Seattle AM radio composite from 20 yrs ago

[PSAIRCHECKS]

Here is a sample of many Seattle AM stations from 1988. There are some very cool clips on this composite. Yes it's a big file but it lasts around 30 minutes with some very familiar names, and very good sound quality. This composite comes on it's 20 year anniversary.

I got this from another member of this site with the hope that I would convert these to mp3 and share when I could. Well, 16 months after a new daughter, and even longer since I obtained the tape, here is the first of some classic Seattle airwaves caught on tape I hope to share.

Enjoy during this holiday season.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ztu0ndzue2y

 

[SeattleObserver]

1. Renee the traffic reporter: Could that be Delilah Rene? It sounded like Heather Stark though.

2. So far this is AM, AM AM...

3. KOMO played 70s music? Did Fisher own both in '88? Wow, it had sleepy jingles. "A great variety of familiar music." Hmm. Sounds like "Star" if it had been around in 1988 in its current incarnation.

4. Mike Webb

5. No wonder radio is dying. Has anyone noticed that the same music is on the air today without much updating (Beyond KUBE/"KISS", then about 4 months after becoming national hits might be heard on KPLZ, KNDD, KISW, KRWM)

6. Marty Remer... still on the air around here, eh? Stations used to go to Port Orchard for remotes?

7. Lan Archer sounds EXACTLY the same 20 years later. Why did KIRO hire him away from KOMO?

8. KIRO kind of sounds the same with the exception of having an afternoon newscast. Gregg Hersholt: "KIRO news time..." Dave sounds a bit different.

9. Pat O'Day's voice was a *bit* better back then. Apparently he was filling in for Delilah Rene.

10. K-I-N-G Seattle! Larry King Show that apparently inspired Mr. Luke Burbank. I wish there was more of the local flavor on the air check. Oh wow, maybe not. That topic and commercial sounded booooring.

11. What is with the last air check on KING 1090? It's definitely a different flavor from the earlier one.

 

[mimo]

I couldn't get this file to download using Safari, but it is working with firefox. I've been wanting something like this for a very long time now. Thank you so much for posting this!

 

[PSAIRCHECKS]

I can't get this file to download. I've tried 3 times since yesterday. It's been scanning the file for over an hour. ¿How long did it take everyone else to download, and is there another way I can get this file?

Do you have broadband internet? If you don't it could take several hours to download.

Here is a much smaller 3.7MB 16kbps version of the original. It will not have the same sound quality but should download much faster.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zd0maynzuzg

 

[Wrench]

Great stuff!

Mike Webb is as good a DJ as I remember him being. Warm pipes, energy, enthusiasm. (He also sounded great when he was on KIXI).

He would have been a better talk jock had he been correctly managed.

I know Larry King is a caricature of himself now, but that brief aircheck is good. Listen to his forward motion, his obvious enjoyment at doing the show.

People forget Larry King was live on Mutual 5 nights a week for 5½ hours, and he was good! He did a long-form interview with a guest for an hour, and often asked probing questions, then often retained the guest for calls for 2 more hours.

He was never quite as good after his heart attack.

KOMO in those days had brought in The Research Group and basically implented their plan, swallowing it whole. They cleaned up the music, tested it, and kept the heritage morning host (Larry Nelson) as they so often did in their markets, and went music intensive the rest of the day.

It worked too, by and large until 1993.

That's a Joe Coburn aircheck. I could never believe KOMO could throw away the entire evening daypart but they did. They never tried a thing, and when they finally did put Tom Synder and Sally Jessy on, they got it wrong, airing Sally Jessy first, then Snyder after that.

KOMO could have grown and become another WBZ or KGO, a true market jaggernaut, if anyone had any foresight or creativity. It could have been positioned as the "full service" station of the 90's & beyond (whatever that means)...reflective of Seattle's unique place in the world.

KOMO had the cume to make it work and evolve it but threw it away.

Creativity and foresight in the radio biz? Who am I kidding....?

 

[mimo]

I can't get this file to download. I've tried 3 times since yesterday. It's been scanning the file for over an hour. ¿How long did it take everyone else to download, and is there another way I can get this file?

