Your favorite year as a listener

[placebo1969]

What was(is) your favorite year in Seattle radio as a listener? Is it now with all the hub-bub about KMCQ, format flips or some other time?

For me, it would have to be 1991 or 1992. I was 22/23 then. For me, I listened to KISW, KXRX, KZOK and KNDD was new and, dare I say, exciting to listen to. Slaton, R&M, C&W, Cathy Faulkner, Beau Roberts, Bob Rivers, man those were great times. Not to mention the music. Maybe when you're 23, things seemed more important. I rarely listened to any other station (occasionally KMTT) and didn't listen to AM unless I accidentally hit the wrong button.

How about you all?

 

[dlm1129]

You might be right about the early 20s thing. For me it was probably 1981/1983 when I was...20 thru 22. My fave stations were KZOK, KISW, KYYX and KNBQ. Great personality-driven radio with Steve Slaton, Those Dudes, Gary Crow, Bob Hovanes, Dr. Rock, Beau Roberts (at both KNBQ and KISW), Crazy Steve Randall, Rockin' Robin Erickson (at both KZOK and KISW), John Posey, Craig Martin, Jim Robinson. Oh yeah -- I had a thing for Marion Seymour of KZAM too. Good times!!

Then again I've also got a very soft spot in my heart for 1972/1974 with the AM radio wars of KJR, KOL and KING. Great talent like Norm Gregory, Kevin O'Brien, Gary Lockwood, Andy Barber, Gary Crow, Burl Barer, John Maynard, Gary Shannon, Bob Shannon, Dan Foley, Lan Roberts, Emperor Smith, Charlie Brown. Those years formed my infatuation with radio!!

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Interesting you choose your 22-23rd years. My experience (anecdotal...not researched) is that most people form the most loyal bond with the music they heard in high school years....which explains why the 70-80 format mixes these days have displaced the 60's-based formats (do the math on the demographics!!)

 

[djdan]

Ditto on the 20's. 1990-1993 was the best radio war with KNDD, KUBE and KPLZ battling for number one. KNDD went alternative, KUBE went rythmic and KPLZ stayed pop. All three were the best at their genre. Never been a time like it. The END was Seattle's music and captured the sound of my generation. CHR personality war was never better with Charlie and Ty against Kent and Alan. That battle lasted for almost a decade from my elementary school days in the mid 80's til I was off to college in the early 90's. Once to college it was all about THE END.

 

[mimo]

I'm going to have to go with the time I was 15. I listened to KJET every night, the old k-fox (KKFX 1250) daytime, sometimes KUBE and KPLZ when they were top 40's but they were not easy catches on the border where I lived. CKDA 1220 in Victoria was another favourite and 1040 in Vancouver had just went to a top 40 format. Since I had just purchased a radio with AM stereo, 1040 became what I prefered over Vancouver's LG 73. KJR and KVI AM were oldies and running stereo at the time and I'd tune them in once in a while. Of all the stations I mentioned, I miss KJET most of all.

 

[Bongwater]

Year? More like my favorite four decades!,

My Favorite Stations Of The '70s:

1. CKLG
2. KJR-AM
3. KING-AM
4. CFUN
5. CKDA
6. KRKO
7. KZOK-AM
8. KTAC
9. KYAC/KKFX
10. KVI-FM/KPLZ

(I really didn't spend much time listening to FM in the '70s, being a Top 40 junkie kid and FM back then was an Easy Listening/Classical wasteland with a few hard rockers....)

