570 KVI
— ABC – News/Talk (Lotus Communications) -SEATTLE
Originally licensed to Tacoma back in 1926 [1280/1060/760] With over 80 years of history serving the Pacific Northwest, KVI is known as one of the pillars of Seattle radio. From humble beginnings in November 1926 in Tacoma, the station bounced around the AM dial a little bit before settling at its current 570 position at 5000 watts in the 1930s.
KVI was located in the historic Camlin Hotel (now a private residence) for awhile, as the first move from Tacoma to Seattle. When Gene Autry’s Golden West bought the station in the late 1950’s, it moved to the nearby Tower Building (7th and Olive) into what were considered state-of-the-art studios at the time. KVI carried the “pre-Mariners” (Seattle Rainiers) for many years, and stepped up to the real major league team when the Mariners showed up in town!
Through the 1960’s, 70’s and early 80’s, KVI was a dominant personality station, featuring incredible talent such as Robert E. Lee Hardwick, Jack Morton [came to KVI from KMO in 1963], Robert O. Smith, Michael O’Shea, Bill Taylor, Jack Spencer, along with so many others. An all-news format in 1980 was put in place, competing with heavyweights KIRO 710, KOMO 1000, which would easily bump up it’s news presence, and KAYO’s recent switch to News-Talk. The news format eventually petered out.
In the mid-1980’s, KVI moved to an “oldies” format. True to the heritage of the station, it not only “did” the format, but became an “Oldies Powerhouse” with a unique emphasis on Northwest artists as well as worldwide artists such as Elvis, the Beatles, and Rolling Stones. Dick Curtis and Scott Burton were among those who defined and grew this format over the years.
In the early 1990’s, KVI led the way as one of the first conservative talk stations in the country. KVI touted the station as THE FIRST Conservative Talk station in the nation”. Soon, it became one of the most emulated and most successful, and helped establish Rush Limbaugh as a nationally-known talent.
A few years later, Gene Autry’s estate was liquidated and KVI (and sister KPLZ) were sold to Fisher Broadcasting, owner of KOMO-AM and KOMO Television.
In 2002, the station left its home of over forty years in the Tower Building (although it had moved in 1990 from the 8th floor to the 2nd floor) to join the rest of the Fisher operations in the brand new Fisher Plaza, a state-of-the art communications facility on the site of the old KOMO Television building across from the Space Needle.
November 7, 2010 [Sunday, one day ahead of scheduled switch] – KVI switched from conservative talk to Oldies rock ‘n roll, again. DJs to be introduced in January 2011: Tom Hutyler and Marina Rockinger mornings, Mark Christopher PM drive time, and Ric Hansen in the evening. “Seattle’s Greatest Hits – 570 KVI” – KVI switched back to Conservative Talk in January 2013. Fisher Communications sold their TV and radio properties to Sinclair Broadcast Group in August 2013. Sinclair sold all the Seattle radio holdings to Lotus Communications in June 2021. Those stations were KVI 570, KOMO 1000/KOMO FM 97.7 and 101.5 KPLZ. The deal did not include use of the KOMO call letters for radio. As of June 2021. It was speculated that Lotus, being heavily into support of Spanish language stations, might flip one of the Seattle stations to a Regional Mexican format.
Seattle Times-June 4, 1992
Radio Personality Commits Suicide, Police Report
By Tomas Guillen, Kit Boss
Longtime Seattle radio personality Bob Hardwick was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound yesterday, Chelan County Sheriff’s Detective Bill Patterson said today. Robert E. Lee Hardwick, 61, of Kent, was once the king of Seattle morning radio, making his mark on KVI-AM. In 1978 he was Billboard magazine’s Radio Personality of the Year.
He was found dead about 3:20 p.m. yesterday in a pickup truck on an embankment of Highway 2 just east of Stevens Pass. He had been shot in the head with a handgun. It was undetermined when Hardwick apparently killed himself, but a suicide note was dated 10 p.m. on Tuesday, said Patterson. The note, Patterson said, simply asked police to notify his wife and “be gentle with her.”
Hardwick wrote several notes before he killed himself, said Patterson. One note indicated “he was getting older and unemployable and he didn’t want his wife to support him,” Patterson said.
Apparently Hardwick first tried to asphyxiate himself with the exhaust of his truck, Patterson said. When that didn’t work, he shot himself in the right temple with a .38-caliber automatic pistol.
`A TRUE SEATTLE LEGEND’
Most recently, Hardwick was morning co-host at news-talk KING-AM. He joined KING in February 1990 and was released last April because of ratings – the morning show was rated 14th in the Seattle-Tacoma market – and because the
station wanted a younger audience. Hardwick was replaced by Pat Cashman. Said Jack Swanson, general manager of KING-AM-FM: “Over the years, his talent brought happiness to hundreds of thousands of radio listeners. He was, and always will be, a true Seattle legend. . . . All of us in the Seattle radio industry were better for what he gave us, and all of us feel a real loss at his passing.”
