Bob Rivers: Radio Legend's Legacy

We pay tribute to radio legend Bob Rivers with special guests Joe Bryant and Spike O'Neill, exploring Bob's extraordinary 25-year career and lasting legacy in Pacific Northwest broadcasting. Bob's former colleagues share intimate stories that reveal why he was more than just a radio personality—he was a true innovator whose authentic approach to radio transformed the medium.

• Bob's insistence on quality and authenticity in everything from song parodies to live interviews
• How the Bob Rivers Show evolved across three radio stations while maintaining its core identity
• The complex production behind the scenes that made the show sound effortless
• Bob's creation of "Bob's Garage" where famous bands recorded, including Blue Öyster Cult and Ozzy Osbourne
• The kindness Bob showed to everyone from engineers to sales staff
• Bob's Radio Hall of Fame induction where he insisted the entire team be recognized
• How Bob mentored others even in his final days
• Joe Bryant's transition to teaching broadcasting and continuing Bob's legacy
• Spike O'Neill carrying Bob's approach into his current talk radio career

Join us as we celebrate the extraordinary life and career of Bob Rivers, whose final on-air words—"be good"—perfectly captured his essence as both a broadcaster and human being.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to US Phenomenon, where possibilities
are endless.
Put down those same oldheadlines.
It's time to expand your mindand question what if?
From paranormal activity toUFOs, bigfoot sightings and
unsolved mysteries, this is USPhenomenon?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
From the Pacific Northwest in the shadow of the
1962 World's Fair, the SpaceNeedle.
Good evening, good morning,good afternoon.
Wherever you are on God's greenearth, I'm your host, mario
Magana.
This is a special episode of USPhenomenon.
We pay tribute to the legendaryBob Rivers, a pioneer, a true
pioneer of radio, a master ofparodies who kept us all

(00:46):
entertained and inspired fordecades.
His iconic voice, that sharprazor wit, has left an
incredible mark on the airwaves,on all of us who had the
opportunity and privilege tolisten in.
But we're not going to do thisalone.
Joining us for this incredibletribute is one extraordinary
voice who was a part of themagic that was the bob river

(01:08):
show.
I am thrilled to welcome joebryant, who is shaping the
future of radio as an instructorat kmih and as in inspiring the
next generation of broadcastersas we dive into the
unforgettable memories, the, thebehind-the-scenes stories and
the impact of Bob's incrediblecareer.
So grab your headphones, crankthe volume and let's celebrate

(01:30):
the legend himself, bob Rivers.
Welcome back, welcome to USPhenomenon, joe Bryant, welcome
to the show.
Hey thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Mario, and it's great to see you even on a video
screen.
It's been a while.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
It's been such a long time.
Like joe, you know everyone'shad their opportunity.
I know that on our affiliateradio stations, uh, across the
platform, our, our flagshipstation, I know that, uh, john
carlson had the opportunity tohave you guys, to have you on
the show.
Um, for those who may belistening and driving around,
and there's so much about Bobthat from cross-pollination,

(02:09):
from dial to dial, from one dialknob to the other, where you
guys were at such a young age,coming up through the 90s, doing
the KISW stuff, I mean more ofkind of more shock jockish, then
, right, you know, giving awaynot cars but maybe females.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I thought what do you remember those bits were well
now I'm a teacher, so I don'tknow how much in depth I want to
go into my early life, but no,I'm only kidding.
Uh, we did a bit called when agirl wins day, uh, so we gave
away away a girl every Wednesdayfor several years and it was
basically a dial, a date.
You would uh introduce a girland, um, then they and also it

(02:55):
was great because I, my job backin those days was to do a ton
of things and one was answer therequest line.
So every Wednesday, uh, we hada girl that would answer the
request lines because basicallywe would introduce her, she
would say what she's looking forin a guy and then she would
start taking calls and then, ifshe found one that she thought

(03:15):
she could handle, uh, you know,going out and having a dinner or
a coffee or a concert orsomething with then we would
send them out on a date and Ithink that's, you know, that
stuff we did in the early 90s.
I think it's probably even donebetter these days by guys like
jubile who, you know, took it tothe next, uh, next level, um,

(03:36):
but yeah, that was one thing wedid.
We, bob definitely came intoseattle to shake things up and,
and I don't know if we were, wewere shock jocks.
Maybe we were mild shock jocks,you know, and uh, and I
appreciate you saying we were soyoung, because I don't ever
feel like I was too young doingthis, but I guess, compared to

(03:57):
where we are now, um, uh, Istarted working with bob in 1990
and I that was nine years afterI graduated high school, so I
was kind of slow to coming intoprofessional radio.
Bob has literally been talkingon the radio almost since he
could walk and he had his firstprofessional job, I think when

(04:18):
he was 14.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So he was a true radio guy for sure you know, in
my experience of running intohim at the very the like
literally end of his broadcastof of the, the, what, what
everyone would call back thenwas uh, the 95.7 kjr, 95.7.
Uh, the sunshine on the back ofyour car sticker, um, just for

(04:44):
me to come in as a broadcastengineer then was the complexity
of the show was so dynamic onhow you guys would do things.
There was you guys had a verylarge, like a lot of moving
pieces and at that time in mybroadcast career I was like, wow
, this is a lot, you know,having pedro and luciana, you

(05:07):
know, in one room doing audioand things of that nature.
To me, when you look back at itand if, for those who are, uh,
fans of the broadcast, it hadvery much a, a feel of like a
howard stern where you had a lotof moving parts, like howard
does uh.
Back in those days where youhad a lot of moving parts, like
Howard does uh.
Back in those days where youhad audio clips that were

(05:28):
dedicated that they, you knowyou had a team working.
You guys all had a like anintegral piece of the cog to
make that show so dynamic,because it wasn't just a, you
know, you know fart and poopjokes, where it was like there
were jokes, but there was somuch complexity to this show
that I don't think people reallycan appreciate.

(05:51):
You know, you listen to it it'slike, oh yeah, that was a great
show.
But the moving pieces, joe,were just quite interesting to
me, that there was thiscomplexity.
It wasn't just, you know, turnon the mic and go.
You know, yes, there was someof that.
But the complexity of thebehind the scenes, to appreciate

(06:12):
what bob was able to, you know,to paint the picture of, which
isn't done as much as it oncewas.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Maybe it is on podcast platforms but you just
don't see it anymore because ofhow radio has really changed
over the last, you know, 10years yeah, well, uh, we were
doing really a national kind ofshow to our local audience and
at some points we did we'resyndicating to other places, but
but bob never, never didanything halfway and he always

(06:42):
went big.
And, yes, humor would.
If you're going to describe ourshow in one word, I think it
would be funny.
But also with that is quality.
And uh, he worked very hard touh with song parodies and our
bits and our guests andeverything.
We put a ton of preparation inthere.

(07:02):
We didn't just go in there andopen the mics especially me I
don't figure myself to be quiteas quick-witted or maybe even
smart as Bob and Spike, so Icame in a couple hours early
every day just to research ourguests and to get ready for what
we did.
And you mentioned Pedro andLuciana.
They really were just amazingproducers.