My Favorite Stations Of The '80s:

1. KYYX
2. KJET
3. KHIT
4. CKLG
5. KISM (before 1986, when either their automation or whoever was programming it got all screwy and played the songs at a slower pitch than I could stand. it wasn't until 1987 when they corrected it)
6. KZAM-AM
7. KKFX
8. CFOX
9. KRFE (1380 Everett, this was after the KBAE debacle when they went back to wall to wall CHR)
10. KQIN

Honorable mentions: KNHC, KBRC

My Favorite Stations Of The '90s:

1. KNDD
2. KUBE (during their "New Music Revolution" of 1994 flirtation with alternative. Perhaps the only time I ever really liked KUBE)
3. KXRX
4. KZOK-AM ("Z-Rock 1590")
5. KJR-FM (during their "Northwest's New 95.7", '80s stunt and the first year of '70s KJR-FM)
6. KBKS (During their first year as CHR formatted "Kiss 106.1" in 1997)
7. CKMX (1060 out of Calgary, until 1995 "Mix 1060" was a badass 50,000 alternative flamethrower that had a nightimes signal that boomed into Puget Sound, as loud or even louder than our own high power AM locals like KIRO and KOMO. It also blanketed almost half the continent this way. Now THAT'S the way to do AM radio right!
8. KGRG (they simulcasted on KBTC 91.7 for several years)
9. CKLG (they began to tweak around the format)
10. KISM (Independent Rock)

My Favorite Stations Of The '2000s:

1. KPLU
2. KBTB (95.7 The Beat)
3. KYCW-AM (Classic Country 1090)
4. CKVX (Vancover's 104-9 X-FM)
5. KPTK
6. KUGS
7. KEXP
8. CKLG-FM (Vancouver's JACK)
9. CFRO
10. CHQM

Save for a few, most of these stations either led very short lives or are nowhere in their original formats. I guess I just love an underdog....

 

[JustaLissner]

1989-1992 - KXRX.

 

[talkerdjdude]

My interest is in news/talk. KIRO and KOMO were probably at their best in the early to mid 80s. Remember listening to KIRO reporters during the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. That's back when reporters had balls, now they sit in the office and read the newspaper. Liked KOMO with Larry Nelson and his Breakfast Table between 1983 and 90.

 

[placebo1969]

Yes, I have very fond memories of my high school area, musically. However, 1992 was a very bittersweet year for me. If I may indulge briefly: In 1992 I was in college (go CWU!) and was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had to drop out of school and come back home to my parents' home in Olympia. As cliche as it may sound, radio was a great companion for what I was going through. Plus being 23 and seemingly in the middle of a great musical movement, it was definitely a bittersweet year. Oh, 16 years of remission next month.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Congratulations on the 16 years. If Paul Allen can beat it you can too!
I ask this only because you brought it up...but does that experience have anything to do with the "handle" you chose for this board? Seems very intriguing now!

 

[Bongwater]

Yes, I have very fond memories of my high school area, musically. However, 1992 was a very bittersweet year for me. If I may indulge briefly: In 1992 I was in college (go CWU!) and was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had to drop out of school and come back home to my parents' home in Olympia. As cliche as it may sound, radio was a great companion for what I was going through. Plus being 23 and seemingly in the middle of a great musical movement, it was definitely a bittersweet year. Oh, 16 years of remission next month.

Congratulations! You're a survivor!

Did you ever consider returning to CWU? They got an awesome little station called KCWU "88.1 The 'Burg" over there now:

http://www.881theburg.com/

1992 was a strange year, like waking up woozy after a non-stop blowout party that seemed to be going on since the previous September (which it had), when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" fell to Earth and on your way to the medicine cabinet for an Alka Seltzer, stopping to look at the aftermath. Seattle was suddenly the Rock 'N Roll Capitol of The Universe, that doubtful station on 107.7 had instantly become a force to be reckoned with and KUBE had gone gangsta rap, Suddenly MTV was in town and everybody was wearing their dad's old flannel shirts. You had all kinds of out of towners and record company people flocking here. Oh, and a living room littered with empty beer cans.....

 

[placebo1969]

Thanks for the kind words. No, my username is just something I've been using for years, no big significance.

I haven't been back to E'burg since about 2000 or 2001 on the way to see Roger Waters at the Gorge.

 

[Bongwater]

Thanks for the kind words. No, my username is just something I've been using for years, no big significance.

I haven't been back to E'burg since about 2000 or 2001 on the way to see Roger Waters at the Gorge.

I was just there last week. Still the pretty much the same....