Do you have broadband internet? If you don't it could take several hours to download.

Here is a much smaller 3.7MB 16kbps version of the original. It will not have the same sound quality but should download much faster.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zd0maynzuzg

I simply changed browsers and it downloaded immediately. I have broadband, but sometimes it acts worse than dial up. It's an enjoyable file. Is there any chance of getting one from someone that includes KKFX, KJET, KIXI and a few others that weren't in this one?

 

[Bongwater]

1. Renee the traffic reporter: Could that be Delilah Rene? It sounded like Heather Stark though.

2. So far this is AM, AM AM...

3. KOMO played 70s music? Did Fisher own both in '88? Wow, it had sleepy jingles. "A great variety of familiar music." Hmm. Sounds like "Star" if it had been around in 1988 in its current incarnation.

4. Mike Webb

5. No wonder radio is dying. Has anyone noticed that the same music is on the air today without much updating (Beyond KUBE/"KISS", then about 4 months after becoming national hits might be heard on KPLZ, KNDD, KISW, KRWM)

6. Marty Remer... still on the air around here, eh? Stations used to go to Port Orchard for remotes?

7. Lan Archer sounds EXACTLY the same 20 years later. Why did KIRO hire him away from KOMO?

8. KIRO kind of sounds the same with the exception of having an afternoon newscast. Gregg Hersholt: "KIRO news time..." Dave sounds a bit different.

9. Pat O'Day's voice was a *bit* better back then. Apparently he was filling in for Delilah Rene.

10. K-I-N-G Seattle! Larry King Show that apparently inspired Mr. Luke Burbank. I wish there was more of the local flavor on the air check. Oh wow, maybe not. That topic and commercial sounded booooring.

11. What is with the last air check on KING 1090? It's definitely a different flavor from the earlier one.

KOMO was a music station indeed. It wasn't really a "lite AC" musically like most full service ACs, but more "middle of the road" or MOR. Very heavy on Barbara Streisand, America and Neil Diamond ballads ("Sleepwalk" Larry Carlton was a heavily played KOMO track that pretty much summed up the format.)

Aside from the classy Larry Nelson, KOMO seemed pretty boring to me.

What else in 1988?

We had KNUA on 106.9. How you can infuse Andreas Vollenwieder with George Benson, Gino Vanelli AND Swing Out Sister and be a huge success is anyones guess, then and now.

KNBQ 97.3 had flipped to KBSG that year, leaving only KUBE and KPLZ to duke it out in the CHR wars. 1988 also saw the demise of KJET on 1590, replaced by KQUL or KOOL oldies. It started out as a voicetracked local station with a surprising diversity of late '50s rock-n-roll, many cuts which hadn't been heard for decades until then on Seattle radio before cutting to the syndicated, bird-fed KOOL Gold format. But modern rock would have to wait (aside from weekly programs on KISW and KXRX. KCMU was becoming too engrossed in world music and KGRG was picking up the grunge niche) until KNDD came on in 1991.

KKFX (K-FOX 1250) was mostly bird-fed in 1988. KZOK was in it's second year of classic rock and just figuring out Diana Ross and The Supremes was not exactly "classic rock" in the Seattle sense of ROCK. KISW was still smarting from the loss of almost all it's airstaff (save for Steve Slaton) and we still had two full blown easy listening stations, KSEA 100.7 and KBRD 103.7 (still referring to themselves as "FM 104".)

KVI, in spite of the new KBSG on FM, stuck to it's Back To Mono cred for oldies until they found themselves being THRASHED worse than claustrophobic ballerina in the mosh pit of a Slayer concert in the ratings. What's even worse, KVI was BETTER at the oldies SELECTION, ranging from "Hound Dog" Big Mama Thornton to "Stairway To Heaven" Led Zeppelin. But crystal clear stereo FM (especially on that very first stick on Tiger) won out. So there.

What else does my stoney brain remember on the radio in '88?.......

