‘Him and me’ hit the A.M. airwaves

VICTOR STREDICKE April 13, 1989 – The new morning team at KZOK is performing admirably, arriving in town amid rumors their station would soon be sold. (See second item.) They intend to win. “We do the best we can,” Kent Voss and Jimmy Kimmel said.
They are the buoyant hosts of “The Him and Me Show,” 5 to 10 a.m. on KZOK, 102.5 mHz. “If we do a good job, prove ourselves, we think a new owner would keep us,” Voss continued. “We also are building relations within the Adams chain.”
“We did good for them in Phoenix,” Kimmel picked up. “We can do it here.”
A three-year team-up in Phoenix has extended to Seattle. Voss, single, is living with the Kimmels. “. . . But I fully intend to buy a home here,” he said.
One of the bits Him and Me rely on is telephone put-ons. They have been offering to trade their program director for athletes to help out the Mariners. Philadelphia hung up on them, but the Yankees’ and Mariners’ front offices are putting up with them.

A sales agreement

Adams Radio of Seattle Inc. has agreed in principle to sell its two Seattle radio stations, KZOK and KQUL. Under a proposal that must be submitted for approval to the Federal Communications Commission, the FM station, KZOK, would go to KOMO, finally filling out Fisher Broadcasting’s AM-FM-TV combo, and the AM KQUL would go to KBSG, the Tacoma-Seattle oldies station. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Neither station operator can discuss format plans. If the transaction is completed, the transfer would involve a waiver of FCC rules limiting the number of stations in a market.

Some broadcast history — The AM radio station KOMO dates back before 1926; FM broadcasting in the area dates to 1947. So how come KOMO doesn’t already have an FM frequency? Because FM broadcasting was regarded as an engineer’s delight and a tinkerer’s toy for many years. Early FM stations were operated by visionaries who
broadcast classical music (to exploit the hi-fi potential), show tunes (to appeal to elitists) and instrumentals (to pipe into supermarkets).

FM stations didn’t make money until the ’70s, when underground rock emerged and stereo receivers became an element of conspicuous consumption. In 1952 KOMO had an FM permit, but it also was building a TV station. The FM frequency was returned to the FCC.

(It is not true that what would have been KOMO-FM became KUOW-FM. Terry Denbrook, KUOW engineer, said King Broadcasting’s purchase of KRSC-TV included a KRSC-FM frequency. KUOW was already on, in the educational band – where you still can tune in high-school and community-college stations. But KUOW eventually moved to 94.9 mhz.
because a tuned transmitter came with the deal. KUOW is one of the few noncommercial stations in the commercial spectrum.)

Two-year-old rarity

Not sure you need to know this, but Madman Moskowitz, host of “Music With Moskowitz,” 7 to midnight on KRPM-AM-FM, 770 and 106.1, has found “The Second Week of Deer Camp,” a comedy record he’s been looking for for a couple of years. It’s hardly an oldie but a goodie, since it was released in 1987.

Moskowitz reports that “after weeks and weeks of searching,” he found a copy of the elusive disc about drunken deer hunters who never hit anything. Moskowitz did not say if the search entailed cleaning up his own record collection or tromping through record shops.

Radio tidbits

— Where is the least likely spot to locate a radio station, and what frequency would be the hardest to find? How about Dungeness, just a spit away from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and 1600 khz., the very end of the AM dial. James L. Baine, who operates KKMO (the old KMO), has asked for a license there. Baine, a tinkerer and dreamer, is toying with synchronous broadcasting.

— Green River Community College’s radio station will be auditioning acts for the “KGRG Talent Search,” a variety feature scheduled May 12 at the college. The contact is Lance Olsen, 464-6133.

— Mark Pierce, news director at KRPM-AM-FM, has scheduled daily oil-spill reports at 6:25 a.m. weekdays on 770 and 106.1. They are supplied by KCHU, the Valdez radio station.