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What happened to Steve Slaton

P

placebo1969

I’ve traveling for work a bit lately and haven’t been able to post this.

Looks like Steve is out at KZOK. Was he able to say goodbye? Anybody know what happened?

I’ve been listening to Slaton since about 1980 or 1981 when I was 11 or 12. He’s the first DJ I recall and have been listening to him since. Really bummed if he’s gone from Seattle.
 
placebo1969 said:
I’ve traveling for work a bit lately and haven’t been able to post this.

Looks like Steve is out at KZOK. Was he able to say goodbye? Anybody know what happened?

I’ve been listening to Slaton since about 1980 or 1981 when I was 11 or 12. He’s the first DJ I recall and have been listening to him since. Really bummed if he’s gone from Seattle.
Click to expand...

He is 66. Likely retired, but don't know that for sure. Agreed a great talent perfect for the rock format.
 
It looks like they (iHeart) are utilizing out of market employees to handle a significant chuck of the programming. KZOK sister station, "The Jet," now features VT programming from a number of hosts in the Portland market.
 
To paraphrase the old 80s KZOK slogan "My Grandmother Won't Like It" ("Your Mother Won't Like It")
 
placebo1969 said:
I’ve traveling for work a bit lately and haven’t been able to post this.

Looks like Steve is out at KZOK. Was he able to say goodbye? Anybody know what happened?

I’ve been listening to Slaton since about 1980 or 1981 when I was 11 or 12. He’s the first DJ I recall and have been listening to him since. Really bummed if he’s gone from Seattle.
Click to expand...

Retirement was in his sights, iHeart helped him get to that goal faster.
 
So why the h--- am I still airing live and local morning shows in my small market? And what is iHeart going to do with all their nice studios?
 
bossbill said:
So why the h--- am I still airing live and local morning shows in my small market? And what is iHeart going to do with all their nice studios?
Click to expand...

I think they still have empty space from 104.9/102.9 getting sold!

In all seriousness, unless they own the space, I’d look at downsizing—not in the people sense (they’ve done that already), but in the building sense. You can run half of iHM/Seattle currently out of a broom closet plus maybe 1-2 basic studios

And this is not surprising to me. Portland, by its nature a smaller market than Seattle—less money to pay per talent (on average). In addition, taxes to the employer tend to be lower in the land where you can’t pump your own gas.

Not saying I agree with it, but this is not surprising. Luckily, many of us wrote off iHM/Seattle as a decent company to work for/listen to long ago.
 
Actually I'm guessing they don't have that much space left, unless they actually expanded from when I saw the place back in 2012. Does anyone know where the 102.9 studio was? When I saw the place back in 2012, KUBE, KJR-A, KJR-F, and KBKS were all along one hallway. At the time, KKBW as it was then known did not have a studio in the building as everything was either automated or tracked from out of market. I'm assuming that's the way 102.9 was run under the Now format as well. I did hear that they repurposed an old closet for 104.9's studio, but not sure what was done for 102.9. If they did have a studio for 102.9 at one point, I would expect that the closet they remodeled for 104.9 has been returned to its original purpose.
 
bossbill said:
So why the h--- am I still airing live and local morning shows in my small market? And what is iHeart going to do with all their nice studios?
Click to expand...

Because everybody on the coast loves Rhys Davis in the morning! Local personalities, local interviews, local music. (at least 6-10AM until KSWW goes back to satellite)
Over here, Steve Scellick does a similar purpose for KXLE Ellensburg. The Yakima morning shows are cookie cutter ran by big conglomerates or syndicated (like KFFM broadcasting Movin's Brooke & Jubal).
 
bobdavcav said:
Actually I'm guessing they don't have that much space left, unless they actually expanded from when I saw the place back in 2012. Does anyone know where the 102.9 studio was? When I saw the place back in 2012, KUBE, KJR-A, KJR-F, and KBKS were all along one hallway. At the time, KKBW as it was then known did not have a studio in the building as everything was either automated or tracked from out of market. I'm assuming that's the way 102.9 was run under the Now format as well. I did hear that they repurposed an old closet for 104.9's studio, but not sure what was done for 102.9. If they did have a studio for 102.9 at one point, I would expect that the closet they remodeled for 104.9 has been returned to its original purpose.
Click to expand...

Here's the thing with studios: Stations aren't required to have local studios anymore. This is just iHeart's plan to make use of that ruling. I'm sure eventually, most music stations in clusters will be in a closet in a small, nondescript rented office room that handles the sales mostly and maybe local spot production (or that can be outsourced too.) The programming, airstaff, all of it beamed in from servers in San Antonio, Bala Cynwyd, Minneapolis or wherever. Shows will be produced in home studios and emailed in.

If that sounds dystopian, the tech for all of it is already here and being adopted as we speak.

That said, major News/Talk/Sports stations and some music stations will buck this trend and stay local. With real studios. It might even be a good selling point. But the temptation always waits...
 
crainbebo said:
Because everybody on the coast loves Rhys Davis in the morning! Local personalities, local interviews, local music. (at least 6-10AM until KSWW goes back to satellite)
Over here, Steve Scellick does a similar purpose for KXLE Ellensburg. The Yakima morning shows are cookie cutter ran by big conglomerates or syndicated (like KFFM broadcasting Movin's Brooke & Jubal).
Click to expand...

Thank you for the plug. We do what we can on a shoestring, with Rhys Davis, Johnny Manson, and Doug McDowell. Rhys has been with me since 1998, Johnny for 19 years, Doug for 16+.
 
Bongwater said:
If that sounds dystopian, the tech for all of it is already here and being adopted as we speak.

That said, major News/Talk/Sports stations and some music stations will buck this trend and stay local. With real studios. It might even be a good selling point. But the temptation always waits...
Click to expand...

Or something like the place I was recently involved with: We had 6 identical studios lined up in a hallway, each about 12'X10', none dedicated to a particular format. The studios could be configured as a production room, voice tracking, or talk show. It was a simple matter of walking in and selecting a preset icon on one of the monitors. The six studios easily served the needs of twelve stations. Most of the folks did their music voice tracking from home, since they could be in a completely different state, or even country.

SiriusXM has been doing something similar for a long time, although they do have some dedicated studios for specialized programming like Stern, Golf, NFL, POTUS, etc. Other than the 60's on 6 and the Kid's programming, the talent does all their voice tracks in big batches from their homes.
 
Bongwater said:
That said, major News/Talk/Sports stations and some music stations will buck this trend and stay local. With real studios. It might even be a good selling point. But the temptation always waits...
Click to expand...

Most IHM news or news/talk stations have had "local" newscasts produced in regional hubs for years now.
 
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