What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattle?

[TowerLamp]

J Michael Kenyon. His radio career was brief, KVI and then KING-AM in the early 80's...

Do you recall his parting shot at KING-AM? He quit mid-show after being hotlined. J. Michael said "I quit". PD says "you can't quit in the middle of your show." J. Michael's response: "If you look up and notice that I'm getting smaller, it's because I'm walking down the hall and out the door"...and he did!

He was quite the character, strutting around the Kingdome press box in his golf knickers!

 

[chaajoad]

Hey LittleBoyBlue -

I know this topic is waaay old and this reply may go unnoticed but I wanted to post a "thanks" for including me in radio guys you miss from Seattle. Strangely enough, I'm back in Seattle (3rd time) doing a syndicated show. It's not on in Seattle but I'm having fun. Not quite the manic energy of the KJR/KNBQ days but still pretty much "up" and goofin' around. If I do this gig until I'm 75 (a real possibility) I'll always be a goofy radio guy.

BTW - I've worked a BUNCH of radio across America and I think the line-up during my too-brief KJR run was the overall best I've ever worked with. It was truly a magical time ... for me, at least.

(Dancin) Danny Wright

 

[formeraa]

Some good posts here. I am surprised more people diddnt mention Tom Leykis back in PM drive and here are a few other I am surprised not to see.......

Ryan and Ryan also from the Hay days of KBSG

Thoughts?

Definitely Ryan and Ryan! I still think of them from time to time and I've lived away from Seattle for years now (but I do visit several times per year).

 

[70radio]

DJ Dan, you mentioned "four big CHR stations battling it out. Never in Seattle history were their more CHR's and it hasn't been the same since". I may be way off base here and please, DJ, or someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if the following 8 stations were actually doing Top 40 at the same time, but it was close:
KJR, KOL, KING, KTW, KTAC, and KUUU. Come to think of it, how about KTNT and KRKO? Someone please refresh my memory. Ohhh....as far as talent..the 60's KJR lineup alone: Roberts, Murphy, Lujack, O'Day, Kay, Curtis, Parsons, Bolland, etc., was a ton of personality I miss at ONE station! Thanks.

 

[TowerLamp]

Got to agree with "70radio". Channel 95 was the best till it started falling apart after Ackerly took it over in mid 80's.

Remember that they had a heck of a newsroom too. Les Parsons, Greg Hersholt, Bill Rice et al. And of course everybody's traffic reporting sweetheart "Debbie Deutsch" before the days of Metro Traffic.

And contests! Remember the Stewart Street Mysteries?

A lot of creativity came out of that little dump on the Duwamish.

 

[AQH]

Re: What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattl

Got to agree with "70radio". Channel 95 was the best till it started falling apart after Ackerly took it over in mid 80's.

I hope you're not blaming Acklerly for the music radio demise of KJR. Only about 99 per cent went to FM for music around that time. Not to mention Charlie Brown moving to Lakeside Avenue.

 

[CCMilesD]

Re: What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattl

Oh, and Kennedy. I really miss her too. Her short-lived mid-day show on The Buzz was fantastic.

Here here!! Kennedy's show was simply fantastic. When she left KQBZ I followed her to the (now busted) dot com online station, ComedyWorld, where she did a morning show with Ahmet Zappa (frank's son). It wasn't as good as what she did here in Seattle, but it was still pretty funny.

I've never liked her TV stuff, but on the radio I think she is almost unbeatable.

 

[TowerLamp]

Re: What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattl

Got to agree with "70radio". Channel 95 was the best till it started falling apart after Ackerly took it over in mid 80's.

I hope you're not blaming Acklerly for the music radio demise of KJR. Only about 99 per cent went to FM for music around that time. Not to mention Charlie Brown moving to Lakeside Avenue.

AQH,
No Ackerly just happened to be in the owner's seat as AM music was in it's death throes. The handwriting was already on the wall for Channel 95.

 

[searadiofreak]

DJ Dan, you mentioned "four big CHR stations battling it out. Never in Seattle history were their more CHR's and it hasn't been the same since". I may be way off base here and please, DJ, or someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm not sure if the following 8 stations were actually doing Top 40 at the same time, but it was close:
KJR, KOL, KING, KTW, KTAC, and KUUU. Come to think of it, how about KTNT and KRKO? Someone please refresh my memory. Ohhh....as far as talent..the 60's KJR lineup alone: Roberts, Murphy, Lujack, O'Day, Kay, Curtis, Parsons, Bolland, etc., was a ton of personality I miss at ONE station! Thanks.

Well, I'm somewhat fuzzy on some of these, but yes, in the early 70's KJR, KOL, and KING were all top40. KOL was falling behind and I believe they were automated at night. KTAC was definitely top40 but being a Tacoma station, really only served south King County. Same up north with Everett's KRKO. KTNT don't remember. I remember KUUU as an oldies station in the 70's.

 

[Tojo]

Seattle radio has always been a mecca for true personality radio. Crow and West were the best hands down.
No one had their one on one magic, Robin and Maynard were a close second.

 

[AQH]

Re: What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattl

AQH,
No Ackerly just happened to be in the owner's seat as AM music was in it's death throes. The handwriting was already on the wall for Channel 95.

OK. I thought you might have been thinking that way, but I felt compelled to see.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Well, I'm somewhat fuzzy on some of these, but yes, in the early 70's KJR, KOL, and KING were all top40. KOL was falling behind and I believe they were automated at night. KTAC was definitely top40 but being a Tacoma station, really only served south King County. Same up north with Everett's KRKO. KTNT don't remember. I remember KUUU as an oldies station in the 70's.