(07:24):
Producers and really in thoseyears of our show, uh really
were probably our best as far asuh putting consistent content
out there and they would workreally tirelessly.
Luciana would pursue a guest,you know, until she got the
guest we would say we want totalk to this guy and she would

(07:44):
make it happen.
So so it was an ensemble showwith tons of moving parts, and I
think the reason you don't seeit so much now.
Well, it's money.
Um, you know, there, it's hardto justify the salaries for six
to eight people.
Uh, to do a radio show,especially a local one, you have

(08:06):
to be like howard or somebodythat is, uh got a really huge
national brand to be able toafford to pay everybody.
Sure, but bob kept it going and, uh, in fact there were several
times when, uh, there was talkof cutting somebody, including
myself in the early 90s.
Uh, kisw, we got a new guy comein and he says I envision a show

(08:30):
with two voices.
I think three voices is alittle too much.
I think that joe guy isprobably talks a little slow and
we could probably get rid ofhim.
And bob said well, if you getrid of him, you're going to get
rid of me.
That'll save you a lot of money, I guess.
So I got to stay and Bob keptthe team together.
We switched stations a coupletimes and part of the reason we

(08:53):
did switch was in an effort tomake sure we could keep the band
together and keep our showintact and do it the way we
wanted to do it.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
And do it the way we wanted to do it and what's so
incredible about that is thatBob was able to continue to
evolve and change.
You know, as times do, and Iknow that a lot of people are
not comfortable with change.
The evolution of the Bob RiverShow, you know, as we talked
about, you know, maybe doing,you know, giving away someone as

(09:26):
a date, which you look at itnow and it's like you guys were
ahead of your time.
Let's, let's, let's, be honest.
I mean, people are on datingapps swiping left and right and
you guys were just helpingpeople out.
You know.
And the evolution and change ofof the bob river show to, to
move to different stations, froma kisw to a kzok to a 95.7 KHR
FM, the evolution, I mean it wasjust every time I came in I

(09:50):
very you know, still very youngin my broadcast engineering
career then intimidated.
I was like, wow, this is a lot.
But never was Bob rude to thestaff, people that assisted him,
always great, very kind.
Um gave great insight.
Um, he knew what he was missing.

(10:12):
If he, if there was somethingmissing I remember there was,
there was processing and and hewas right there was something
wrong with the processor.
I believe the processor wasmissing, one of the caps had
blown out, but he could hear it.
I couldn't hear it but he could.
He was like there's somethingwrong with this processor and
sure enough, we put the newprocessor in and boom, there it

(10:33):
was.
It was fixed.
But he was always willing andable to give insight, but not
like a lot of of the old schoolradio um talent where they abuse
the engineering staff.
That was never bob's ammo,always a kind individual, uh,
very receptive to new ideas andnew trends and things of that

(10:53):
nature.
Never did I, ever, and I'veworked with some talent and I'm,
and especially talent that waslike nationally syndicated.
I was like who are you guys?
It just, and regards to thembeing, you know, not gracious to
, you know, to the engineeringstaff because it is a team and I
believe that bob knew that ittook every integral little piece

(11:14):
to make the puzzle work andthat's what made that show so
great well, you bring up two,two, I think, key things.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
number Number one as far as, uh, us, uh, our show
evolving.
We got older and so did ouraudience.
As you mentioned, in KISW itwas a hard rock station.
We were in the middle of the,the grunge universe, when
Nirvana and Pearl Jam and allthat was going on.
We were, you know, doing bigrock concerts and our audience

(11:43):
was going to big rock concertsand so were we.
And we literally had our kidson the radio.
I mean my daughter, the minuteshe was born.
The first thing I did was callinto the show President's Day of
1999.
And so we got older, we becameparents, we got married, and

(12:05):
that's me and Spike Bob camehere, married him with kids.
So our KISW years weredefinitely different than KZOK.
We went from a hard rockstation to a classic rock
station, which suited actuallythe tastes of our audience
better, because that's the musicthat our generation, my

(12:25):
generation, grew up with.
And then, after 10 years therewhich, uh, in hindsight, I think
we could have probably stuckaround there because kz, okay,
hasn't changed much, uh,musically and everything but
yeah, um, business was business,and we wound up at kjr and and,
from a branding standpoint I.

(12:48):
I will say right now thatwasn't so great, because when we
got there they were calling itoldies and it's like wait a
minute, we're old, but we're notthat old right right.
So so quickly after we got there, that's when they went to
classic hits.
I think they started callingthemselves classic hits.
So that's kind of how weevolved was just the aging

(13:11):
process and we took a lot ofpeople along with us.
As far as the sound and how Bobtreated people engineers,
salespeople, and you know this,mario, you've worked in radio a
long time there's usually alittle bit of attention and
friction in the building.
Sure, you've got your talent,then you've got your engineers,

(13:32):
you've got your salespeople,you've got your people who are
assisting the salespeople orwhatever.
Right, and sometimes and I'mnot going to say any specific
names, but there are sometalents that can be a little
prima donna and think thatthey're what makes the whole
thing happen and they're themost important part of any radio

(13:53):
station.
But Bob was very quick to pointout to us no, without these
other people we don't have jobs.
The guy out there getting thecasino contract is the guy
paying your salary.
You should be going to thoselunches and helping him make his
deals.
The engineer that is coming inhere to fix your microphone is

(14:16):
the guy making you sound good onthe radio.
You better be darn nice to him,because that's what's going to
make the show successful.
So we treated everybody, andthat is our listeners too.
Uh, if with no listeners thereis no show.
So.
So bob was really, and I.
It wasn't just for business, hejust also happened to be a

(14:37):
really special guy who wascurious about other people and
he he found, you know, interestin everybody.
So that's kind of thephilosophy that we did our show
by and I think that's why we gotto do it for 25 years at a high
level.
And it also buys you a littlegrace.

(14:57):
If you do have a, a down ratingmonth or something and you know
, people are more, more willingto give you a little benefit of
the doubt.
If you're a good guy, you'redoing good things in the
community, you're treatingeverybody right.
So that's uh.
It was not only the right thingto do, but it was good business
to be.
Uh with young engineers likeyourself, to make sure.

(15:19):
And as far as the technicalside, he was a recording
engineer as much as he was aradio personality.
I mean the song parodies he did, especially in the beginning,
before we had all thesewonderful things like Pro Tools.
I mean he was making them fromscratch in a 24-track recording
studio one drum kick, drum beatat a time.

