We are curious to know more about our readers.
Are you a current broadcast professional or former radio-tv personality? On-air, management, sales, engineering? Record industry pro?
Tell us a little about yourself, the stations you worked for, the interesting people you worked with or met at stations along the way.
Are you a radio fan, did not work in the broadcasting industry, but followed it and have memories and stories to share?
We look forward to your comments…
And, as always, if you have an aircheck you would like to share, send it through WE TRANSFER or email to mailbox@qzvx.com and we will post them. Pictures, newspaper clippings etc. are welcome!
Lou Robbins — Admin/Editor | Airchecks
KTOY | KVAC (WA-1974) | KDFL (WA-1975) | KTTX (TX- 1976) | KWHI (TX-1976) | KONP (WA-1977) | KBAM (WA-1978) | KJUN (WA-1983) | KRPM (WA-1984) | KAMT (WA-1986) | KASY (WA-1988) | KBRD (WA-1989) | KTAC (WA-1990) | KMTT (WA-1991) | KOOL (AZ-1994)
Dear Mr. Nunley, I live in Kirkland, Washington and have watched you on King 5 television in Seattle. When they said your name I thought I was hearing wrong but couldn’t get to speak to anyone about it. I am so sorry to hear about your Father’s Health. My Mother, who’s name was Evelyn Pauline Nunley was born in Logan, W. Virginia on July 19th, 1915 and died in Newark, De. in June,2007. Her Mother’s Mother was Edna Nunley Kimbler and her Father was Dexter Nunley, Sr. I don’t know if you are into Family History but I like hearing a bit about where I come from. My Mother married John Ratliff, Sr who was from Ashcamp, Ky. I still have Ratliff cousins that I keep in touch with. Anyway…..one of the reasons I am contacting you is because I have letters that were written over 100 years ago between Dexter and Edna Nunley I would love to give them to someone who is doing Family History. If you can helpme…not now but when you have the time I would love hearing from you. Thanking you in advance..Betty Ratliff Marth.
Contact Christopher Nunley through his X.COM account https://twitter.com/chrisnunley
Thanks for a great job on Bill Drake’s History of Rock and Roll.
Don Sainte-Johnn
Ex 610 Air Personality
Hello, I am not a broadcaster, but my Dad was friends with one of your graduates, Brian Peterson. My dad asked if I could find any info him, his name is David Ruffle, as am I, the 3rd. My dad says he moved to North Dakota to be a Country music DJ. If anyone has any info about Mr. Peterson, my dad would love to get a hold of him.
Thank you for your time!
*Message is coming from Alaska, on the Kenai Peninsula!*
Brian Peterson: graduate of ______? Graduated what year approx.? Worked in what city? If info is to be found, there must be a little more info given.
Having been a part of the Star Station organization through much of this story…at KISN, the KOIL and, eventually, WIFE, I can attest to this as being a mostly accurate account of what brought down Don W. Burden. But, I need to add to this comment the fact that Mr. Burden inspired and encouraged me in my broadcast career more than any other person. I admired him as a friend and our relationship, at times, bordered on a “father and son” relationship. Despite conclusions that might be drawn from this account of his “demons”, I owe any success in broadcasting that I enjoy today, to Don Burden. I miss him a lot.
Brian Keil says:
October 18, 2021 4:51 pm at
I was going through a box of old air-check tapes today which prompted me to go online and look up these old North Seattle call letters.
I did a Saturday morning show for a few months around the autumn of 1984. I even did one remote broadcast with the gang one weekend. I was 32, recently divorced and fresh out of Ron Baily School of Broadcast. I may still have some bumper stickers. I’ll have to check an old box of stuff in storage. It was my first on-air job and gave me a chance to hone my skills, while holding down my real job in construction. It was a great place to start. I went on to work at KKMI (Pat O’Day Station Manager), KMPS,the Country Station (back then), and ultimately a weekend show at KVI, when it was doing Oldies.
Some pretty impressive stations there. Those were the days.
Seems like this has already been sussed out:
Kevin Coe (born Frederick Harlan Coe on February 2, 1947 is an American convicted rapist from Spokane, Washington, often referred to in the news media as the South Hill Rapist. As of May 2008, Coe is still a suspect in dozens of rapes, the number of which is unusually large; his convictions received an unusual amount of attention from appeals courts. Coe’s mother Ruth was convicted for hiring a hitman against the judge and the prosecutor at her son’s trial following his conviction. The bizarre relationship between Coe and his mother became the subject of a nonfiction book, Son: A Psychopath and his Victims, by the crime author Jack Olsen. On July 31, 1982, Coe legally changed his first name to Kevin.
