It was the winter of '55-56. Bill Wippel was behind the mic, DJ-ing at Yakima's KUTI.
It was mighty cold that day (minus 25 F., Wippel says) and a small herd of local mice decided they'd had enough of the Yakima winter so they invaded. The ran into the xmtr (transmitter) and, Wip says, "Their tails would get caught in the mercury vapor tubes, throwing us off the air."
They set mouse traps. The xmtr was next to the board with no glass between. As he read a funeral home Christmas greeting, a mouse trap snapped, decapitating a vermin.
"I
began to laugh and had to tell listeners what was going on. Forty-five minutes later,
dozens of cars were lined up in front of the station, listeners offering
their cats to chase the mice to keep the station on the air!"
Wippel started his radio career in his hometown of Ellensberg as a DJ and whgile attending WSU,worked as an announcer at KNEW. After college, he worked around Eastern Washington and Idaho as a copywriter, announcer and DJ. He co-owned KOFE in Pullman for a time.
He came to Seattle in 1964 and started working as a newsman at for Martin Tobin, who was KOL’s news director in the early 1960s. He then moved with Tobin to Wally Nelskog’s KIXI in 1965.
While a beat reporter at KIXI, he worked with such on-air luminaries as Don Riley, Martin Tobin, Dave Ballard, Wally Nelskog, Rudy Perez, Bob Liddle and Dean Smith.
He won several journalism awards for reporting the King
County Courthouse scandal. "Had my life threatened by one of the officials
I investigated," he says.
After a stint as TV anchor in Tacoma (KTNT) and Green Bay, WI (WBAY); a GM job in the Tri Cities, he came back to Seattle as news director at KIRO radio just as the station launched its news/talk format in 1976.
Among his new hires was Dave Ross from WSB in Atlanta.
After three years at KIRO, Wippel went to Seattle's KCIS for 10 years as an announcer. Bill Taylor hired him to be as a broadcast information officer for the GOP HouseCaucus for the 1989 and 1990 legislative sessions.
Bill Wippel rounded out his career as director of community relations for the Union Gospel Mission. He now makes sure the facts are straight in the comment threads of many publications (including BlatherWatch) and is an announcer for the American Christian Network.
You have had a varied and awesome career, Bill. You should write a book! Bet it's hard to see all the changes for the worse since you retired.
Posted by: sparky | October 02, 2010 at 10:30 AM
And your comments are always interesting and welcome. That's quite a career! Thanks, Michael, for doing this on the The Lip. I've often wondered about him.
Posted by: joanie | October 02, 2010 at 10:36 AM
Great stuff on Bill, enjoyed it. Does anyone know what happened to Bob Summers who was on air in both Spokane and Seattle during the '70's ?
Posted by: MstngSally | October 02, 2010 at 12:01 PM
Didn't you work for KING1090, Bill? Seems like I remember you from there.
Posted by: George Patkos | October 02, 2010 at 01:35 PM
Radio and Records conducted a poll in the late 70's sometime. The average length of employment at any radio station for on-air announcers(dj's) was eleven months.
Posted by: dale | October 02, 2010 at 02:54 PM
Wip is one of the genuine gentlemen of the business, gifted with melifluous vocal equipment, an authoritative but warm on-air presence, a rather courtly demeanor, and a robust sense of humor.
He also has a well-earned reputation for his generous spirit, faith, and perpetual optimism, which have helped him weather some difficult times, both personally and professionally.
Good to see him acknowledged here as one of Seattle's memorable radio figures.
Posted by: BT | October 03, 2010 at 11:00 AM
You haven't talked about Don Steele yet. He worked in Yakima and Kennewick (not in Seattle) before he found his big fortune in the Los Angeles radio market.
Posted by: YLB | October 03, 2010 at 11:20 AM
I remember Bill being interviewed down at UGM about knowing the wacked out guy who shot a bus driver and caused the bus to go off the Aurora Bridge, killing several others. Seems he stayed at the Mission and was known to all who worked there. Bill was thrust into the position of being part of the news instead of reporting it. He's a voice I miss on the radio in Seattle.
Posted by: George Patkos | October 03, 2010 at 09:35 PM
Bill and I worked at KCIS for several years, and is a great guy with a super voice. I loved radio when tghe announcers all had at least a ten ball voice.
Bruce Stier ( Brian York )
Posted by: Bruce E. Stier | October 04, 2010 at 05:03 PM
I hear you all the time on the ACN network out of Spokane on line and when traveling on their big 50,000 watt on 810. You still sound great.
Robert
Posted by: Robert | October 06, 2010 at 01:19 PM
Yo cyberspace...
if Bill Wippel is out there somewhere JJ Valley would like to get in touch. You can find me hiding under the email
[email protected]
Posted by: jj valley | October 18, 2010 at 05:23 PM