(15:40):
So he knew sound at a time.
So he knew sound and and Istill remember a lot of
instances where he would bediplomatic but he would get
frustrated when somebody wouldcome in there and try to tell
him something was working whenit wasn't because he knew.
You know that it wasn't and, uh,sometimes he could get a little
, a little uh worked up aboutthat, I know, but that's all

(16:01):
because he wanted to put out thebest show he could and it's's
funny because you know you guyshad moved into a brand-new
studio at 95.7.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
That was a brand-new studio, moving from 351 to 645
Elliott Avenue, which has nowcompletely changed under the
iHeart umbrella.
They have really modified andchanged from what you remember
the studio to be to a veryconcise, 9,500 square feet under

(16:29):
10,000 square feet of broadcastspace including shared
workspace.
Quite interesting what theyhave done at iHeartRadio.
And, being a broadcast engineerand working for KOMO TV and
Sinclair selling to LotusCommunications where this radio
show sits on its flagshipstation KVI, we needed to look

(16:54):
at what the opportunities werefor these other studios to be
more concise, to be profitable.
In these footprints and Ialways said I was like you got
to take a look at iHeart's space.
What's interesting when you goback and I know one incident
where Bob was like no, thatmicrophone processor is out I go

(17:17):
back and I think about this andI didn't think about it then
when they were doing the move to350, from 351 to 645, there was
a lot of cut and go where a lotof the gear was reused in the
new location.
As a broadcast engineer, that'sa lot of work.
That is a lot of work.
And now, looking back, I laughand say, yeah, bob had a great

(17:39):
year for hearing things thatmaybe one of us might have
missed.
Uh, and it is.
It is.
It's difficult in back in thosedays where things were a little
more trim in regards to havingthe, the equal, you know the
gear that you wanted to makesure you had on standby to make
sure we're like, okay, we're,we're gonna rob peter to pay

(18:01):
paul, but um, in, in thatinstance I do recall Bob having
that knack and that ear to hearsomething was wrong and he was
sure right.
There was something wrong withthat processor, a talented gif,
very much like a Butch Figgs whoyou think about?

(18:21):
The 24 tracks of producingNirvana and things of that
nature.
Those parodies are quitespecial because that was a lot
of work for you guys to do, forBob to do back in the early days
.
Like you said, joe, that whatgoes into those parodies, the
writing, the comical pieces, itjust they're great pieces that

(18:46):
will live in in time for for forall of us to enjoy.
Um, as, as things had changedfor you guys and I, I still
remember to this day, the verylast day you guys broadcasted in
uh, the iheart studio at uh,kjr 95.7.
I think at that point they werechanging to the jet.

(19:07):
Is that right they were?
They were making that formatswitch.
Um, it was.
Uh.
It was quite interestingbecause you, you knew that bob
was ready.
I was that right, is that?
Was that?
Is that how I remember that?
It wasn't a push out, it waswhat was a retirement.
Was I I it vague to me on thatpiece?

Speaker 3 (19:28):
well, well, first I want to go.
I'll start back.
Where you started was, uh, withthe move from, uh, from one
elliot studio, the other, whichyou probably know a lot more
about than me, but I do know,when we were hired by clear
channel now iHeart we were underthe impression that we were
going to be broadcasting fromthe Ackerley building or

(19:51):
whatever it's called these days.
We thought that's where we wereheading to and apparently there
was a deal with Seelig, withthe owner of the building, where
they either lost their lease Ithink it was some big tech
company wanted to take the wholebuilding, so so they had to
quickly move.
So they had this morning showto sign on and no studio really

(20:13):
to put us in.
So I do know the engineersworked 24 7 to basically build a
radio station, uh, you know,down the street where we wound
up being, and I and I'm guessingthat it was done pretty quickly
and maybe some corners were cut, so I think there were some
inconsistencies in that studio,but it was a radio palace.

(20:34):
I'd never been in such a nicestudio it was.
It was big, uh, they even had acouch for our guests to come,
and you know, and it was just aan amazing facility, but I think
, just like a new house or oranything, it had some.
It had some quirks andinconsistencies, but you guys
were were awesome to work thatout.

(20:57):
As far as our last day goes, uh,it wasn't.
I don't know if I'd say it'svoluntary.
Um, yeah, basically whathappened and we get back to once
again the dynamics of thebusiness had changed.
Our contracts were going to beup at the end of that year and
you've seen this a lot lately.

(21:17):
A lot of good radio peopledon't have jobs.
It has absolutely nothing to dowith how good they are or
anything, it's just economics.
We were a very expensive showand while we were doing good in
the ratings, there were othershows that were doing good as
well, and a lot of theadvertising dollars had gone out
of radio and into digitalanyway.

(21:38):
So we definitely got to leave onour own terms.
In fact, we got to say goodbyefor like a month.
Some people don't even get tosay goodbye.
Sometimes you sign off andyou're getting ready to go home
for the weekend and they bringyou in and they say by the way,
give us your keys, you're done.
This big dude here will escortyou out of the building, We'll

(22:00):
mail you your stuff.
I've seen it go that way.
That wasn't the way it went forus.
We got to take a victory lap,we got to say goodbye to our
audience and on that last day,when Bob said his last words
which were words his mom alwaystold him and I thought it was as
good of advice as you couldhave for anybody he signed off

(22:22):
with the words be good, and thatwas it.
The words be good, and that wasit, just be good.
And then we hit the button uhto go into the next element, and
that's when the 95.7, the jet,was born.
Uh, that very moment, themoment we signed off, was when
they flipped the format uh tothe jet.
And, and as far as I know, Ithink it still is the jet, or I

(22:45):
haven't checked lately.
I know jody is still sittingright where we left her.
Her and bender are doing agreat show, sure, in that same
studio and uh, new studio.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
They're in a new studio in the same building oh,
so they're in a different studionow.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Okay, yeah, and uh and uh.
And so she stuck around, spikestuck around for a while, they
put him on the uh, on the uhsports station and he did some
sports talk and basically theytold me and Bob, thank you for
your service, have a great day.
By the way, we're going to keeppaying you.
So I felt a little bad thatthey weren't keeping me, but in

(23:23):
hindsight I felt pretty goodthat I got several months of
being paid well to do nothing.
And then, um, you know, andthen I found this wonderful
career, uh, as a teacher andmentor, uh, to the radio and,
you know, entertainers of thefuture.
So it all worked out, um, but no, it wasn't by choice.

(23:43):
I think we would have continuedthe show a little, a little bit
longer, but the climate, uh,business climate, was not there
and I heart uh did not envisionspending that much money to put
one local radio show on the air.
And and now all the companiesare in education and in media

(24:04):
and in everything, everybody istrying to figure out how to do
things cheaper, you know, and domore for less, and that gets
back to sometimes you skip alittle on quality and you know
that's just the way that went.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
It is very true when you say that less is more or
more is less.
It is very true when you saythat, uh, less is more or more
is less.
I mean the, the, the, the.
You know like, did radio, youknow, video, really kill the
radio star?
It was really ppm killing andthese are things that people in
the who are driving like whatare they?
What is he talking about?
Uh, just a rating system, I feelhad really changed how

(24:43):
broadcasting was done.
They're like you got to beconcise, you got to talk during
these times and I don't knowthat to be true, because you
know we did see other pioneerslike you guys BJ Shea being able
to break the mold of, continueto do long form content, like
you guys did on your show.
Yes, you were playing songs,but there was more, there was

(25:04):
more, there was more spoken wordthan there was songs in these
shows.
You know, breaking that barrierof these rating systems that
you know I don't to this day, I,you know, I, I, I bet you know
I have my own personal opinionsin regards to that stuff.
Now, in late, once you guys weredone with the radio show and

(25:26):
you guys were essentially whateveryone calls on the beach, or
retired, semi-retired for Bob,or retooling yourselves, you
going into the industry ofteaching, being able to teach
the next generation ofbroadcasters entertainers a

(25:49):
broadcast broadcastersentertainers.
When you what was, what wassomething that you guys did that
?
That, when you guys took thatbreak, were you guys still
trying to retool, to dopodcasting?
At that point, what were youguys doing to to continue to
keep the band together, besidesdoing the, the shows and things
of that nature, like the, theparody shows that have spiking
the impalers?

