KTW is back.......

[radiojj]

Looks like Tom Read---who loves grabbing old Seattle call letters and transporting them elsewhere has done it again---at least partially. He recently acquired 630AM from the KXLY grounp and spun off his 970AM to Catholic Radio.

On 630---they are now billing themselves as: "The Fabulous 630----KTW Mutual Broadcasting System." I kidd you not. Legally they are still KXLI, but he may be applying for the call letters KKTW---I checked and they are available.

For those of you that haven't kept track.....here's the moves of old Seattle call letters to Tom's stations:

KGDN(the old 630/KCIS call letters for "King's Garden") is now in the Tri-Cities

KTAC(the old 850/KHHO call letters for "Tacoma") are now in Ephrata-Moses Lake

And now KTW---obviously he can't have the 3-letter calls, but KKTW will work. The only thing odd about this----most folks in Eastern Washington don't remember those call letters since they were in Seattle. But, then again it's kinda cool that Tom is trying to keep those get set of call letters alive.

As far as Tom's programming on 630.....a rather unusual mix of some Christian Talk, Health Shows, Beautiful Music, Old Radio Shows, some big-band/Sinatra stuff and University of Idaho Football on the weekend. During the broadcasts---you still hear the originating station giving their liners after a break----"Vandal Football on 'Border 104'." You'd think Tom would have some way of removing those----it would be like a Mariners network station running a KOMO ID after every commercial break---just sounds so out of place and wrong!

And rarely do you hear an advertisement on 630----some trade stuff for a body shop and a web hosting service, but that's about it.

You do hear Bill Whipple---who used to work for KIXI back in the 60's and 70's with my dad now doing some of Tom's liners and id's. So now it's not just "All Tom Read Radio." It's funny from Midnight til 2am, he is playing light classics and show tunes, with the canned intro from the 60's----"This is Bob Consie----with music til dawn." I think Bob Consie was one of IGM's old personalities in the 60's---along with Larry Nelson and some others IGM used for their automated music service they provided way back when.

Well...there's the story of KTW---and Mutual Broadcasting System once again on the air here in Washington State.....isn't Mutual Broadcasting System trademarked??? Perhaps not anymore.....remember the old Mutual News and Sports sounders----in Seattle you'd hear them on 1150/KAYO before they switched to the old ABC Entertainment Network for their network news and sports.

There's the latest radio scoop from the Inland Northwest.... <P ID="signature">______________
Your Spokane & Seattle Radio Pal..and Seattle Moderator...

J.J. Hemingway</P>

 

[TheOriginalLarry]

> Looks like Tom Read---who loves grabbing old Seattle call
> letters and transporting them elsewhere has done it
> again---at least partially. He recently acquired 630AM
> from the KXLY grounp and spun off his 970AM to Catholic
> Radio.
>
> On 630---they are now billing themselves as: "The Fabulous
> 630----KTW Mutual Broadcasting System." I kidd you not.
> Legally they are still KXLI, but he may be applying for the
> call letters KKTW---I checked and they are available.
>
> For those of you that haven't kept track.....here's the
> moves of old Seattle call letters to Tom's stations:
>
> KGDN(the old 630/KCIS call letters for "King's Garden") is
> now in the Tri-Cities
>
> KTAC(the old 850/KHHO call letters for "Tacoma") are now in
> Ephrata-Moses Lake
>
> And now KTW---obviously he can't have the 3-letter calls,
> but KKTW will work. The only thing odd about this----most
> folks in Eastern Washington don't remember those call
> letters since they were in Seattle. But, then again it's
> kinda cool that Tom is trying to keep those get set of call
> letters alive.
>
> As far as Tom's programming on 630.....a rather unusual mix
> of some Christian Talk, Health Shows, Beautiful Music, Old
> Radio Shows, some big-band/Sinatra stuff and University of
> Idaho Football on the weekend. During the broadcasts---you
> still hear the originating station giving their liners after
> a break----"Vandal Football on 'Border 104'." You'd think
> Tom would have some way of removing those----it would be
> like a Mariners network station running a KOMO ID after
> every commercial break---just sounds so out of place and
> wrong!
>
> And rarely do you hear an advertisement on 630----some trade
> stuff for a body shop and a web hosting service, but that's
> about it.
>
> You do hear Bill Whipple---who used to work for KIXI back in
> the 60's and 70's with my dad now doing some of Tom's liners
> and id's. So now it's not just "All Tom Read Radio." It's
> funny from Midnight til 2am, he is playing light classics
> and show tunes, with the canned intro from the 60's----"This
> is Bob Consie----with music til dawn." I think Bob Consie
> was one of IGM's old personalities in the 60's---along with
> Larry Nelson and some others IGM used for their automated
> music service they provided way back when.
>
> Well...there's the story of KTW---and Mutual Broadcasting
> System once again on the air here in Washington
> State.....isn't Mutual Broadcasting System trademarked???
> Perhaps not anymore.....remember the old Mutual News and
> Sports sounders----in Seattle you'd hear them on 1150/KAYO
> before they switched to the old ABC Entertainment Network
> for their network news and sports.
>
> There's the latest radio scoop from the Inland Northwest....

Tom has a tendency to take old call letters from the Puget Sound, mostly from ststions he's been heard on while he was living on this side of the mountains in the '50s and '60s and make them his own (including KTBI, the former calls of a Tacoma station prior to becoming KTAC.) If KISW ever changed their calls and format, he'd probably be first in line for those letters, as KISW was a former classical station in the '50s and '60s.

Programming wise, it's much like 970 when he owned it. I think it's kind of odd he would sell off 970 (which could be heard on this side of the mountains around sunset just before the nighttime signal pattern change) for a graveyard channel like 630 Spokane (which barely makes it out of the city at any time.) But then again, Tom Read is an odd duck in these days of mega-corporate radio, a genuine throwback to a completely different era of radio. So he does get indie props for what he does.




>
<P ID="signature">______________
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