KJR stayed course through entire decade. KUUU was live in early 70s, then automated; by 1977 they were doing "mellow rock" (TM format), then became KZOK-AM, then KJET, etc. KOL shut down first week of Sept. 1975 and became Hercules' KMPS, keeping Beautiful music on the FM for awhile (KEUT @ 94.1). KTAC did well, but began faltering in early 1980's. KTNT and KRKO were essentially full-service stations for Tacoma and Everett respectively (KRKO as stand-alone, KTNT as the sister to KNBQ, both owned by the TNT newspaper). KING was kind of a wild card in there. It went top 40 in late 70 or early 1971 ... and essentially carried the "Drake" approach. Best years were 73-77; and then they slid toward the "soft rock and more" thing after stunting with "20 minute music jams" -- causing Lockwood (former KING afternoons) and Chet Rogers to make fun of their all-music thing in their afternoon show on KJR. Eventually, after rolling on as more of an AC station in early 1980's, they went news/talk. So KTAC and KJR were only ones to run the entire decade with essentially the same approach.

I found it interesting that no one really gave the FM Top 40 a run until the end of the 1970's. KVI-FM (now KPLZ) gave it a good shot as essentially a hotAC, KYYX did Top-40 starting 1977 ... and KNBQ flipped from kind of an "AOR-presented Top 40/Automated" to live, straight-ahead Top 40 right at the end of the 1970's. They picked up baton from KTAC .. but it really wasn't until KUBE came on-line that FM completely began wiping out the AM top 40's. Other markets fell faster than here to the FM pressure ... which I always credited as a tribute to how loyal those stations' audiences were.

There were some Q's about Ackerley and KJR ... and it's too bad the ownership rules didn't hit them earlier. I always thought they had this golden opportunity to move KJR to 95.7 and continue the "Channel 95" thing and just forge ahead with the heritage; but they were doing dynamite cash flow with K-LITE and didn't want to give that up (no expense). Sad because it cost them the KJR following in the end -- last REAL nail was when Charlie defected to KUBE. Had similar frustrations at KING ... watching the demise of their station, and knowing there was no way EVER that Dorothy Bullitt would allow her FM to do anything but classical. She viewed it as a community service as much as a business.

Amazing what the landscape would have looked like had some of these operators had two FM's and could slide their AM audience over and carry a second desirable format. KVI, KJR, KING would have been interesting had they moved those formats to a compatible FM without worrying about displacing something that was "working" for them. Eventually, I think, KMPS is the ONLY station that saw the light and slid their AM loyal following over to the FM and cut the AM adrift as the "also-ran".

 

[searadiofreak]

Littleboyblue, good analysis...your memory is a bit clearer than mine!

I would add that one of the reasons FM started more slowly in Seattle, besides the loyalty you mentioned, is the topography. FM stations back then, and to some extent today, have difficult signal conditions due to the hills. Same problem in San Francisco, and perhaps a reason 610 KFRC stayed a player into the 80's.

KJR would have been a logical choice to move to FM, but their KISW was too successful to blow-up. By the time KJR-FM finally arrived (different ownership) all the magic was gone, although it was fun to hear near-similiar KJR-Seattle jingles when they first signed on in the 90's.

 

[IndigoCoyote]

Re: What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattl

I have to give props to Dancin' Danny Wright for his pure energy. When he popped the mike it was a mile a minute, no keeping score. He wound people up and turned them loose. I was lucky my girl in the car at the time didn't end up knocked up at 630p, after his wild intro at 601!

Thanks, Danny. Where can we hear you now?

 

[70radio]

Tnx for one heckuva memory (or research?) to LBB and SradioF for refreshing MY memory of the heydays of KJR, KOL, KING, KTAC, et al! I included Tacoma and Everett in my list of 8 stations as their sigs reached Seattle and were considered part of the Sea/Tac/Everett Metro. Great battles and personalities then even though all of their formats were not essentially 'Top 40,' but close.
70Radio

 

[southsounddj]

Re: What Talent-Shows do you miss in Seattle? What talnet should come to Seattl

Dancin' Danny Wright is still in Seattle but doing a syndicated overnight show for Jones Radio. I don't think they have any affiliates in the area but he's still doin' his thing, albeit not like he did back in the day.

 

[Tojo]

KISW-FM 99 was the first FM rocker, excluding KOL-FM. KOL-FM was one of the few true free-form radio stations in America . . .next to KSAN.

KZOK-FM was the first to dethrone KJR-AM from the top music slot in the early 70's.

 

[On_Radio]

Pop Quiz -

WHO can tell me KISW's format BEFORE they were Rock? - I remember -- Actually, I don't but I remember Crow telling me once...

 

[searadiofreak]

Pop Quiz -

WHO can tell me KISW's format BEFORE they were Rock? - I remember -- Actually, I don't but I remember Crow telling me once...

Classical.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

WHO can tell me KISW's format BEFORE they were Rock? - I remember -- Actually, I don't but I remember Crow telling me once...

We had lunch with Les Smith couple weeks ago ... he said he paid about $88,000 for KISW. Considering KJR was one of the first in the market to sell in the MILLIONS ... he probably didn't do all that poorly on the combo (still remember Chet Rogers & Lockwood joking on the day the sale was announced how the guys from Metromedia are probably in the limo jamming their brakes to put a stop-payment on the $10M check after listening to that day's "POLICE BLOTTER").