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Well, bob was done.
I mean, for all practicalpurposes he signed off and he
meant it, at least at that timehe sold his place in North Bend
and bought a maple syrup farm inVermont and he thought that
he'd done enough because he hada heck of a career before he

(26:23):
even came out this way.
He was on in Boston and on inBaltimore.
I mean, like I said, he'd beendoing radio way.
He was, uh, on in boston and onin baltimore.
I mean, like I said, he'd beendoing radio since he was 14.
Uh, he'd made a good living atit.
He uh, you know, he had enough,uh, money that you know he
really didn't need to work andhe would continue to under the
right circumstances.
I think, um, but he, it's kindof like, if you're getting paid,

(26:45):
I won't give the exact numbers,but say you're getting paid a.
I won't give the exact numbers,but say you're getting paid a
hundred thousand to do somethingand then they want you to do it
for 30,000.
The numbers were much biggerthan that.
But it's hard for you to getmotivated and say, yeah, I want
to keep coming to work for that.
But that's the way theeconomics of the business works.
So he said he was done.

(27:05):
Spike and I were like, wait aminute, wait a minute, don't be
done, we're not done.
And so Spike and I for a whilewe had a few meetings and there
was talk about us continuing aspartners.
But really Spike's the one whokept his nose to the terrestrial
radio grindstone and, like Isaid, he stayed on and was on

(27:28):
sports radio and he was hopefulthat he might even get to
continue with that company and Iwas applying for jobs that I
was not even getting callbacksfor, I mean some radio jobs, and
I'm like, wait a minute, I'mway qualified to do that.
I was still at timespokesperson for a local casino

(27:49):
and I had a couple of accounts.
So I started a creative servicesbusiness and did some voice
work, although my voice um, atthat time too very bad timing.
I got a growth on my throat andhad to have vocal surgery.
So I lost my gig withMuggleshoot Casino because my
voice went out and so a lot ofmy side money went away.

(28:13):
And I even applied to be anassistant park ranger for the
city of Bellevue.
And I go man, I can't even be apark ranger.
But then I looked back on allthis.
You know about the time myunemployment was running out and
I was going to actually have toget serious about looking for a
job.
I was even thinking aboutretraining uh for another career

(28:34):
.
Completely Sure, and uh,somebody sent me a Facebook
message and says here's yournext job.
And it was to teach radio onMercer Island.
And I'm like, well, I can't bea teacher.
Heck, I was barely a barely astudent.
I mean, I, my degree is fromNational Broadcasting School.
And she's like, well, that'swhat they want you to teach is

(28:55):
radio.
So I uh applied and got the job.
I found out later I was theonly one who applied, so that
made it a little easier to getthe gig, probably, um, but
that's how, how I uh evolved towhat I'm doing now.
And and uh, you know it was uh.
It was uh not something I everset out to do, it's just

(29:18):
something I did.
So as time went on, bob, I think, decided he missed being an
entertainer.
He, he didn't want to just sitin vermont and make maple syrup.
And as technology got better,uh, to do things like we're
doing now.
Uh, he's like, hey, there's noreason.
I, you know, we can't jumponline together, have some fun

(29:40):
and podcast every once in awhile.
So so I guess that was probably,oh, five years or maybe more
than that now, but over the lastfew years he was very active,
um, broadcasting, making songs.
Even to the last weekend wewere working on songs, uh, just,
uh, you know, five days beforehe died and we may still get

(30:03):
some out summer or done thanothers.
But uh, he, he decided, I think, that he missed it and that it
wasn't just a job for money, uh,so we started doing it kind of
for fun, and he continued to.
Uh, I've got 170 kids in myradio program, so I, I got, I
got about as much radio as I canhandle now, but there's nothing

(30:25):
I love more than jumping onwith you, like we're doing now,
or or jumping on with bob, andso that's where.
That's where, uh, we kind ofleft it, so the band never was
really together, but we did loveto reunite and we're always
were together as friends andreally family beyond friends.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Bob and spike are my radio brothers and always will
be so um, a tremendous careerthat bob and you guys had, uh,
in the pacific northwest uh, 25something years in the market,
um, not something that you'regoing to see anymore.
I mean, for those who have beenin the market.
There's probably still ahandful that are here, uh, that

(31:04):
may hit those benchmarks abender, a jubile, and that
pretty much ends those types oflocal-type talent that are
locally here, that may havethose types of careers like a
Bob Rivers being in a market for20-something years.
Something that I think thatdoesn't get talked about from

(31:26):
the behind the scenes and Ithink this was great by my
former instructor at Green RiverCommunity College was the fact
that Bob was able to, in thetragic passing of Jim Catman,
come in and fill in without likehe did this, fill in uh without

(31:53):
like he he did this.
He came in and became a part ofthe green river college to help
out.
You know one of his.
You know you know someone whohad been a part of the show to
give back to the community.
I was like why is even?
I was like wow, bob's doingthat.
I was like that's awesome.
I'm like why is bob doing that?
Um, but if you knew Bob, youunderstood why Bob did these
things?
To give back to the community.
I know that you had more of acloser connection with him in

(32:16):
those states.
What was when Bob would sharethese?
If he shared anything about theGreen River experience to you,
were you able to take any ofthat and bring it to the KMIH
level?

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Were you able to take any of that and bring it to the
KMIH level?
Well, first of all, you got toknow a little bit about Campy
Jim Campman, because the reasonBob did that was to honor Campy,
and Campy was the best and Idon't think there would be a Bob
Rivers show the Seattle versionwithout him and I don't think

(32:49):
there would be a Bob Rivers showthe Seattle version without him
.
When Bob came to town, campywas our news person and a radio
veteran.
This guy had been in Seattleand he was the man.
I don't know if he ever got achance to work with Campy or
knew much.
You probably knew him at GreenRiver, right?
That's right.
Yes, so he's just the best guyin the world.
In fact, he married me.
He was the officiant at mywedding and I was sitting around

(33:11):
KISW one day and he asked mehow the wedding plans were going
and I said, well, pretty good,campy, but I don't have anybody
to do a service.
You know we don't really go tochurch.
You know we are people of faith, but I don't have a particular
minister and stuff.
I said I just want somebodythat'll do a good job, that
knows me a little bit andthat'll, you know, we'll, we'll

(33:34):
make it cool.
And I said somebody like you.
I said, how about you be ourminister?
And he's go.
Well, how did I do that?
So I showed him how to getordained as a minister.
And then campy went on to marryseveral people, but me and my
wife were his first and I was,uh, we're still together, campy,
so it's working good, uh, butanyway, um, even though campy

(33:57):
had left our show, several yearsbefore, once again in a
business decision, somebodydecided those guys need a girl
to talk to.
There's too many guys on thatshow.
And so campy went to be aninstructor at green river
eventually and had a very sadand tragic end to his life, just
in an accident.
And so bob just went in and Ithought, tom, out there at green

(34:21):
river.
He wrote a piece recently thatexplained it really well.
Um, campy left classes, classes, you know, that needed a
teacher.
And Bob was like, well, I cando that, I've got the time.
And then he wound up doing thatfor a while.
Now I never, you know, I alwaysthink about me as well.
I'm the guy teaching peopleradio.
Well, bob was teaching peopleradio, you know, way before I

(34:45):
ever was, and while there's notany curriculum, so to speak,
from Green River, you know,before I ever was and while
there's not any curriculum, soto speak, from green river, you
know, I don't know exactly whathim and campy taught, but I have
my suspicions and since I'm theguy who learned, you know, from
them I'm teaching it's reallythe jim campman bob river school
of broadcasting is what I'mteaching here and campy.

