1994: DJ Team Makes History With KUBE/KJR Simulcast

CHUCK TAYLOR July 15, 1994 THE SEATTLE TIMES – Next to tomorrow’s big collision of that busted-up comet and the
planet Jupiter, the solar system’s top news story this week involves Charlie Brown and Ty Flint, the morning team at Top 40 KUBE-FM (93.3) Brown was the morning guy during most of the ’70s at KJR-AM (950) when it was the Top 40 giant here, and in August he and Flint will join ’70s-hits KJR-FM (95.7). Does that mean they’re leaving KUBE? No. They will “simulcast” the morning show on both stations. Same DJs but different music and commercials. How can seemingly competing FM stations carry the same morning show? For one thing, both KJRs and KUBE soon will be under the same roof on Lower Queen Anne with approval by the Federal Communications Commission this week of a transfer of ownership from their respective owners to a joint venture called New Century Media. Ackerley Communications, which had owned the KJRs, contributes those stations to the deal, while a partnership involving KUBE general manager Michael O’Shea contributes KUBE. Ackerley owns the bigger share of New Century Media but O’Shea’s group will be the managing partners. While all-sports KJR-AM does its own thing, the two FM stations are seen as eminently complementary, reaching two generations of hit-music lovers. Brown and Flint appeal to both groups, but older listeners who were loyal to Brown in the 1970s today find KUBE’s music a tune-out.So it makes all the sense in the solar system to put them on both stations, O’Shea said. To his knowledge, this sort of simulcast has never been done on multiple stations in the same market. — Danger! With the comet vs. Jupiter matchup, our nostalgia overcomes us and we harken back to the 1960s TV show “Lost in Space.” As the robot used to say: “Warning! Meteor shower!” — We’re getting older: Another thing the robot used to say: “That does not compute.” A lot of people have been saying all this ’70s nostalgia does not compute, given the vapidness usually attributed to that decade’s music and fashion. But it is, after all, 20 years since, and that’s usually the magic amount of time for nostalgia to become profitable. And some would say the music wasn’t that bad. Says Norm Gregory, the new program director of KJR-FM who was a jock for then-Top 40 KJR-AM: “I had forgotten. It’s amazing what a wide variety of music comes from the ’70s.” Gregory joined KJR-FM recently after leaving the afternoon show at KOMO-AM (1000) in May, and he is temporarily pulling the morning-drive shift before moving to middays on KJR-FM to make room for Charlie and Ty. Ric Hansen, who had been doing mornings, moves to afternoons. — Morton’s back: Jack Morton is working for KOMO-AM (1000) on a free-lance basis, doing weekends and filling for vacationing personalities. The Seattle radio veteran’s most recent stint was at news-talk KIRO AM (710), as the on-the-water weekend marine reporter. — So is The Babe: For casual listeners of sports radio, you might have missed the return of Nanci Donnellan, “the Fabulous Sports Babe,” to sports-talk KJR-AM (950). Part of her nationally syndicated ESPN show is being picked up between 10 a.m. and noon, half live, half taped. The Babe and Ackerley Communications, then-owner of KJR-AM, had a legal spat over her departure to the Big Time earlier this year. On the one hand, KJR is cashing in on the Babe’s popularity here. On the other, KJR personalities and listeners are exacting lighthearted revenge for her departure by saying not-so-fabulous things about her and voting her “Geek of the Week.” — Net talk: Our phones have been ringing like crazy since KJR-AM recently dropped Talknet’s Bruce Williams, the popular, plain-speaking financial adviser who was on weeknights from 10 p.m.to 1 a.m. KJR did it to expand local shows and make its lineup truly all-sports. Talknet says it has a station lined up to put Williams back on the air in Seattle. Street talk had him returning to KIRO-AM, but KIRO says it is only exploring the possibility.