. Mutual Broadcasting came along in 1980. Then TranStar, SMN, ABC, and NBC. I think they were all on SatCom, owned by RCA.

 

[seatownmedia]

The Radio Discussions board has a place for all notices of the passing of radio folks and people from related industries. There is no "re"-moving, just a moving.*

"Click bait" implies some kind of commercial gain from a link. My website takes no advertising, sells and charges nothing and is totally free; it's been sustained by, and for the visibility, of my consulting business for over a decade at a cost in the mid six figure area to preserve some of the journals and printed material from our heritage as broadcasters and listeners.

I was given the Blair market reviews, and I immediately thought that people on this board would enjoy seeing a 30-year-old detail of the formats and characteristics of the market done by a professional broadcast sales organization. If anyone else thinks that this reminder of Seattle radio history is inappropriate, I'll delete the thread.

I think someone got a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking.

* This was done because, otherwise, we had postings of the same losses in multiple forum sections, all saying the same thing.

Thank you David. We don't always agree, but you do bring a lot of experience to how radio stations and media work. This was a great post, as shown by the response.

I once didn't understand R-D's "in memoriam" thread, but I quickly realized this was the best way to handle the subject.

 

[boombox4]

Brings back a few memories.... KING-AM was all talk and news... Jim Altoff. I remember his show.

Where did he go?

 

[Bongwater]

Brings back a few memories.... KING-AM was all talk and news... Jim Altoff. I remember his show.

Where did he go?

Jim Altoff became a Classical jock on KFUO-FM in St. Louis. KFUO became KLJY, a CCM station several years ago. But that's the last I heard of him.