(35:07):
But, and there probably wouldbe no, no career for me without
campy, because when I was anintern, you know, he came up to
me and he really gave me myfirst really spotlight role on
the radio, uh, kind of evenalmost before bob, because he
said you know downtown, he saidyou know it's uh, people get
tired of hearing the news.

(35:27):
He says Fridays, people want tojust do something, you know, a
little more relaxed and fun.
He said you like to fish?
How about if, instead of medoing the news at seven o'clock,
I'll give you that time and youdo a Friday morning fishing
report?
And I think, campy, two thingsNumber one, he's given me a
chance.
Number two, that's one lessthing he has to do every friday

(35:50):
makes his day a little easier.
So I started doing fisherreports, uh, thanks to camping,
and that led to me, uh, gettingthe known as a fisher, fisherman
, fisher person, I guess now inthe 21st century.
And uh, so uh, it started withme talking about where to catch
fish.
Then people would start callingin and telling me where they to
catch fish.
Then people would start callingin and telling me where they
were catching fish.

(36:11):
Then they would start invitingme to go fishing with them
because they knew that I'd bragabout it on the radio.
And then it worked its way upto where guides started calling
me and I was fishing with someof the best, best guides in the
world.
And then it worked into a thingto where the sales guys started
selling it, sell maybe sell,sell.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
maybe sell yeah we were.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
We were going to Alaska with me and Alan White,
the drummer for yes.
We flew into uh, tennekeSprings, alaska, to take
listeners fishing and Heinekensponsored it.
So one plane was me and Alanand then another plane was just
cases and cases of Heineken.
And we showed up in this littlecity in Alaska and a whole town

(36:53):
celebrated because we came withthe beer and you know so.
So that was all from campygiving me a minute of time on
the radio.
It had turned out that it tookme to new zealand and alaska and
all over the world fishing justfrom that minute.
So campy was that kind of guy.
And then the reason bob went togreen river really was to honor
his work.

(37:14):
But tom had always uh, tomkrause, for those who aren't
aware with uh the whole story.
Tom had always invited us outto be guest speakers.
He'd come in.
You know, we always had anaffinity for kgrg and we also
got a ton of our interns andtalent from there and pedro and

(37:34):
pedro being the number one guysyeah, luciana being one.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Uh, speaking of that, not that gender roles are
typically talked about on ourradio show, but I know that our
next surprise guest may talkabout this on his uh 12 to 3
show.
It is my pleasure to welcomefrom cairo radio uh, the midday
host, uh, spike o'neill.
Let's add spike.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
Welcome, spike to the show man hi guys, sorry for my
uh for my tardiness and thankyou so much for the invitation.
I really do appreciate thatbefore me before we change
topics.
So tell me about the timejameson whiskey took us to
ireland.
Joe, we, we have had such aamazingly blessed run of
experiences and interaction withpeople and audiences.
It's an absolute, absolute gift.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
this is the time of year I always think about that,
uh, about the trips to ireland,and spike took even more than me
, but what, what a great timethat was.
I got to go a couple times andand people don't know this about
the jameson, but john jamesonwas a radio guy and he was a
really big into radio, uh, youknow, in Europe.

(38:42):
So he would fly in the topshows from all over the world
and me, bob and Spike would sitthere in a whiskey distillery
with a show from Tokyo, a showfrom London, a show from Paris,
and what a blast that was.

Speaker 5 (38:56):
Yeah, what an experience.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Spike and I got to do a lot of travels together over
the years on the radio stationsdime.
We got to cover the theolympics in norway one year and
uh did a lot of a lot of funstuff, that's for sure I'm still
waiting for mine from you knowthese ufos and bigfoots to get
like a piggyback ride on abigfoot you're gonna be the
first guy, mario, they're gonnacome adopt, adopt you just to

(39:21):
silence you.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
It's like don't be talking about this stuff.
We don't want people to know.
Sure no pleasure, Spike, tohave you come on and I know that
we've crossed paths over theyears and being able to catch
you do your show and to havesuch a successful career, to
transform your career fromspoken word radio to doing
sports, spoken word radio to nowdoing intellectual talk spoken

(39:44):
word radio.

Speaker 5 (39:46):
It's a reach, but thank you.
I mean, let's be honest.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
And then what you do for the University of Washington
and getting to see you not Joeso much, but it's good to be
able to see people that you'veworked with in the business.
Joe and I were just talkingabout some of the experiences,
even being a younger, greenerengineer in those times when you
guys were at 95.7, how we weretalking about how Bob had this

(40:13):
ear and you know Bob was.
We were joking about theequipment when you guys first
moved into that building at356.45.
The Ackerley building was thepalace of all palaces that you
guys never moved into.
That building at uh 350 645.
The ackerley building was thepalace of all palaces that you
guys never got to work in.
Um, that place was plush.
I mean, that was the ackerley'sdid it right.

(40:35):
I mean they spent no expense.
The the building was great.
Now, not so much for the otherbuilding because I was like man,
this is it was great it wasgreat.
No, don't disrespect to I heartradio, but they had to move so
fast to get you got everyonemoved in.
And what I was explaining tojoe was the intricacies of what
you guys did for for a radio,for one radio show for four

(40:57):
hours, was incredible.
I mean, every little moving cogof the piece, luciana pedro,
with different sound bites, youknow, jody doing her thing, you
doing this, joe doing this.
I mean it was kind of like whenyou look at the big picture and
if people remember watchinglike the howard stern show and

(41:17):
watching that e-show, that'skind of what it looked like in
the studio in this, in thiscockpit of what bob was
masterfully doing.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
You know behind the controls sitting there, right,
you know the way we configuredthe show from a logistics point
of view, bob was.
Bob put himself on one side ofthe console and he literally had
all of us arrayed around him sohe can make eye contact with
anybody at any moment andconduct.
He would conduct voices like a,like someone conducts an

(41:48):
orchestra.
Um, and you're right he would.
He knew he had a great ear,brought things in and out, and
somebody asked me this week whatwas one of bob's greatest um
attributes?
Um, and I think first joe wouldagree, the, the recognition of
talent that he could surroundhimself with.
But his timing and I say thatjokingly, but Bob would see

(42:08):
somebody who wanted to be in ourbusiness and he would, of
course, have time and place foranybody who wanted to take part.
He would be able to recognizewhat their greatest skill was,
their greatest asset andsomething they could bring to
the show, and that's what theygot to focus on.
Bob would never make you dothings you didn't want to do.
He'd find somebody else thatwanted to do that and supplement
the cast with somebody who hada passion for that particular

