When Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida knocking out power and cellphone service, radio broadcasters worked marathon shifts to provide information and companionship to their listeners. To their credit, IHeartRadio suspended commercials, ‘pooled’ their resources (I’m already regretting that choice of words), and simulcast across the entire state.
This led to a very lengthy top of the hour Station ID (which you can hear below). The ID also appears to use a computer generated voice, which is apparent from the odd pronunciation of “IHeartRadio” at the beginning and ending. It sounds like he’s saying “IHeart-Tradio.” So, ironically, the “Artificial Intelligence” guy mispronounced the name of the company.
IHeartRadio Top of the Hour Station ID
Runtime: 1:31
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!
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John Mamoa, how appropriate. Oh that’s right, it was Jason Mamoa as Aquaman. Quite a station ID I think the studios of many of these stations had to be vacated and locked. So the network feed was just fed through the transmitters. I don’t know if that is legal. But, I wouldn’t want to have to stay behind to do a TOH during a hurricane.