Update:
***** See link: https://kingdom-resource.org/2022/05/17/the-kbiq-case-history/
I was off on some of the dates regarding the KBIQ logos. Phill Butler wrote a monograph about his involvement to establish KBIQ. 12/7/67 was the start and the “Jet” was in at that time. 1967 I was not listening to FM, I was in 9th Grade then. I didn’t get interested in FM until I built my first Stereo FM Heathkit tuner around 1970. I knew Phill but did not realize the depth of thinking, planning he and his team did to put the “Q” on air and on the map. He should be up there with Jim Schulke, Marlin Taylor and Bill Wertz (Kalamusic) ****
October 20th post–
I found another old biscuit! The John Pricer KBIQ images from 1971 to about 1974 or possibly later? (Updated info shows 1967 start) John had a wonderful set of pipes, but he never seemed to land for a reasonable period of time at one station. For a while he was commuting between his Mountlake Terrace home and Bellingham to do video switching and while on camera reading news on KVOS-TV.
KBIQ was then 120,000 watts ERP and if you fudged mathematically with horizontal and vertical antennas, then 240,000 “ERP.” I was fired in the spring of 1973 when a paid religion tape on KGDN
broke and I ran into the studio as quick as I could and grabbed a record. It was Ave Maria, sung by Mario Lanza. The stuff hit the fan for me.
I was raised Catholic and oops, Catholics are not Christians at least then at King’s Garden stations.
That fall when I was at KIRO-FM we made fun of the Jet noise as that’s one of the last things you want in a soft music format is a 747 engine in your kitchen.
Anyway, here’s the resurrected Music from the Jet City signatures.
John Pricer/KBIQ images (2:55)
Claude
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)
My sister had a nice stereo FM tuner in a cabinet with a turntable and large speakers. KBIQ sounded great on that Magnavox unit.
It’s wonderful to hear these KBIQ “jet IDs” after more than a half-century! Really brings back memories of a terrific easy listening station of my youth (when I wasn’t busy rocking out to KJR, KOL and KING 🙂
Pricer was at KING-Am as John Spring, leaving KING in 1969 for a stint at KIRO-AM.
He was Jonathan Spring doing mornings at KING, and every day at the end of his shift he met with the P.D., who told him in detail every little thing he’d done wrong, and everything he didn’t do but should have, from start to finish.
It reminds me of Mike Hamilton (O’Connor), who did seven to midnight at KOL and KMPS. His P.D. when it was KOL kept the phone open and dictated what he was to say before and after every record.
That’s nuts. How long would you have put up with micro-managing like that? I would have been out after day one.
It’s hard to say. My “performance” was critiqued only once, other than my self-flagellation, in all my years in radio. It was the first commercial I recorded at KGEZ. The G.M., Gene Loffler, asked me to come into his office, he closed the door, invited me to sit down, and talked to me me about the approach I’d used on the spot. I told him it was something I’d heard on KOFI, the only other station in town. He simply told me that we were better than KOFI, that I was better than KOFI (which I wasn’t), and asked me to redo it and be my natural self. There was no put-down of any kind.
John’s P.D. at KING wasn’t like that. But he was probably the whipping boy for the G.M. and the sales manager, and fresh off a threat-filled meeting of his own. Bad attitudes from the top pour down and trickle down and pollute the whole staff.
Are we to believe the Bullitt’s (forever glorified in song and folklore) would have allowed a toxic work environment at KING-AM?? I may appear young and naive (but also dashingly good-looking, and some ladies have said suave) but I believe what I have read in books and newspapers. Say it ain’t so.