(42:30):
element of what he was bringingin, so that everybody did it to
the fullest of their abilitiesand everyone loved what they
were doing and I think thatreally he cooked that soup
together better than anybody Ithink that's ever done.
The job before was gatheringpeople and getting the most out
of them.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
What do you take back when you look over the 25 years
of being in during the BobRivers show, the KISW, the KZOK
days?
What is one thing that hasstuck out to you over the years
that has just been like that,one thing that you cannot like
wow, this was something that Iwill, will live with me forever,
but I would like to share thatwith others oh, you mean like a

(43:11):
particular instance thatcaptured everything.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
We?
Um, thanks a lot.
Small question, easy breezy.
Um, I prepared for thatquestion.
I'm kidding, um, you know it's,it's funny, I would have to.
I'll give you two answers.
One is a much more overarchingelement of how Bob did things
was the authenticity with whichyou engage with an audience, and
that went for everything we did, every minute we got to do on

(43:33):
air.
Because that's what and youknow people always say, oh, be
authentic, you got to beauthentic.
That is what has people relateto you and engage with you and
depend on you for their dailycommute or whatever it might be,
whatever time they were able togive you to share a little bit
of their life with our lives.
And that's what makes people.
I remember the time when Joedid this, when Joe had that guy

(43:55):
on and you and Joe, I was at aphone booth and Joe, you know we
come brought up to a phonebooth with Joe.
Or you know I remember whenyour wife got real ill with the
birth of your youngest.
I remember when you had cancer.
You know when we shared ourtrue selves with people.
They could relate to it andthey remembered it and they
engaged with it and they caredabout it.
People still come up to metoday.
I remember the time you trackeddown your daughter's stolen

(44:17):
phone and got it out of ahomeless guy's tent at midnight
on a Sunday night.
I mean, you know, cause weweren't making stuff up, we were
just living our lives to thefullest and and realizing that
you know, we, we, we did thesame things.
Everybody else did Not.
Everybody got to go to blah,blah, blah or do this or do that
.
We got some amazing experiences,but they all had a life that

(44:41):
they could relate, because wetalked about our families and we
talked about our experiencestogether.
We talked about ourrelationships with each other
and the things we did goingthrough our daily lives that the
audience could relate to, goingthrough their daily lives.
To pick one moment that reallystood out to me that I'll never
forget there are so many RobertDuvall came into the studio one

(45:04):
day and you know when you, whenyou, when you get to meet the,
the icons of of entertainmentand music, like we did um,
robert duvall came in the studio.
He was promoting a little movieabout um the uh, fandango or
not fandango?
Um, the tango, the tango.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
Yeah, whatever the Argentinian dance.
Yeah the tango.

Speaker 5 (45:26):
Yeah, flamingo or tango.
And I apologize, but he came inbecause he and his wife made a
movie about the dancing and justbecause I knew it was going to
meet Robert Duvall and I was ahuge fan, I brought in my copy
of Lonesome Dove on DVD.
I wanted to get him toautograph it right, and I
literally took his breath away,because he's in this media tour

(45:47):
and you know how it goes, mario.
They come from station tostation and they give you the
eight minutes you've got andthey've asked the same questions
a thousand times.
I headed Mr Duvall, my copy ofLonesome Dove and he literally
stopped dead in his tracks andfor a good 20, 30 seconds he
started misting up.
He goes.
This is the most fun I ever hadin my career making a movie.

(46:09):
He goes.
We got to actually be cowboysfor months and live on the
plains and sleep in tents andride horses and rope cattle.
And seeing that, myappreciation of his work brought
back some of the greatestmemory that he ever had in his
career making a project.
I'll never forget that.

(46:30):
That was just hit me like athunderbolt.
Or or watching booker t play uh, you know play live in the
studio sitting next to us.
You know the things we got tosit front row with over the
years.
It's just oh, oh.
Watching bloister cult, my veryfirst band I ever saw in concert
when I was 15 come to bob'shouse and set up.

(46:52):
That's just before we had afull-blown bob's garage
recording studio at home.
Yeah, you're talking about bob.
Got made it, made it sound, gotgot it perfect.
Um, the the guitars were werein bob's living room and mic'd
up the the bass was in bob'sbathroom and mic'd up.
The drums were in the garage.
Mic'd up the singers were in adifferent room.

(47:12):
So you could get a good, a goodgeographical sound mix is the
only way to record this.
But to watch these, theselegends of live music, o Ozzy
came to Bob's house.
Paul Rogers, robin Trower, youname it the bands who came
through town that we were ableto meet and sing backup on

(47:33):
records, on these Bob's Garagerecordings with.
So it's like, oh my God, whatan experience.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
I'm trying to remember at the end, when you
guys were, I think, didn't Bob,I'm, I'm?
I think marty hadfield was theonly engineer that was like
allowed to go to to bob's houseto work on I?
I think he may have had amobile student, he may have done
some mobile stuff, I don'tremember.
I'm trying to recall and I'dhave to ask marty hadfield on

(48:01):
that piece, but I remember therewas times where I think that
marty had gone out there acouple times to assist bob's
house.
Yeah, to help out.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Yeah, on a couple things well he, he set bob up
because weather bob lived outnorth bend and, uh, they wanted,
and this was now a lot ofpeople, especially with the
pandemic you know, startedbroadcasting from their house.
But it was a pretty new thingthen and and they were like,
okay, if it gets snowy, we don'twant to lose bob, we want to be

(48:30):
able to broadcast from home.
So marty went out there and setup a, you know, basically a
remote broadcast studio so hecould do his show from his house
, which then every time bob, I'mfeeling so good, maybe we
should stay at home.
He started getting a little bitmore of those days, um.
So he had that.

(48:50):
But he also had a full-blown 24track recording studio with a
trident 80 board and I mean, youknow stuff that any band would
be proud to record in.
So word got around.
Um, you know that here's thisband would be proud to record in
.
So word got around.
You know that, here's this guyout here with this amazing stuff
.
And, by the way, if you go outand record a song at his house,

(49:10):
he'll talk about you like crazyand you'll sell out your, your
little casino shows.
And that's the way Bob's garagestarted with blue oyster cult.
They were the first, and afriend of mine, brad Zirkle,
another guy rest in peace, bradwanted us to go out to bremerton
.
Blue oyster cult was having ashow at some hotel or something

(49:31):
out in bremerton, blue oystercult would play.
Just, they played tirelesslyeverywhere yeah, I still do.
And bob said I'll go to their.
They want is to go to anin-store record signing to
promote it and get people outthere.
Bob said I'll go to theirrecord signing if they'll come
to my house and play in mygarage.
And Brad said okay, let me seewhat I can do.

