Have you made the switch?

We've heard from listeners about the recent major shift in Seattle radio: the switch to FM of the hoary AM new stalker KIRO to AM and the format flip to sports.

Frankly, FM talk has never made it in Seattle.

It was a bold but risky move by Bonneville -- one they've taken in other markets. KIRO AM was their crown jewel in Seattle, and it'll take a year or so to know if the change was good.

Some listeners say, their radio habits were disrupted -- they listen to a progression of AM stations during the day, and flipping to FM just isn't very convenient, so they find now themselves NOT flipping at all.. they've essentially cut KIRO news talk out of their daily listening. "I have to push two buttons in the car to get KIRO now... it's not all that hard, but I just don't,"  guy told us recently.

(Hell, if you love the button-down progressive reason of Dave Ross, (9a-12p) do you even like apoplectic conservative Dori Monson from 12 to 3p? If you love those two issues-related shows, why would you listen to the doubled-down inanity of Ron and Don? Or the 20-something pop zeitgeist of TBTL?)

Still others say they're listening to more public radio but some are probably in the same boat as Derek in Rainier Beach who says, "I never could get KUOW, now KIRO doesn't come in either. I'm screwed unless I'm in the car."

Some write they no longer get the KIRO FM where they live; others say the reception is unpredictable. Longtime reader Upton writes: "KIRO can go to hell. I had to stream Ross's show this morning but when I'm in the car, I'm out of luck the majority of the time. I've got a choice of sports 24/7 or a scratchy almost unlistenable 97.3."

As you can see here: KIROFM's is not a rural signal. (Compare it to the AM range here).

Rural folks and the exurban crowd are a little pissed. Upton: "Strange that the only time the pigs in Seattle, be it radio or anything else, care about Lewis County is when the freeway gets flooded."

But hell, does KIRO really need them? Many listeners, especially younger ones never knew of the existence of AM radio: KIRO is hoping to get a new, younger demo interested in their talk station: hence, the lowered  age targeted shows like Ron & Don and TBTL.

What's your experience with the new radio line-up?

Comments

[Perkins]

I note with interest that primarily negative comments were mentioned about the switch, when there already have been positive one's posted here by some.
In my case I love KIRO's talkers (both Dave Ross & Dori Monson) and I love sports, so it's the best of both worlds for me. A two-button love affair. With the inherent strength of the Mariners/Seahawks/Sounders FC, I believe KIRO makes this thing work just fine. Yes, it will take a while (a year is a good measure) to really see how it works, but I'm betting on it's success. The Seattle-area, despite it's fickleness about certain things is bonzo about sports and if our teams have even moderate success listnership will thrive.
Keep up the good work KIRO; your all-out cajones for taking a chance on new structure is very commendable. R&D is probably your weakest slot presently and while TBTL is rather unorthodox, it is easy-listening and the crew (Luke, Jen, et al) do a terrific job at what they do. KIRO is head and shoulders above the rest of the radio field in this area and it will continue to thrive.

[Billy Bob]

Agree that KIRO is head and shoulders above the rest. But that's because "the rest" is pathetic (except for NPR).

KIRO is like the 5'9" guy on the 4th grade recess basketball team. He kind of sucks, but looks great next to all the 5' kids.

KVI is now a caricature of what it once was. Kirby Wilbur could be on the cover of MAD magazine.

KPTK has ZERO local presence, plus there's no Bush left to bash.

KOMO at one time was a decent around-the-clock news station. But now they have no real reporers and rely totally on wire copy and TV left-overs. Plus that Carlson/Schram snoozefest middays is a hit only at senior citizen centers.

KTTH is okay if you're a wingnut and you pray at the altar of St. Rushbeck. David Boze has the biggest stick up his ass of any man under age 80.

On the sports side, the new 710 will be fine for hearing baseball or football. But Brock Huard has the intensity of a turtle that's been smashed by a truck. And Callabro needs to return to the play by play booth. The syndicated stuff is ho-hum.

