Speaking of Emperor Hudson, I used to listen to him when he had what must have been an attempt to make it on a small station in hard-to-accept-outsiders Honolulu. Nice way to enjoy a little aloha and fill three and a half hours in morning drive time with no resources by just riff'n and jive'n and presenting absolutely compelling personality radio on a station that only otherwise had the salesman rip and read news headlines, and no traffic. And the precursor to informercial talk shows the rest of the day. No Weather reports, however, was not often a problem in Honolulu, and could be easily guessed at for much of the year and be pretty much what the forecast said.
And when he found an interesting caller, he'd call them back nearly every day if they didn't call in first. And it was actually really fun to hear.
The station he was on was AM 1080 - never seemed to attract enough of an audience for anyone to notice. I think it was called KZHI. "Z-Hawaii." But fun for a radio guy to listen to. Strangely compelling, actually. Kinda like that nightmare you've probably had that you're finally on the air on a really big station and nothing at all in the studio works, except the microphone.
Honolulu in the mid 1980s was a tough radio market - only a few FMs splattered up the lower half of the dial, and completely empty above 97.5 FM for quite awhile until a station from Maui popped up one day and, lordy, the upper half of the dial became new territory to explore. The AM dial, on the other hand, was nearly full, with crappier little stations the further up the dial you went. Listening patterns favored certain loyalties to particular stations, thanks mostly to their personalities, or lack thereof, and ability to speak the local dialect "like one of us." (I did a research study on the market, so I'm not just riffin' here myself.) Music stations who included pop Hawaiian artists in the mix often did well. Eventually Jah-waiian music would pop up fulltime on a couple of those new FM stations "updial."
But back to The Emperor. Would be a hoot, no?, for someone in Seattle or nearby to use some precious airtime to hire someone or two to try something relaxed and mesmerizingly appealing to grown ups, with potential in the tradition of Jean Shepherd or Larry Glick or Emperor Hudson in Honolulu. Why not? Scared of employer-mandated health insurance, maybe??
Imagine an Air Personality on Seattle radio, at least in the evenings, OK?, to paint an interesting "Scene" on the air each night, without resorting to the pointless Seinfield-phile attempts of Too Beautiful to Live, or the talking point-ed heads on all of the church-run stations in town. Might actually draw attention, train a few folks to become active radio listeners, which many would probably do if there was something more substantial, yet non-partisan, or a soul who is bought and paid for, to listen to. Got that? A real personality who doesn't have to sound like he or she is having to try hard.
Anybody left out there you'd care to nominate for having the chops, the wit, and the potential for winging it on the air -- in a way to make some sort of audience want to fly along for an hour or three?