(49:54):
And sure enough, that's the waythat whole thing started.
And then after that, brad andCarl Pennington, who still
promotes shows in town theystarted bringing in bands like
the outlaws and fog hat andthese, oh my god yeah, yeah
these classic rock bands,nazareth and all this stuff, and
that's where it started, uh,recording out at bob's house

(50:16):
these bands, and then the localbands, and I mean big local
bands like you know, uh melvin'sand uh queens reich, and stuff
started one grunt truck andgoodness and grunt truck, yeah,
goodness, and and that kind ofstarted going.
And then, as far as in that,what really it all kind of
transpired into and you probablyhelped with a lot of these,

(50:38):
mario in our last years we hadlive music just about every
friday.
At the end of the show we wouldfinish it off and at the car,
the subaru studio right theybuilt us an in-building studio
for bands.
That's right right and we weregetting people that I'm still
huge fans of.
When they were, I mean, thefirst radio shows that der

(51:01):
Trucks or Lucas Nelson, Willie'sson and you know, we were some
of the first that they'd everhad live radio exposure.
And now they've gone on to dogreat things.
Aaron Jones the first time, andhe wrote a really nice tribute
to Bob.
First time Aaron ever got anyattention on the radio was from

(51:22):
us, and I saw him playing in alittle show and said, man, this
guy's amazing.

Speaker 5 (51:26):
And I yeah, joe brought him into us, that we
were all like holy cow, yeah,and aaron's gone on to.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
You know he's tours the world now, um, but but live
music was always something wewere all fans of, and and it was
something also that transcendedformats.
You know, even though we're ona rock station or a classic hit
station, rachel at Jazz Alleywould bring us a Turo Sandoval

(51:55):
or Stanley Jordan, and you knowthese jazz legends.
Al DiMeola, one of my favoritesever, you know, comes in and
plays live and, like Spike said,I'm sitting as close to Al
DiMeola as I'm sitting to mywife at the dinner table
watching him play and just inawe.
And that's where you guys onthe engineering front came in
really handy.
Phil Van Loo at KZOK did a tonof great work for us to make

(52:20):
those things sound good and makethem happen, and that was once
again just going above andbeyond anybody's expectations.
And one thing that made ourshow really special, I thought,
was the music element.

Speaker 2 (52:32):
You know, when you talk about that, it became a
thing where a lot of radiostations we need to have one.
Everyone needed to have theirlittle niche or their little own
live performance studio place,the iHeartRadio studio thing
that Carter Subaru had sponsored, or even for Lotus
Communications.
When we were moving thestations, as I was the chief

(52:53):
engineer, we were looking at aspace within the building.
When, at that point, I mean,they moved into a, you know,
they went from a palace at, youknow, como TV at Fisher Plaza or
Como Plaza, moving into a10,000-square-foot building on
Lower Queen Anne, next to youknow wherever it is now.

(53:17):
We built a space so that theycould have live performance
studio.
You know, have a liveperformance.
In case, you know, one 101.5wanted to have a guest in it,
and I attribute to this becauseeveryone had a little, uh, you
know, a performing studio space.
You know, move in.
You know 99.9 k.
You know kz okay, which is nowpart of the iheart family.

(53:38):
Um, it's just interesting tohear those evolutions.
That though and let's not getit twisted that was.
There was a lot of work thatwent into those shows oh yeah,
you know yeah I mean those whatthe listener, and behind the
scenes what goes into you know,putting the sound checks and
things of that nature like alive concert on the radio and

(54:02):
you know people just drivingaround just like, oh my god,
this is awesome.
But the the blood, sweat andtears from everyone, from staff,
to get these things built sothat someone can appreciate it.
And I think that's the onething that, um, that I can
appreciate about bob him givingthe grace to engineer the
engineering staff at for me atthat point, um, to be grace, you

(54:23):
know, had the gracious kindnessand and not to treat me or
abuse me like a lot of talenthas.
Now, I'm not saying spike orjoe, that you guys were like
that, but there were othertalents in this market that I
had.
You know I took a whipping forum, yeah, yeah you just didn't
get that from bob and bob wasalways kind and just you know.
Thank you for your help today.

(54:43):
You know we're gonna get itright.
I know we're gonna get it inthe page earlier when I said
that.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
You know he was um.
He recognized that everybodyhad a hand in making the show
the best it could be and he sawthat he wrecked.
Of course with engineering.
He was making records aspassionately as he made radio
from his first time on the airBack in the 80s in New England
when he made his first TwistedChristmas album and he made his
first song parodies.
He fancied himself a recordingartist.

(55:11):
He wasn't kidding around.
He wasn't just some radio guywho could write jokes and make
it sound funny, he was arecording artist.
Joe talked about the studio atBob's house.
Bob knew that to make a recordthat sounded exactly like the
beach boys you had to have theright, you know compressor on
the vocals.
You had to have the rightmicrophones.
You had to play it through theright amplifiers he had.

(55:33):
He would scour the world buyingpieces of vintage gear because
I want to make this one recordby herman's hermits and it was
recorded into this microphone.
He bought microphones fromAbbey Road Studios.
Wow, because we love makingBeatles records.
Remember those, joe, thetelephone that he brought in.
You bet he bought them fromAbbey Road.
He bought a piece of gear onlineand this was like as the

(55:56):
internet was just coming of ageand it opened the world up to
Bob's pocket.
Basically, bob bought a pieceof gear online from some guy
that didn't realize who it wasdid or initially didn't know it
was just a piece of gear hewanted.
It turned out to be petetownsend.
Oh wow, he'll buy studios, yeah, from.
He'll buy and, and.

(56:17):
And bob calls and makes a phonecontact.
Lady was this one says, oh,what's he bought?
Now, you know, or he was buyingsomething from bob, actually, I
think, or what's I forget, I'llgo with that.
Bob got me an autograph frompete townsend.
He says, yeah, do me a favor,have a throw on an eight by ten
autograph to spike from pete,because pete spike's a big fan.
I mean the guy.
The guy stopped at nothing andthere was nothing.

(56:38):
No bridge too far to make itthe absolute best radio show,
live production, recorded pieceof art.
Bob.
Bob cared, you're right, hisear was everything in his
nothing was too, was a bridgetoo far to get to get it to be
the very best.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
And it showed we know that you're still on the radio
um yeah, yeah so let me ask youwhat was your favorite frequency
?
Oh, my favorite um I guess yourfavorite time of, I guess of
the show, yeah no, no, that's,that's a great question.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
Um, it's, that's really hard because you know you
never forget your first.
You know someone flashing theirboots, um kisw.
We were the morning rock showwhen grunge exploded.
Yeah, you know, we got to.
We got to hang with all thoseguys you know, from alice to pj,
to a sound garden.
You know I remember having amovie premiere and sitting right

(57:31):
in front of dave grohl at amovie when nirvana was just just
got signed.
You know, I mean the things wegot to do.
And then with kz okay, then itwas the music that we grew up
with that were walking throughthe doors of our studio every
day, you know, and and the, thestaff that we got to work with,
from katie faulkner to slaytonto dan wilkie to gary crow to

(57:51):
robin and manor, that we sharedstudios, walls with the people
in this town.
And when we, when we finallygot to um, when we got to kjr um
and we you know the beauty ofKJR, and I'm trying to find
something nice to say aboutthese guys because they have
kind of buried me twice.
But, that being said, no oneburies Spike.

