News-Talk 1250 KTW

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• I first head Wayne Cody on KTW

  • Major talent on a relatively obscure radio station, hampered by daytime-only broadcast hours for so many years.

    • KTW protected KWSC Pullman and was allowed to return to the air at 11:15 P.M. when KWSC ended its broadcast day.

      So in the summer KTW could broadcast 22 hours a day and did so when Tom, Dick, Harry and Sam were spinning rock 'n roll back in those sixties we miss so bad.

      And around 1959 or '60, long-time country music promoter Jack Roberts, who later brought all of Kountry KAYO's shows to town, was given an hour at 3:30 A. M. on KTW (maybe after Bill Carter’s Party Line?) to strum his guitar, sing cowboy, western and hillbilly songs, and play some records too.

• OK. A picnic is pretty good. Now that I think of it, there are the rare, long goodbyes. Those would be like Charlie Brown leaving for Dallas, Gary Lockwood leaving KGW etc. https://qzvx.com/2020/04/24/sam-lawsons-audio-vault-gary-lockwoods-last-show-at-kgw/

• I remember being there. I drove Bill Hamelin. Fun event.

  • Come to think of it, after all these years I still have that nice wicker picnic basket given to me as a gift that day. The wine and other goodies it contained are long gone, but that ol' basket has seen a lot of miles in-between, stood up well and has been mainly repurposed as a magazine rack of sorts. Right now it contains cards and other Christmas memorabilia to be gone through each December in preparation for the holidays.

• This happens in TV but usually not in radio. Once the decision has been made, a radio jock is bounced immediately, unless it is the rare "retirement".

  • The only thing to even came close to anything like this in my radio career (and for the record, I'm not sure it actually qualifies) was when I left KBFW-Bellingham for KPOK Portland. I was quite happy as the PD at KBFW, but out of the blue I got a phone call and offer from the Portland station that I realistically couldn't pass up. Before exiting B'ham, station management gave me a going away picnic (party), at a campsite in Birch Bay, which included a gift picnic basket filled with all kinds of goodies and a wonderful picnic style dinner with salmon barbecued Indian style over an open fire. It was attended by the entire station staff (except for the jock on the air) and that was really some of the most delicious salmon I've ever eaten. • This was extremely unusual and not my typical experience ... be it a friendly or unfriendly exit.

• I just came across this 2017 post mentioning KING5's Linda Brill & her husband Jim Lalonde. When I returned to Seattle from Austin, TX in 1978, a friend and co-worker at Austin's K-98 traveled to Seattle with me and had been with Chicago's WXRT Radio in 1975 when Linda Brill was that station's first News Director (circa: 1975-77). We contacted Linda, who had just joined KING5, and visited with her at her then apartment on Queen Anne. I eventually moved to West Seattle (for a time) and would run into Linda periodically as she also lived there. I always found her friendly and engaging. Anyway, Linda retired from KING5 in 2015 after 37 years with the station. I came across this delightful "Retirement 'Goodbye' Tape" from the folks at KING-TV for Linda. It is, of course, filled with lots of "inside humor" ... but, all in all, I would think any of us would be pleased to be remembered with such good humor and sincere appreciation ... to say nothing of the time and effort spent in putting the tape together.
  https://youtu.be/PGewXuiDZtY

  PS: The tape includes a number of old KING5 faces that you may not have seen in a while.