KJR has actualy become the market's best local spoken word station. You may not like all (or any) of their hosts, but they're the one station that puts a real effort into being live and local MOST of the time. And when a sports story breaks, they're still the place to turn to. When WSU named a new BB coach this week, they left 710 ESPN in the dust.

The two NPR stations are still superior, but not local enough.

As to the concerns about "rural" listeners, KIRO doesn't care because that's not how Arbitron works. In Arbitron the Seattle market is a 6-county metro. And 90% of the listening is in 3 of those counties: King; Pierce; Snohomoish. The other 3 are Kitsap, Thurston, Island. If you live in Lewis county you can listen to KIRO around the clock until you die, but you'll never mean anything to Arbitron or KIRO.

[Judas]

Sorry Upton you are apparently relegated to the irrelevant.

[pops]

The reception for 97.3 is so-so at our house. Lately I've been going to iTunes and listening to the CBS Radio news on KNX from LA a couple of times a day. Driving around I can pick up KPLU so I'll go there for some news headlines even though I'm not much of a NPR fan.

AM?

Callabro could count to ten and you'd stick around to hear how it turned out. But he's all they've got.

The syndicated stuff?

Hey don't get me wrong - I really like Colin Cowherd that's why I download The Best of The Herd everyday and stick it on my iPod.

Just don't tell the Bonneville guys I said that.

[Sanders]

I live in South Seattle and can't get the new KIRO in my shop which is the only place I listen to radio. No more radio.

[Peaklimiter]

Because they have cash, Bonneville is the only group who is expanding radio. More power to them. They are innovating, and know they must take risks to do it. How many of you predicted the early demise of TBTL? They are sticking with it, and giving the new show a chance.

[sam]

we just leave the KIRO sports on all day now. fuck politics.

[Dave (not dave ross)]

for people who cant or are unwilling to push two buttons on their radio to hear decent stations (i.e. i only listen to am) they deserve what they get. most have made the change and like it. ron and don are entertaining in their time slot so filled with traffic, weather, news commercials that there is only 19 minutes per hour of acutal talk time. Even Dave Ross could not make it in that time zone and was ready to jump off the aurora bridge when he tried working afternoons. alot of home fm recievers probably would work alot better with a simple antenna that i bet is not attached in many of the cases where people are complaining. also KIRO is working on boosting its signal in areas where there is a problem. i have never had a problem getting 97.3 in the car and it sounds a hell of alot better. kiro sports am has a long way to go in my book but they deserve some time, and have the ratings from their live sports broadcasts.

[M. Steele]

I’m getting KIRO just fine now. I had been getting a broken signal until I called the phone number suggested by this blog. When I called it Tom Tangney took the message and said he’d get the engineers to look at the problem. Two days later and it was loud and clear. So I’m listening except to the Dori show and TBTL. I tried to listen to TBTL one warm summer night while on my way to pick up adult pampers for my mother in law. It had been raining that night and the frogs were hopping over the road. Wow, I thought, I’ve lived here for years and never seen this strange phenomenon. Then I had a stark realization, this is why I see many raccoons dead the morning after the rain. The raccoons are chasing the frogs into the road at their own peril. I asked myself why am I thinking of this crap whilst procuring grandma’s poopy pampers? So I flipped on TBTL to here the, what seemed like girly man talk, hosts were ranking Madonna’s greatest 80’s tunes. I listened for a while and realized this isn’t my cup of tea. So I turned off the radio, rolled down the window to the tires make frog pâté for the raccoons that late summer night.

[Judas]

Sounds like a typical case of DWT to me.

[Striker]

I live and work in Olympia and used to listen to the AM, Dave Ross and Dori some times the other guys. I also have to drive to Renton every couple of weeks and would listen to the traffic. But no more.
Dave, Dori and the rest sound like they are talking through a tunnel, and the callers on the phone don't come in at all. As far as sports radio, not that interested, I like to watch sports but don't have to know every thing about the teams, the players, the coaches. Besides it is all just a bunch of cheerleaderts for the local teams.
So, I am listening to KOMO when I need the new and classic rock on the FM.
I am not to worried, in a year or less, Talk KIRO will be back on the AM and sports talk will be gone.