If he had any background in broadcasting, there would be public records with that info.
Try Googling: Kevin Coe
There is a Wikipedia reference “”Kevin” – a former Las Vegas radio announcer and unsuccessful real estate agent”
News item: In earlier testimony Tuesday, a former secretary at the James S. Black real estate office on the South Hill testified for the first time that she saw Coe hiding behind a tree in Hamblen Park in the summer of 1980 as he watched Spokane broadcaster Shelly Monahan stage a disco dance for young people.
Cheryl Ferguson said she recognized Coe because they worked in the same office.
Coe said in a videotaped deposition taken for his civil commitment trial this year that he’d never seen Monahan, a former disc jockey known as “Sunshine Shelly,” until his 1981 arrest.
Monahan was raped outside the KJRB radio studios on the South Hill on Sept. 9, 1979. She was unable to identify her attacker; her case was never tried.
Ferguson said she’d been employed for about a year when a dapper young real estate agent named Coe was hired.
At first, he came to work in three-piece suits and “Gucci-type” shoes and told her stories about his career as a disc jockey in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Ferguson said. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2008/oct/01/coe-victim-recounts-attack/
In spite of requests to various agencies (FCC included) I am unable to determine exactly where and when Coe worked in radio broadcasting. I am familiar with news reports and the novel by Jack Olsen that contains a wealth of detail. Coe himself stated he briefly worked in radio in western Washington, I need the where and when. So many details not fleshed out with this guy.
Hello. I am not a broadcaster and I don’t know a lot about radio even though my father is big into ham radio. I am here because I am an amateur sleuth and trying to learn more about a very notorious radio broadcaster, Frederick ‘Kevin’ Coe. I am particularly interested in anyone who may know of a historian with the Ron Bailie school or anyone who might know if/when Coe worked as a radio broadcaster in the state of Washington. Coe claims to have worked in Spokane for a year but it is impossible to find records to document any radio work history in the state of Washington. This information would be useful to me in relation to research into him as a candidate in multiple cold cases.
How did former KOMO 4 anchor/reporter Gary Lindsey die?
Hello – Gary Crow and I are producing a documentary-style video about the History of Northwest Rock n Roll, 1957-1967. We are looking for any airchecks about bands and dances in the area (WA, OR, ID and AK) – especially ‘the Bards’ in Spokane.
Thank you …………….ck
Craig Kelly
Tacoma, WA
253.238.3700
TVDirector@live.com
Craig,
There are several airchecks on the QZVX website that feature audio concerning bands and dances. KOL and KJR specifically. We look forward to the documentary. Let us know when and where it can be viewed when completed.
Craig…I have 1966 airchecks from KPUG in Bellingham with spots promoting dances by The Wailers, Merilee and the Turnabouts, the Sonics and Don and the Goodtimes all at Whatcom County venues.
Well, Patty Brooks returned to Bellingham’s KGMI today as a guest host on “Saturday Morning Live”. Now, it’s time that Audra Rosen(nee Schroeder)guest hosted SML. I even called in to suggest that those two do a podcast.
I’m a former GM/DJ from the San Francisco Bay Area who ran KMPX-FM there in the 1970s. I moved to the Northwest in 1995 and have been enjoying listening to the local stations here since then. Your website is a goldmine of great airchecks and jingles of the past. It’s nice to delve into the history of broadcasting and I now teach extended education courses on the topic both at UW and Bellevue Colleges along with two different quarterly series on the Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Thanks for assembling such a compendium of material.
Thank you, John. Behind all of this is a great team of writers and lots of reader input.
Boy, all those fantastic airchecks from the radio I grew up on! Even KGY, my hometown station. Thanks for the trip back; I’ve sent links to several friends from the day. One comment: on the KJR audio page you suggest that CFUN became something else in 1967. I listened to “a” CFUN when I was at WWU in Bellingham in the 80s. But then, calls often get swapped around…
Anyway, thanks for this site, from a lifelong radio nerd. That whole world fascinated me when I was a kid, and still does today. I still sit up in bed ‘way too late at night with the lights off, surfing the waves. Today they come through the FM app on my Android phone, whereas when I was 9, it was the Panasonic portable transistor AM-only radio I got for Christmas. But it’s still the same addiction.
I had a 6 transistor (?) GE pocket radio. I was hooked on late-nite listening.
