Live from Lake Washington, uninterrupted coverage of Heats 2a and 2b with Pat O’Day, John Maynard, Gary Shannon, Norm Gregory, Tim Burgess, World Famous Tom Murphy (providing color commentary), and Bobby Simon running things back at the station.
This was originally posted within an in-depth article by Steven Smith. Find out John, Gary, and Tom’s true feelings about their roles in the broadcast (and much more) by revisiting that story at the following link: https://qzvx.com/2020/09/15/seattle-memories-hydros-pat-oday/
Runtime: 44:41
Student engineer at pioneer Nathan Hale radio station KNH 1210 in 1970 (prior to KNHC). Also attended North Seattle Community College and L.H. Bates in Tacoma (KTOY-FM). Sam’s career began as a KJR request line operator in 1970, with his first on-air job at KRKO in 1972. In 1976 he segued to overnights at KTAC as Cory Landon, then weekends at KING. In 1978 he moved to Lewiston, Idaho for afternoons on KOZE and KRLC. Throughout the ‘80s he was an announcer and/or engineer at “the best mix and biggest variety” of Spokane radio stations; including 97KREM, KZUN, KGA, KKER (The Sam & Pam Show), KZZU, PD of KJRB, 98 KISS-FM, and the voice of KAYU-TV. In 1989 he moved to Los Angeles as Assistant Chief Engineer and weekends at KZLA/KLAC. Also engineered for KBIG, KFI, Premiere Radio Networks, CBS Radio, and others. After avoiding any actual work for nearly 45 years, now happily retired and very appreciatively back in the great Pacific Northwest!
One or two tv stations would cover the race (live) while KJR did the radio broadcast. Other stations had limited coverage. https://qzvx.com/2020/12/08/hydro-broadcast-stations-in-1979/