[Judas]

Sounds like a typical case of BS to me.

[M.Steele]

Billy Bob:

"KVI is now a caricature of what it once was. Kirby Wilbur could be on the cover of MAD magazine."

That's rich...

[pete]

KIRO FM' signal doesn't come in very well in our neighborhood and I couldn't care less about sports let alone guys from New York talking about sports. I'll still listen to the Mariner games occasionally if they start winning but other than that, it's KOMO all the time. Thankfully they do a terrific job that I can count on. Especially with the stock market being what it is, I can keep track through the day about whether or not I have any money left. Now I need to find another AM station to replace 710 on my car's push buttons or maybe just put 1000 in there twice.

[asdfasd]

So far the brock huard show is sounding terrible. Maybe he's green (although he's been doing pre/post seahawks for years), or maybe he's just nervous but it's painful to listen to. Neither host has the talent to hold a listener.

From what little I've heard of calabro so far, it sounds like he's calling a game from 10,000 feet. Strangely dis-interested about the topic at hand. I really don't think he can get pumped up about anything but basketball, and since the sonics are gone, he seems like he's on auto-pilot.

Maybe it's just growing pains for new hosts who aren't used to filling 3-4 hours at a sitting, but you can really tell the difference between an actual talk jock (from KJR) and someone hired to fill time because of name recognition. We'll see how it pans out but I would be surprised if Calabro didn't get bored within a year and jump back into play by play (and not soccer).

And finally, two local shows does not a local station make.

[joanie]

Interesting comments all.

KIRO is trying to boost its signal? I hope they do. I hope they're succesful. I can barely get them north of Bellingham and I miss them.

I can't imagine KIRO sports overtaking KJR for some reason but probably because KJR's hosts have been around for so many years. Local talk needs some local flavor and they have it. Although, I haven't listened for quite a while.

For some reason, I can't get the 97.3 FM in my classroom in the heart of Seattle. I guess I'll have to move the radio but I don't want to...

Oh well. Considering the frequent turnover in hosts on KIRO, I guess I'm used to it all.

Calabro without the Sonics? I had forgotten we are a city without basketball. As someone who went looking with the girls for Dennis Johnson's house in Bellevue some years ago, they are now but a distant memory.

[woody held]

Seattle has not been the same since Mayor Nipples raided Ricks and shut down our reason for being.

[Tommy008]

Kirby is a righty clown but he occaisionally does sniff out a good story. An example of one was the other day when he covered a Danny Westmead column abour a guy who is going back to Detroit after being a repeat crime victim here after only a year or two in Seattle. The guy was beaten by a group of thugs in Belltown last weekend. Black thugs have been attacking white and perhaps one or two Asian males for years in that area although our PC Police department won't admit to there being a racial component. The same way that according to them the Mardi Gras disaster of a decade ago was simply a riot of drunkards, not the fullblown race riot which of course it was. After the guy got out of the hoispital last Monday he contacted the police only to find they had already closed the case, even though witnesses had a description and partial plate of the car, and probaly could identify perps.. Is this more coddling of black thugs? The real reason that Girlykowski told the police to back off at Mardi Gras was intimidation by black community groups and a pc policy of not going after black thugs. Thus his cops were ordered by him to watch from afar as an innocent white youth was beaten to death by a back thug. The disgrace of Mardi Gras has even reached the halls of the Senate, and they planned to ask Girlykowski about his shameful conduct, during his confirmation hearings. I'm betting the victim in the Westmead column is a white male and that the thugs are blacks. I'd put big money on it in Vegas. S.P.D. get your head out of your ass- our downtown streets are becoming playgrounds for thugs. Now I'll wait for the usual suspects here to call me a racist.

[Billy Bob]

You said "Kirby occassionally does sniff out a good story."

Are you fuckin' kidding me. He read a column in the newspaper!