I started in broadcasting at Pasadena City college radio station KPCS / KPCC in 1968, as a student. I worked weekend relief at Country station KWOW in Pomona, CA during that time. I transferred to Wash. St. Univ in 1970 and was active in the early days / birth of NPR at KWSU a.m. and tv as one of the first grads of the Murrow School of Comm at WSU. I broadcast news, music, sports and produced one of the first local Minority Affairs series “Chicano Today” on KWSU. After graduation, I was Music Dir. at KBND a.m. in Bend, Oregon. In 1975, I produced “Golden Gate to Friendship”, a daily magazine show about life in San Francisco, for Far East Bdcst Co. (Christian radio) to Japan. Leaving full time media work in 1978, I recently retired from the L.A. County Dept./ Health as a Med / Legal inspector. But, along the way, I did media consulting work, lining up the first sports programming for formerly KWOW, Pomona, CA when sold: as KMNY in 1997….we added L.A. Kings hockey as a local affiliate. Currently retired, I recently returned to sportscasting after 40 yrs., as the color commentator for the L.A. City section football game of the week and occasional J.C. broadcasts on http://www.prepsportsnet.com // I have started an open
Facebook Group page: “Arranging 60’s Music for SATB Chorus / Orchestra.”
Thank you, Tim. PrepSportsNet picks up where local stations dropped the ball on high school sports.
I have lived in Seattle all my life and followed most of our TV and radio stations since I was a kid back in the 70’s. This website has been helpful and love listening to air check sounds of what Seattle radio was back then!
Some families sat together around the tv and even the radio in the earlier days. Now, the family is scattered, each with a handheld device for listening or viewing. I think we had it better, back in our youth. It’s nice to have so much entertainment available on-demand, but I think we were all happier “in the good old days”.
Yep that’s what we did when I was a kid back then watched it with my folks. Radio was so fun to listen to in those days whether you traveled around Seattle or long road trips like we did!
In and out of broadcasting all my life. Radio and TV in chronological order:’, KRCH, KUET, KEPR, KCYS-FM, KNDU-TV, WUCB, WHPK-FM, WTRC, WFIM-FM, WSJV-TV, KURB, KPUG, KBRO AM&FM, KTNT, KPMA, KAMT, KQEU, TV-Tacoma, KLAY.
Most interesting interviews: U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, baseball player/announcer Dizzy Dean.
Outside of broadcasting in chronological order: Lynnwood Enterprise, Edmonds Tribune-Review, Marysville Globe, Motorola, Tac-Comm, Salvation Army, Tacoma Rescue Mission, Tacoma City Council, Christian Brotherhood Academy, Youth Marine Foundation, Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer.
Enjoyed working with Jaynie Dillon, Stan Orchard, Cynthia Wise, Dewey Boynton, Jane Shannon, Bruce Bond, Charlie Burd and many more.
–Mike Lonergan
We managed to get an exclusive interview with Mike Lonergan in 2011, from the studios of 1180 KLAY/Lakewood…
https://qzvx.com/2018/12/09/mike-lonergan-interview-2011/
John…interesting.
My only radio experience was reading news headlines on KNHC at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, where I graduated in 1973, and doing the same on KSSR, the then-operating carrier current station at Seattle Pacific University, where I graduated in communications in 1977. After college, I was interested in three fields — broadcast news, broadcast management and newspapering — and the latter is where I have wound up working for the past 45 years. But I have maintained my strong interest in the broadcast industry. I worked in 1977-78 as a reporter for the small daily in Ontario in eastern Oregon; 1978-85 as editor of the weekly Anacortes American in northwest Washington (sister paper of the Skagit Valley Herald in Mount Vernon), 1985-93 as a reporter and then associate editor at The Daily Astorian on the north Oregon coast, and from 1994 to the present as founding publisher and editor of Christian News Northwest newspaper (cnnw.com) in the Portland area. It is a regional 26,000-circulation monthly focusing on the evangelical Christian community in the Northwest. Along the way, I also worked from 1995 to 2002 as director of public information for George Fox University, a Christian school in Newberg, OR. My wife of 37 years and I live in Newberg and have four grown children and nine grandchildren.
Thank you, John.
I look forward to reading bios from all of our readers.
Thank you for sharing!
Great background and experiences, Jason !
Hi John! Good to hear from you. If I recall correctly, we worked together on the Addams Apple in 9th grade. Amazing how well KNHC has done. I’m on this board just as a fan of over the air broadcast. Working at Boeing as a scheduler. Hope all is well with you and yours.