Spokane Fall Numbers

[radiojjh]

Looks like Christmas Music does it again......"Lite Rock KISS 98.1"/KISC soars to #1 like "Warm 106.9" did in Seattle. I know KISC was #1 25-54, #1 35+ and #1 with women......Personally I enjoy the Christmas music....and it shot my station right to the top. Here's the rankings 12+ for your listening, dancing and ratings pleasure......A "+" indicates upward trend "-" indicates a downward trend....and we all know what "flat" is.....

1)KISC AC + Clear Channel
2)KIXZ Country - Clear Channel
3)KKZX Classic Rock - Clear Channel
3)KDRK Country + Mapleton
5)KHTQ Active Rock flat KXLY Group
6)KZZU Hot AC - KXLY Group
7)KEYF Oldies/Classic Hits - Mapleton
8)KEZE HipHop - KXLY Group
8)KXLY-FM AAA + KXLY Group
10)KBBD "Bob-FM" - Mapleton
11)KCDA Hot AC - Clear Channel
11)KQNT N/T - Clear Channel
11)KXLY-AM N/T - KXLY Group
14)KTSL Con. Christian + Pamplin
15)KGA N/T + Mapleton
16)KEYF-A Ad Standards - Mapleton
16)KZBD Album Rock - Mapleton
18)KICR Classic Country - Blue Sky
19)KVNI-AM Oldies + KXLY Group
20)KPTQ Prog Talk flat Clear Channel
21)KXLX Sports - KXLY Group
22)KSPO Christian Talk + Tom Read
23)KAZZ Classic Hits + Pro Active
24)KQQB CHR - Pro Active
25)KTRW Nostalgia/Christian + Tom Read
26)KJRB Sports - Mapleton

 

[Bongwater]

We've had KXLY-FM playing in our office the last few months. You should see the look on some of the older, non-net savvy folk's faces when they do that double-take as they hear the moniker "Spokane's River, 99 Dot 9" quietly drifting through the office....in Burlington.

Kudos to KISC....

 

[schoolshrink]

KJRB needs to bring back Sunshine Shelly ... I think she could turn it in to a Movin station.

It is kind of sad to see what happened to that station, and I understand forty somethings and older who recall fondly the stations and music of their youth. Not that I am in your business, but is it really worth having sports talk when their ratings scrape the barrel like this? When I read members of this board discuss the need for local talent, this is what they are talking about. But, of course, if the talent is not there KJRB and the KXLY station will just pipe in Jim Rome or whomever.

As for Spokane signals, I used to pick up 1510 KGA in Snohomish County. I assume that is still one of your country stations. I had a friend who lived just south of the station years ago, and the signal was so strong that it would reverberate in the toilet bowl of his dad's house. Fascinating.

 

[Bongwater]

Well....a little KGA update. It stopped playing country and became News/Talk in 1994. Second, it's maurading wave has been tempered greatly lately by a recent INTENTIONAL signal DOWNGRADE.

When I was living in South Snohomish County, there was a little 500 watt daytimer on 1510 in Mountlake Terrace called KURB/KKNW/KKZU. I remembered sometimes towards the end of it's broadcast day, you could be sitting directly beneath the tower (atop a city water tower.) and not even hear the Mountlake Terrace station at all or very faintly beneath the country boom out of Spokane. It was utterly the WORST frequency ever to put AM station on - even a daytimer back then.

 

[radiojjh]

Spokane AM radio isn't really particularly healthy.......kinda sad......what used to be 970-KREM--a legendary Top-40 station and sister station of KING in Seattle----is now KTTO Catholic Radio---and with KGA purposely downgrading their signal to allow another Mapleton station in the Bay Area of S.F., to improve it's signal.....theres rumors going around about Mapleton changing one of their stations to the KPIG format......you gotta wonder which one they will pick......"Oldies 101.1" has become a virtual classic hits station, and has NO morning show--similar to KJR-FM, has a very talented gal doing the midday show trakked, and then after 3pm, it's pretty much, on auto pilot. NO personalities after 3pm......so you'd think they'd be the logical choice, but with Mapleton's rocker 105.7 "The Buzzard" down to a couple of shares ratings-wise......you'd think that would be the one they'd pick.....but these days, not alot of logical choices always seem to be made.....

Like Seattle, we have some wasted AM signals 1230/KSBN puts a decent signal over Spokane, yet NEVER shows in the ratings...NEVER. And a number of frequencies that have simply gone dark over the years.....1380, 1440 and 1550.....crazy, eh? And it's funny--perhaps the population doesn't warrant any kind of Spanish format. You have to go to Moses Lake, Wenatchee, Yakima and Tri-Cities to hear one........guess Spokane is just too caucasian.....we're getting more diverse.....guess it just takes time.....

just thoughts rolling thru my ol' radio mind.....