If that qualifies in your book as "sniffing out a good story", you are really an out of touch putz.

[casual observer]

Billy Bob hits the nail on the head. KOMO needs a total face lift. The production imaging on that station is right out of the 80s.

Old, tired programming on FM is the same as old, tired programming on the AM. Only the audio is better.

[Marvin Dale]

If you are too old for TBTL, too young for Mike Malloy, too real for George Noory, you are shit out of luck on the am dial after 7PM. I have stopped listening to radio entirely in the evenings.

[Tommy008]

Monson just had the guy on who was knocked unconscious in Belltown, and had his face stomped until passersby saved him from probable death. yep White guy victim- four black male asailants. 10 year old Acura Legendwas the getaway car. watch for it in Belltown. these are black punks cruising around with pent up rage and racism looking for an excuse to batter and stomp on/stab white males. This city's full of cars of these dogs.

[Puget Sound]

tommy, i love you but take the race out of it.

[Tommy008]

Sorry can't take the race out of it, because the majority of these attacks are black on white, and are obviously unprovoked hate crimes. Sorry, I'm not Dave Ross.

[Puget Sound]

okay tommy.

[Puget Sound]

nevets

"Dungeons & Dragons co-creator dies at 61

Published: Friday April 10, 2009

Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game that spawned a hugely successful franchise of animated movies and computer games, has died at the age of 61.

Arneson's death from cancer in St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday was reported by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of toymaker Hasbro Inc. that publishes the role-playing game.

Arneson was already a dedicated tabletop wargamer reenacting historical battles with miniature armies when he met fellow Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax in 1969, according to Wizards of the Coast.

"By the early 1970s, Dave's far-ranging interests led him to a unique concept in wargaming -- a wargame where each model represented just one hero instead of many soldiers in an army," it said.

"What was new were the ideas that the same heroes could be played in a series of games, learning and becoming more powerful with each battle; that their battles could be part of larger adventures," it said.

"And, most importantly, that playing just one hero at a time was more exciting than controlling a whole army if that hero had a personality. In other words -- role-playing."

Arneson and Gygax's earliest collaboration, Blackmoor, evolved by 1974 into what would eventually become Dungeons & Dragons.

Arneson later started his own game-publishing company, Adventure Games, and a computer game company, 4D Interactive Systems, Inc."

[kj]

I have listened to KIRO for years. No matter how I move my radio around the house in W. Seattle, 97.3 is full of static, so I'm done.

[erick]

After years of tuning in to kiro for a little afternoon entertainment, I'm done.

If and when they are able to retain an afternnon host or some other format that can bring something unique, fun or even positive to the community - I might tune in again.

Until then, its actually fun listening to commercial free music stations like pandora.

[Tommy008]

DID you catch the woman who owned Dori in an argument today after he had condemned the 14 year old who allegedly killed her newborn baby? Before he took on the teen he had been chuckling and yukking about killing moles in his back yard. Monoson asked what kind of little teen girl could kill their own newborn babe and the woman chimed in saying that it was very possibly a girl who had grown up with a father who laughed and joked about killing moles and squirrels in his backyard. Dori got extremely ruffled, and assumed that sissy/bitch tone of voice he gets when he's been called out "You sound just like a little boy," the woman told him, spot on. haha Dori.

[Bruce Olson]

KIRO is moving younger and moving to the right. I'm doing just the opposite. Bonneville has made it clear they are not interested in me so let me be clear that I am no longer interested in them. The FM switch just made a change in habits easy.

I think there is a great market for a good evening radio show, hope someone figures something out. Listening to someone call their mom on TBTL doesn't cut it.

[kiromgmnt]

Bye-bye Bruce, we are going to miss you. Thanks for listening as long as you did and we hope you enjoy your options.
Happy listening.

[Pete]

There is talk around town that the early indications for PPM ratings show that KIRO AM and FM both are in trouble. If true, it will be interesting as to how fast the sports/fm news-talk experiment is put back on the shelf.