KUBE has now been gone from the Pacific Northwest for a couple years. And while it was a big station for many years, it also existed in more than one incarnation -- notably, it was a mainstream (even adult-leaning) Top 40 powerhouse for much of the 80s, and then it was a rhythmic CHR powerhouse starting in the 90s (except for a brief foray into a spectacularly unsuccessful rhythmic/modern rock hybrid).
But what I have is some audio from the beginning, back in 1981. Not quite the very beginning, but close. The actual beginning was March 17, 1981, when First Media bought religious KBLE-FM and flipped it to an automated Top 40 format while they built new studios for their station. That automated format ran for around four months before they had the new studio ready and flipped to their live format with DJs. At this point, they hadn't gotten the KUBE call letters yet, and were still KBLE-FM, so they just identified themselves on air as "The New 93", but this really is the beginning of KUBE-FM.
I didn't catch the flip from religion to automated Top 40 on March 17, but I did have a tape rolling when they were ready to kick off their live format.
The kickoff consisted of an almost seven minute montage of Seattle radio through the years -- In it, you will hear a mix of musical snips from the start of the rock & roll era through to the 1980, intersperse with clips from classic Seattle stations such as KJR(AM), KING(AM), KZOK, KVI-FM, KOMO(AM), KVI-AM, KIRO(AM), KISW, KZAM, before fading away as "Listen to the Music" from the Doobie Brothers played. At that point, then GM Michael O'Shea came on to announce the new format, and the music guarantee of at least 51 minutes of music each hour outside drive time, with a $10,000 prize for anyone who catches them not meeting that guarantee.
So here are attached files with the montage and with the Michael O'Shea's announcement through the announcement of the $10,000 prize. So for those who are interested, you can listen to either or both of those segments as attachments here. Note that for the montage, I had to chop it down substantially to make it small enough to attach -- I left the radio station clips, but cut out a lot of the music clips to get it to fit.
I hope this brings back memories to a few folks...and for others who may have listened to KUBE-FM later on, perhaps it is interesting to hear how it began.
But what I have is some audio from the beginning, back in 1981. Not quite the very beginning, but close. The actual beginning was March 17, 1981, when First Media bought religious KBLE-FM and flipped it to an automated Top 40 format while they built new studios for their station. That automated format ran for around four months before they had the new studio ready and flipped to their live format with DJs. At this point, they hadn't gotten the KUBE call letters yet, and were still KBLE-FM, so they just identified themselves on air as "The New 93", but this really is the beginning of KUBE-FM.
I didn't catch the flip from religion to automated Top 40 on March 17, but I did have a tape rolling when they were ready to kick off their live format.
The kickoff consisted of an almost seven minute montage of Seattle radio through the years -- In it, you will hear a mix of musical snips from the start of the rock & roll era through to the 1980, intersperse with clips from classic Seattle stations such as KJR(AM), KING(AM), KZOK, KVI-FM, KOMO(AM), KVI-AM, KIRO(AM), KISW, KZAM, before fading away as "Listen to the Music" from the Doobie Brothers played. At that point, then GM Michael O'Shea came on to announce the new format, and the music guarantee of at least 51 minutes of music each hour outside drive time, with a $10,000 prize for anyone who catches them not meeting that guarantee.
So here are attached files with the montage and with the Michael O'Shea's announcement through the announcement of the $10,000 prize. So for those who are interested, you can listen to either or both of those segments as attachments here. Note that for the montage, I had to chop it down substantially to make it small enough to attach -- I left the radio station clips, but cut out a lot of the music clips to get it to fit.
I hope this brings back memories to a few folks...and for others who may have listened to KUBE-FM later on, perhaps it is interesting to hear how it began.