 

[Bongwater]

Hey JJ! I remember 1550, but what was 1380 and 1440?

 

[radiojjh]

Years ago KFKF/Bellevue had a sister station here in ol' Spokaloo...1380/KPEG--it was on from 1957 thru the early 80's.....and also used the call letters KEZE and KCKO. I saw something a number of years ago---probably in a Broadcasting Yearbook about Spokane having a 1440am. Turns out Mead had 1590AM a 1kw daytimer from 1962-1964. Not a long life. Here's a link you'll like with some cool history of Spokane radio:

www.spokane.philcobill.com some pretty cool stuff here!!!

 

[pbf1]

www.spokane.philcobill.com some pretty cool stuff here!!!

Link was dead for me

 

[schoolshrink]

JJ,

Ah, you are bring back more memories for me. Years ago, I woke up to the KEZE survey. Whoever the broadcaster was would present a topic and had callers respond, "Yes" or "No" generally. Two or three of the same people would call each morning, and of course they could not just answer the question. One old guy proceeded daily with a monologue, and the broadcaster would never cut him off. I would love to know the name of that guy ... he was so nice. He also pronounced the call letters as "Kizzy," and when Roots was on for the first time I thought of him.

I did call the mid-day radio guy working at KCKO after it went on the air. I requested a song, and he had nothing better to do than just shoot the breeze. That station played the same ten songs in an endless tape, I am convinced. Hourly, we would hear Honesty by Billy Joel and a Toto song, the name I forget. It had that Georgie Porgie Puddin and Pie line in it. And thinking back, I still don't want to hear either of those songs again. But hey, good memories from a radio fan.

 

[Bongwater]

Turns out Mead had 1590AM a 1kw daytimer from 1962-1964. Not a long life. Here's a link you'll like with some cool history of Spokane radio:

www.spokane.philcobill.com some pretty cool stuff here!!!

Darned 'ol link didn't work for me either.

Speaking of 1590 kHz, I used to listen to KJET and the Z-Rock formatted KZOK-AM in Spokane at night. It was - and still is-one of the strongest Seattle nighttime signals in the Spokane area.

I knew many people there who listened to KJET religiously every night as it was the ONLY source of modern rock radio whatsoever to beam into that direction. In spite of KJET's crummy automation and sometimes overmodulated signal, it was a light of hope to teenage Inland modern rockers in the '80s with big dreams of breaking out of country/rock infested "hicktown" Spokane and into the Big City of Seattle, when no one would pick on them if they dyed their hair blue or came out of the closet (the blow of KJET's 1988 switch to KQUL was especially devastating there.....)

WAIT! Just figured out what went wrong with the Spokane Radio History link:

http://spokaneradio.philcobill.com/

Cheers!

 

[beefjerky]

Spokane, trailer park of the NorthWest

 

[radiojjh]

Growing up in Seattle---I thought that way until I lived here......Spokane was always an after thought....you knew it was part of Washington State. I came here once in high school for a church retreat.....then lived here for the first time for a year in 1991-92. Then returned again in 1998.....less traffic, cost of housing is great....and I'm only 3 1/2 hours away from the "Emerald City," I've been here for almost 10 years....and Spokane is a very family-friendly place to live...good place for kids.....and radio's very good here for market #92.

just my 2 cents....

 

[beefjerky]

I moved there, thinking it would be a more undiscovered version of the Pacific Northwest. Then I noticed the lack of diversity. The blatant racism. The high percentage of smokers. So many working two jobs because the pay level was so low. The downtown area that reminded me of Atlantic City, lots of decay.

I think one day it will be a cool spot, but I don't think it is now, at least for me.

I'm sure it's great for many. It is a beautiful area!

 

[Old Yeller]

Then I noticed the lack of diversity. The blatant racism.

The Skinheads HQ is just minutes down the road on I-90. It's too bad.

 

[Bongwater]

HEY! Don't buck Spokane too bad! I'll bet you ain't never had Zip's Papa Joe burgers before. It is one of the VERY best regional cheeseburgers you will EVER eat.....

Get 'em by the sack full. Not only that, squirt 'em all HEAVILY with Zip's World Famous Tartar Sauce - it IS the Eastern Washington TASTE EXPLOSION......Perfect meal to a soundtrack of GOOD Eastern Washington radio...and good Eastern Washington radio DOES exist....

You have to dig for it sometimes, but it's there......