September 8, 1985
Ryan and Ryan, new morning team at KRPM, 106.1 mHz., must be the most familiar radio team ever to be “introduced.” This is, after all, their fourth or fifth time on the air in Seattle. Previously they worked at KAYO, KKMI (and sister station KXA) and KVI
“This time, maybe, we’ll get it right,” says Bobby Ryan. But Gary Taylor, new station manager at KRPM, says Ryan and Ryan never did anything wrong. Each station they worked for was in format throes.
According to Taylor’s research, the radio personalities had “great ratings success in their time slot.”
And Ryan and Ryan have had their fans, with sometimes hilarious ad-libs and a goofy cast of prerecorded character voice tracks, including Benjamin Gaylord Ferry and Rev. Billy.
Ryan and Ryan usually disappeared abruptly _ in typical radio fashion. But after three years of afternoons at KVI, they had a chance to say goodbye, and dozens of listeners took them at their word when they promised, somewhat flippantly, they’d be back “in a month or two.” Came September and this department began receiving phone calls asking how come Ryan and Ryan weren’t on as promised!
It took a year.
After depleting a severance allowance from KVI, Bobby Ryan (his regular air name, but not his real name) dabbled in commercials and, a couple of months ago, signed on at KRPM for fill-in work during the summer.
Gary Ryan (KAYO listeners may remember his name as Gary Linton, but he had it legally changed to Gary Ryan) got wanderlust. He worked briefly at a station in Arizona, then briefly in California. By the time KRPM folk got to him, he had been planning a world vacation.
Gary and Jerry Kay, another unemployed radio personality, had organized a golfing tour of Scotland. Through letters and tapes, Gary and Jerry were able to convince some golf-course operators that they were famous Seattle radio personalities, so they got close-to-royal treatment.
But now it’s back to work for Gary Ryan. Jerry Kay? That’s another story.
Twisting the dial
New general manager of KQKT, 96.5 mHz., is Stephen O. Jacobs, previously general manager of KCEE-KWFM, Tucson, Ariz. Jacobs is executive vice president of Behan Broadcasting, licensee of the stations in Tucson, Seattle and Lamar, Colo.
The new program director at KWYZ, 1230 kHz., Everett, must have most unusual sleeping habits. Wayne Cordry is continuing his overnight air shift, which he has held for four years, and taking on the daytime tasks of program director.
Hal Murray, previous KWYZ program director, has moved to Dallas.
KVTI, Clover Park School District, nears its 30th year on the air, and it’s looking for alumni. Anyone affiliated with the station under its original name, KCPS, at Clover Park High School, or KPEC and KVTI at Clover Park Vocational-Technical Institute, is asked to contact Linda Savage at the radio station.
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How long were Ryan & Ryan at KRPM? And what was next for them, and the station?
Gary Vance took over the morning shift on KRPM-AM in Aug ’87. AM – FM split? KRPM was laying people off by December ’87. Details coming in the next few weeks here. Specific to Ryan and Ryan, they may have been on KRPM FM or were cut prior to Gary Vance coming in. Needs further research.
I’ve sometimes wondered what happened to Gary after the purge at KAYO. All I had heard was that he spent some time at KMPS. After my stint there, I was out of radio and then moved to Phoenix and eventually found radio work down there.
Gary and I weren’t friends. He made insinuations to me, and other people at the station told me directly, that he said I didn’t have the talent to be in a radio market the size of Seattle. Twice he tried to get me drunk when I had an air shift coming up. One of those times I went on the air pretty polluted, but nobody found out.
Twenty-five years later, when I was driving transit buses, King County Metro’s GM had a mantra for success, “Show up, get along, do the work.” That was just what I did at KAYO and that’s why Bobby Wooten gave me a shot at a full-time gig when Buck Ritchey passed away.
I asked Bobby, after I’d been at KAYO about a year and a half, if he could visualize any circumstance at all under which he would offer me a full-time job. He said yes and I thanked him. Short and sweet. I never brought it up again. I was already on the air forty-eight hours a week with my two weekend shifts and six all-nighters for vacation relief. Anytime Bobby called me to fill a board shift, on short notice or no notice, I was there. He valued loyalty and dependability, and he was as good as his word.
When they first hit town, it was at KAYO as Ryan and Linton.
I worked with them at KYYX and KXA.
Fyi Gary passed away aged 73 Jan 2023 in AZ. Bobby retired and is devoting full time to telling jokes backselling oldies and giving weather reports on the golf courses of the great NW. The great Pat O’Day helped christen them Rya&Ryan prior to hiring them at KYYX/KXA Mar 1980. Sitting around talking radio he asked. “what do you think the best call letters would be? They decided something like KTKT, something that repeats itself. Pat says, “so then why do you call yourselves Ryan and Linton?
Ron and Don, who also worked at a variety of Seattle stations, had a somewhat similar format, one a loud outspoken guy and one a much more conversational voice.
Both the loud ones were very annoying.