Former radio columnist for the Seattle Times (1964-1989).
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Music, Music, Music
3 thoughts on “Music, Music, Music”
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Steven Smith says:
October 5, 2016 9:06 pm at
I knew Steve Schilling at KIXI 44 years ago. I was in college, working there part time, and Schilling was the afternoon announcer. That is a more appropriate term than “jock” since the only one who was charged with being a personality was Bob Liddle in the morning. The other guys from mid-day on were more BIG voices. The music was on reel, IGM automation, so after a few songs had run, the announcer would figure out what had played and back announce the set. Then he would push the start button and the automation would play a few spots and go back into music. Compared to “jocks” at many competitors such as KJR, KVI or KIRO…. KIXI announcers were detached from the music, not like jocks concentrating on their show. KIXI had voices vs. personalities. Between breaks, Steve was killing time reading Mario Puzo’s best seller at the time The Godfather. It was 1972 and the movie was in town at Cinerama. I was 20 and knew little about it, but he loved it, it sounded so good that one week night I left my room at the Camelin Hotel, across from KIXI studio, and saw the show…. horse head in bed and all. Popular movie… to get in you had to buy your ticket a few hours before the show started. Steve was young then, compared to the other KIXI announcers. I knew he went back to KBRO, but does anyone know anymore about his status today? Is he still around, did he stay in radio?
This site has a 1974 aircheck of Steve Schilling on KBRO: http://www.otrannex.com/the600/. Presentation a lot like KIXI, swap-and-shop segment and missing dog reports notwithstanding. There was a music bed behind the announcer much of the time and recorded liners waxing poetic about the people of “Puget Sound West.” Given that KIXI was only 1 kW from the Mercer Slough site, it wouldn’t have put the greatest signal into Kitsap County, so I can see why KBRO was successful imitating them.
There is also a recording on this site from the previous day that features KIRO-FM running the Bonneville beautiful music format.
Wonderful site! Thanks for the info.