CJOR, a KOMO-like full service AC flipped to Classic Rock CHRX and briefly beginning an AM revival that began with them and spread to other languishing AM stations as Z-Rock and other Rock-On-AM formats (including AOR formatted CKXY 1040, which changed to CHR, then AC. Then Modern/Alternative. then.....)

KPUG up in Bellingham was an automated KVIish oldies format, KBRC was probably one of the BEST local ACs, KRKO was fully bird-fed oldies, KWYZ was still a (diminishing) country monster. KTAC had gone totally bird, KLDY was a full service daytime AC on 680. CKLG 730 still cranked out the hits, CFOX - 99 was rockin' CFMI was the "other" station until they found their niche (nuking out CHRX.)

KBRO was still live and local, KITZ was AC/CHR, and you could hear KEZX-FM on 1150 AM until they went Business on it later that year.

There were a lot of simulcasting AM/FMs. KMPS, KRPM and KEZX namely in '88, there was still a little station in Auburn on 1210 called KASY that wouldn't be snatched up by KBSG until February of '89.

Any other memories?.........

 

[wxb102gm]

Actually, KGRG didn't really pick up the grunge throne until they were simulcasting in Tacoma around 1993. When KGRG switched to modern rock in 1988, they were playing mostly U.K.-imported college-radio favorites like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, the Wild Swans, and the Close Lobsters. They really picked up where KJET had left off but they didn't have Jim Keller's extensive library. Nirvana's "Love Buzz" and "About a Girl" were spun frequently on KGRG in spring/summer 1989 (as well as "Cold" by Swallow), but grunge thankfully took a backseat to the Cure, Fine Young Cannibals, New Order, Love and Money, the Ocean Blue, the Pixies, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Those were the days! I was able to pick up KGRG's signal perfectly, and they were awesome from 1988-1990, which was when they started going downhill. KGRG also played Roxette's "The Look" with the Sub Pop stuff as well as De La Soul and Bongos Bass & Bob ("Thorazine Shuffle"). I believe that KGRG went "modern rock" right after KJET switched formats. Before that they were a pop/metal hybrid. It was in Fall 1988 that I saw KGRG's playlist in CMJ, and it blew me away; by spring 1989, I had moved to a different location and knew I had landed on KGRG once I heard the Smiths' "London" segue into the Smithereens' "Blood and Roses." Wonderful memories.

 

[Bongwater]

Actually, KGRG didn't really pick up the grunge throne until they were simulcasting in Tacoma around 1993. When KGRG switched to modern rock in 1988, they were playing mostly U.K.-imported college-radio favorites like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, the Wild Swans, and the Close Lobsters. They really picked up where KJET had left off but they didn't have Jim Keller's extensive library. Nirvana's "Love Buzz" and "About a Girl" were spun frequently on KGRG in spring/summer 1989 (as well as "Cold" by Swallow), but grunge thankfully took a backseat to the Cure, Fine Young Cannibals, New Order, Love and Money, the Ocean Blue, the Pixies, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Those were the days! I was able to pick up KGRG's signal perfectly, and they were awesome from 1988-1990, which was when they started going downhill. KGRG also played Roxette's "The Look" with the Sub Pop stuff as well as De La Soul and Bongos Bass & Bob ("Thorazine Shuffle"). I believe that KGRG went "modern rock" right after KJET switched formats. Before that they were a pop/metal hybrid. It was in Fall 1988 that I saw KGRG's playlist in CMJ, and it blew me away; by spring 1989, I had moved to a different location and knew I had landed on KGRG once I heard the Smiths' "London" segue into the Smithereens' "Blood and Roses." Wonderful memories.

I remember hearing the Sub Pop stuff on KGRG far more frequently than KCMU at that time and Mudhoney was also a regularly played band. Before that, as I can recall, they were mostly thrash metal (must've missed the Roxette tunes) Very weak signal in Lynnwood, it wasn't until their simulcasting period on KBTC 91.7 (1992-1995) that I became an avid listener and subscriber. And that's when KGRG shined, playing not only the grungy Seattle stuff, but the Kill Rock Stars/K Records Olympia punk and the Bellingham emo-pop scenes - stuff KNDD rarely touched on it's Sunday night shows.

