Female Voices New At KOMO 1000

A milestone of sorts at KOMO Radio. Women’s voices were used on those short “KOMO Country” descriptions, aired from time to time.
Joy Losey, a television news coordinator, and Barbara Tanabe, television news reporter, did them–anonymously of course. They see it as a major breakthrough in the all-male regime on the radio. It’s the first time that a woman’s voice has been heard outside the kitchen or off the PTA lecturn.
The two television women said Jay Ward, radio manager, and Don Cannon, afternoon announcer, had been arch enemies of the female voice.
Ward had been singlehandedly responsible for regrooming a feeble network affiliate into a modern giant. Playing middle of the road music, hiring only deep-voiced announcers (and throwing reverb behind his own station identifications), Ward and his male cohorts have captured as much as 20 percent of the Pacific Northwest radio audience.
“We’ve always rotated announcer voices on those station promos,” Ward said in measured cadence and manly voice. “I think the spots you are talking about offer variety.”