By VICTOR STREDICKE March 16, 1989 / THE SEATTLE TIMES Page: E9 — The radio morning team that mixes first name with last, “Robin and Maynard,” will move to afternoons Monday on KXRX, 96.5 mHz. The shuffle is part of a change that introduces the KXRX afternoon team, Gary Crow and Mike West, to morning drive-time. But from Robin Erickson’s point of view, she got the best deal.
“I would have taken a cut in pay to move to afternoons,” she confessed. She didn’t.
Rick Lambert, program director, said big bucks are being paid for both drive-time personality teams. In fact, after a painful renegotiation period, every member of the air staff got a pay increase from the successful album-rock-and-contemporary-hit station. Erickson has been morning personality for five years in Seattle, two at KXRX. At KISW, she first teamed with John Maynard, a former KJR personality. They seem to work as a team only because they are two diverse personalities, thrown together in the workplace.
“We have our ups and downs,” Erickson said, drawing from black-and-white memories: “We are not Betty and Jim Anderson.”
“We are more like Mr. and Mrs. Sam Kinison,” Maynard joked.
“OK,” Erickson began. “We don’t have the chemistry that Crow and West have. With Ms. Erickson and Mr. Maynard it’s more like a chemical spill.”
Why give up mornings? On air, it’s because “Robin wants to sleep in, Maynard got a morning newspaper route and Otis got a job in a pie factory.” In person, from Erickson: “Ask me about the past five years, I can’t recall any specific event. It’s all pastels.” She slipped into third person again.
“Ms. Erickson wants a sane lifestyle, a better sex life.”
Maynard said he shrugs off listeners who praise him for funny bits on KXRX.
“They must have been listening to Larry Nelson . . . I won’t remember it as anything we did.”
Maynard’s throwaway reference to Nelson, morning competitor on KOMO, is typical of the jibes in any conversation with Robin and Maynard. At a public appearance, Erickson, with tousled blond hair, pointed out: “Every time I turn John down he gets another gray hair.” With all gray hair and puckish grin, Maynard likes to keep the mystery of radio imagery and avoids any explanation of the funny voices and unusual characters who take part in their show. Most of their morning features will move to afternoons, including “Dead or Alive,” a string of familiar and obscure names that lets a listener win $10 more, or lose all, with each necrophilous guess.
“It’s sort of mean, I guess,” Maynard said.
Erickson explained the change in shifts with three short sentences that capture her personality: “The afternoon shift opens new horizons. It’s pretty keen. We’ll be awake.”
Radio’s national holiday
— Robin and Maynard will host their final “St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast Party,” broadcasting live from Pier 70 Restaurant from 6 to 10 a.m. tomorrow. Crow and West will appear in the final hour.
— Kent and Alan will broadcast from Houlihan’s in Bellevue, 6 to 10 a.m. tomorrow on KPLZ, 101.5 mHz. Celebrity guests include Lita Ford, Boy Meets Girl, Ivan Neville of the Neville Brothers. Broadcasts by other KPLZ personalities will continue until 10 p.m. The restaurant expects up to 10,000 people to come through the doors. (A cover charge is added after 3 p.m.)
— Kells Irish pub in Post Alley, is the site for Jerry Kay, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow on KJR, 950 kHz.
— Sky Walker will broadcast from Noggins Brewery, in Westlake Center, 3 to 7 p.m. tomorrow on KVI, 570 kHz. The green beer that K-V-Irish listeners may drink was brewed on site.
— Related event, but not broadcast: The “Fourth Annual Newsradio St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast” will be from 7 to 10 a.m. tomorrow at F.X. McRory’s, in Pioneer Square, with those in attendance getting to meet KIRO Newsradio personalities.
Along with Crow and West, Robin and Maynard were my favorite duo’s in radio. They were creative, clever, and entertaining.