For years, Jack Morton worked with Hardwick at KVI. Morton now does the weekend marine report for KIRO-AM.
“It was a big shock,” said Morton. “They don’t come any bigger or better than Robert. That’s a fact. I’ll always remember his laugh. He loved to set people up and laugh in the background.
“He’d always mention that we were getting older. The business is getting younger. You have to scratch to hang on.”
ADVENTUROUS LIFE
Hardwick worked at KVI from 1959 to 1980. Those 21 straight years were interrupted only by a four-month sojourn at Los Angeles station KMPC-AM in 1963.
On his KVI morning show, Hardwick would sometimes play only two or three records an hour. The rest of the time was filled with jokes, skits, ad-libbed advertisements and promotions for his latest escapade. In 1965, Hardwick piloted a tugboat to British Columbia to haul back Namu, the killer whale, for the Seattle Aquarium.
He jet-skied 740 miles from Ketchikan to Seattle, about the time it was reported he had was the highest-paid radio personality in Seattle, hosting the highest-rated program on local radio.
In 1980, he swam the Bremerton-Seattle ferry route. That same year, disgruntled with KVI’s decision to abandon its successful music format and switch to all-talk, he quit – walking out in the middle of the 8 a.m. newscast.
“I was so frustrated. Emotionally I was a wreck,” Hardwick said later. “I don’t know what happened. I took my briefcase and walked out the door. That wasn’t a businesslike way to do things.”
Later he popped up at the old KAYO-AM. Several months passed. One Friday he called in sick and didn’t return the following Monday. “Seattle radio is a bore and I have been boring right along with it,” he said at the time.
DEALING WITH TRAUMA
His two disappearing acts were not publicity stunts, Hardwick said, but “an emotional trauma in my life.”
He eventually landed at an AM station in Tacoma, did another hitch at KVI, had a failed venture to transmit computer programs via radio and spent a year at KIXI-AM.
Then in 1987 the Seattle native left the medium altogether. He worked for a time as communication director at Pacific Institute and helped several local drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation centers market their programs.
Said Hardwick, when asked once to sum himself up: “I’m a professional smartass. I love to tease people. I love to make people laugh. I’m a communicator.”
KVI Personalities:
Harry Stewart [Yogi Yorgesson] in the 1920s, when KVI was located in Tacoma, Bill Goff, Jack Hemingway, Harry Holland, Buddy Webber [appointed Program Director in 1962 when Bob Cooper left for KEX/Portland], Buck Ritchey [21 years at KVI, 1942-1963], Jerry Dexter, Lou Gillette, Dick McGarvin, Don Riggs, Cliff Murphy [Air Traffic reporter], Dick Stokke, Robert Hardwick, Dick Keplinger, Lee Lucas, Ray Court, Jack Morton, Tracy Steele, Don Furhman, Dick Cross, Ed Kaufmann, Jim Blossey, Bob Hawkins, Dave DeSoto, Roall Erickson, Humble Harve, Dick Curtis, Jack Allen, Brian Gregory, Al Vanik, Sky Walker, Paul Thompson, Johnny Carver, Heidi May, Kirby Wilbur, Michael Medved, Dave Allen, Scott Burton, Art Kevin, Peter Boam, Greg Aust, Joe Fiala, Jim Martin, Terry McManus, Clark Race, Bill Taylor, Bill Cavanah, J.J. Valley, Michael O’Shea, Bill Cooper, Brian York [news], Buzz Barr, Perry Allen, Tam Henry, Tom Reddick, Robert O. Smith, J. Michael Kenyon, Jack McDonald [promotion director], Rip Collins (newsman), Dave Henderson (newsman), Jack Spencer (news director), Bob Roberts (newsman and commentator), Bill O’Mara (newsman), Jack Barton (newsman), Bob Robertson (sportscaster), Bill Schonely (sportscaster), Al Cummings [1972] (DJ), Dave Clark (DJ), Jim French (DJ), Terry Rose (DJ), Ron MacDonald (DJ), Bill Doane (DJ), Johnny (Bolton) Novak (program director) [thanks to Bill Taylor for filling in some of the gaps and jogging my memory, I should have remembered how to spell “Roall Erickson” — I grew up listening to KVI! Oldies 570: Tom Huytler, Ric [Richard Mattson] Hansen, Mark Christopher, Marina Rockinger; SMART TALK 570: Mark Christopher, Elisa Jaffe, Scott Carty
Don’t forget the Pilots
April 10, 2025 at QZVX
John Fortmeyer says:
KVI did indeed become “major league,” but it happened before the Mariners. That was in 1969, with the arrival of the MLB’s very short-lived Seattle Pilots, on KVI with announcers Jimmy Dudley and Bill Schonely. Bill, of course, soon headed to Portland and became the famed voice of the NBA’s Trailblazers for decades.