A very exciting time in music. And radio....

 

[wxb102gm]

Actually, KGRG didn't really pick up the grunge throne until they were simulcasting in Tacoma around 1993. When KGRG switched to modern rock in 1988, they were playing mostly U.K.-imported college-radio favorites like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, the Wild Swans, and the Close Lobsters. They really picked up where KJET had left off but they didn't have Jim Keller's extensive library. Nirvana's "Love Buzz" and "About a Girl" were spun frequently on KGRG in spring/summer 1989 (as well as "Cold" by Swallow), but grunge thankfully took a backseat to the Cure, Fine Young Cannibals, New Order, Love and Money, the Ocean Blue, the Pixies, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. Those were the days! I was able to pick up KGRG's signal perfectly, and they were awesome from 1988-1990, which was when they started going downhill. KGRG also played Roxette's "The Look" with the Sub Pop stuff as well as De La Soul and Bongos Bass & Bob ("Thorazine Shuffle"). I believe that KGRG went "modern rock" right after KJET switched formats. Before that they were a pop/metal hybrid. It was in Fall 1988 that I saw KGRG's playlist in CMJ, and it blew me away; by spring 1989, I had moved to a different location and knew I had landed on KGRG once I heard the Smiths' "London" segue into the Smithereens' "Blood and Roses." Wonderful memories.

I remember hearing the Sub Pop stuff on KGRG far more frequently than KCMU at that time and Mudhoney was also a regularly played band. Before that, as I can recall, they were mostly thrash metal (must've missed the Roxette tunes) Very weak signal in Lynnwood, it wasn't until their simulcasting period on KBTC 91.7 (1992-1995) that I became an avid listener and subscriber. And that's when KGRG shined, playing not only the grungy Seattle stuff, but the Kill Rock Stars/K Records Olympia punk and the Bellingham emo-pop scenes - stuff KNDD rarely touched on it's Sunday night shows.

A very exciting time in music. And radio....

They did play Nirvana's "Love Buzz" and "About a Girl" a lot in spring/summer 1989 but not much Mudhoney until the KBTC period that you mentioned. Prior to that, around 1987, KGRG was a mix of pop during the day and heavy metal, much of it the spandex type, in the evening although I didn't tune in enough the pre-modern rock years to have an expert memory in that. "Cold" by Swallow was a Sub Pop favorite for KGRG in 1989, and they played "Hands All Over" and "Loud Love" by Soundgarden (already on A&M by then) at that time. KGRG had a pretty tight playlist from 1988-1990. The local acts which received most of the airplay were Nirvana (the two aforementioned cuts; I don't recall anything else from "Bleach" being played until the KBTC crossover); Swallow; Soundgarden; the Posies; and the Dharma Bums (remember "Boots of Leather"?). They were on every three or four hours. KGRG from 1988-1990 was a hybrid of college rock and Rock of the '80s (KROQ, 91X, etc) as they mixed in the B-52's, Romeo Void, and Peter Schilling with the latest left-of-the-dial chart toppers. Much of what they aired then was the Top-40 of the campus charts, which was awesome, and they threw in New Wave with it like Echo & the Bunnymen's "Rescue," Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart," and the Church's "Reptile," which were all on regular rotation, too. Roxette's "The Look" (before it took off on CHR) was thrown into that mix with Tone Loc's "Wild Thing," Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," and De La Soul's "3 Is the Magic Number." KGRG in a nutshell from 1988-1989. I used to listen to them for about seven or eight hours a day while I was writing for various fanzines and local rags like "Backlash."

By 1992, KGRG became too grunge heavy for my tastes, and I was too hooked on The End to care. They still played some good material but ironically there was more New Wave on KNDD during that period. Strange how reputations happen. The End was known as a "grunge" station although KGRG played a ton more of it in the '90s than they did. You didn't see KGRG doing blocks of Simple Minds, Alphaville, and Siouxsie & the Banshees during the day, you know?