(58:14):
Thank you.
They fully embraced and theykept trying to find a way to
make it work in an evolvingradio world to cater to.
To cater to bob's, um needs todo this I don't want to say
demands, but needs to do theshow right.
You know, when they told bob tothin the staff, bob's like I

(58:36):
can't thin the staff.
We, you know this, we needeverybody that does this.
Everybody does an integral partof what we do, you know.
And like you said to buildingus the carter subaru studio, or
to making sure we do, you know,and like you said to building us
the carter subaru studio, or tomaking sure we could, you know,
making sure we couldaccommodate our audience.
Sure, you know, um, but it'sfunny because I mean now, now I
get to do um three hours of talkradio and you know, bob, it was

(58:59):
fun.
And it's funny how things comefull circle, because when we
were doing music and we evolvedfrom music to talk while we're
still at KISW, yeah, and Bob hadan itching to do more than just
bits and songs and whatnot.
And Dory Monson at Cairo was adear friend of Bob and they

(59:20):
collaborated and communicated ona lot of different things and
Dory told him that he shouldcome be a talk show host.
And Bob got his feet wet doingfill-in shifts at Cairo and then
brought Joe and I in and Dorytold Bob and Bob knew this.
But Dory said if you're a talkshow you're not subjected to the
popularity of the music.

(59:40):
You control your destiny.
You control the value you bringto a station.
So over a two-year period wewent from eight songs to six
songs, to four songs, to twosongs, to none, and it took us
two years to stretch our legsand evolve our skill sets.
So Bob had the patience withall of us to teach all of us how
to do long, going fromthree-minute breaks to
seven-minute breaks, to25-minute breaks, to a four-hour

(01:00:03):
talk show, and they gave it.
You know Dory started that atCairo with Bob.
So now I get to do all talkradio.
And you mentioned Green Riverearlier.
Before I jumped on you weretalking Green River Community
College and KGRG.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Today is rock everyone.

Speaker 5 (01:00:21):
There you go.
One of the people that camethrough our doors at the radio
station from KGRG was Today isrock everyone.
There you go.
One of the one of the peoplethat came through our doors at
the radio station from KGRG wasCharlie Harder.
Yeah, you know, um, and at theend of my run, when I had been
kicked to the curb the finaltime um and I was, I had
transitioned.
I was doing advertising sales,you know, and um, and at this

(01:00:44):
point I was driving to Portlandevery week to sell TV
commercials in Portland.
Wow, and I was doing a podcastwith Bob who, even though he was
, you know, already diagnosedand taking his treatments for
his cancer, knew that he wantedto share with an audience taking
his treatments for his cancer,knew that he wanted to share

(01:01:04):
with an audience.
We were doing podcasts and I'mbeating my brains out and
beating my car into the ground,driving to Portland every week
to sleep in a tent in a KOAcampground in Portland just so I
could stay three days in a rowto sell TV in Portland.
I finally had.
It was too much and it wasn'tpaying the bills which really
mattered, and I came on Bob'spodcast and said I can't, I

(01:01:29):
can't do it anymore.
I gotta, I gotta, I'm just,I've done it first off.
Radio is about.
You need to be loved.
That's why we're on the radio.
We need to have people tell ushow wonderful that we are and
how much they love what we do insales.
It's like you know, you don'thave 125 rejections a week.
You're not trying.
Um, I said I just can't do itanymore.
And charlie harger heard thepodcast at cairo and went to
brian uh, brian bucklum, my pda,and said we should bring this

(01:01:51):
guy in for some guest hosting.
I guess toasted for about twoweeks and they gave me a
full-time shift.
Um, and, and and bob was aregular guest when, and then,
when Dory passed at theChristmas a couple three years
ago now, they put me on noon tothree with the first partner.
It didn't really work out withJack Stein and I, but Bob would

(01:02:14):
come on once a week and we wouldbring Bob on to do a little
segment every week on our show,because we would get all hopped
up and bothered on varioustopics of the day and Bob always
had a very even-handed bothsides.
You know, it's all going towork, Don't worry, don't stress
it, it's not the end of theworld.
It's just the end of the week.
Relax, you're going to be fine.
He had that mentality and heliterally would mentor Jack and

(01:02:38):
I through the time we weretrying to build a show together.
When it didn't work with Jack, Igot a new partner.
I had some faith in me andbrought Jake Skorheim on to work
with me and we've been doing itabout six months now and Bob
would listen.
He air-checked me.
I swear this sounds crass, butBob would listen.

(01:02:58):
I got a call a week before welost Bob.
He's air-checking me from hisdeathbed.
I swear to you.
He says look, you guys soundreally.
You're getting really good.
You're doing this, but giveJake a little more time to do
this and don't be so quick toblah, blah, blah.
He said you know it's not abouthaving a debate.
He said it's not about winningthe debate, it's about having
the debate.
And if you can't see the otherperson's point of view, if you

(01:03:22):
can't even acknowledge thatthey've got a genuine, you may
disagree with it.
If you can't acknowledge thatthey've got a genuine point of
view that they truly feel andbelieve in, how are you going to
convince them that you can't atleast recognize where they're
coming from.
And this was the last months,weeks, days of Bob's life.
He still wanted to give back tothe industry that he loved and

(01:03:46):
he gave everything to.
You know, that's who Bob was.
So my favorite stop along theway.
I can't tell the differencebetween working with Bob and Joe
at KSW or KGOK or KJR.
It was still.
We were like in this bunker oflove, if you will, where we, no
matter what the outsideinfluences, were sales

(01:04:08):
management, program directors,consultants.
We had a Bob had a programdirector or consultant I'm not
going to name the guy, joe.
Bob had a consultant.
Tell Bob to fire Joe, he didn'tget it.
And Bob laughed in his face andhe's like if you don't get what
downtown joe brings to thisradio show in this city, you are
in the wrong business becauseyou do not get what makes radio

(01:04:30):
radio sure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
And bob always saw that and found that and
encouraged that and stood up forthat you guys had an
opportunity as we get close towrapping things up here from the
pacific northwest.
Uh, we, we take a pause to tonot talk about conspiracies and
you know Sasquatches andabductions.
I'm a believer.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
I love Sasquatch.
By the way, I'm a believerbuddy.
I was a big fan of the BigfootInformation Center in the Dalles
, oregon, and I got a lot ofSasquatch books in a box
somewhere, mario.
So I'm still looking for theguy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Yeah, me as well, and I wonder sometimes how many
people have been got bySasquatch as we get close to
wrapping things up.
You guys had an opportunity tosee your brother, your comrade,
your family member go into theRadio Hall of Fame.

(01:05:23):
What was that like to go to bea part of that?

Speaker 5 (01:05:27):
Well, joe, do you want to?
You want to?
Well, first off, I'll let Joespeak.
Let me say this real quick whenBob was inducted in the Radio
Hall of Fame, bob insisted thathe not go in as a solo artist.
Bob insisted to the Radio Hallof Fame that we go in as the Bob
Rivers Show, withacknowledgement and entry for
everybody who was on our show,and we're officially listed in

(01:05:48):
the Radio Hall of Fame as theBob Rivers Show.
So that to me, that recognizesthe body of work that Bob put
together and asked us to comealong for, but also is the
consummate example of why bobrivers is in the radio hall of
fame yeah, and that's what I Ithink was so special is, you

(01:06:14):
know, because they were talkingabout putting bob rivers in the
hall of fame.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
He's like no, no, no, I couldn't have done this, uh,
without a lot of other people.
So I want it to be the show.
And bob also wanted all of usthere and he said we'll fly you
out, no expense to you.
I want you there when I acceptthis award on behalf of us all.
And he took not only spike and I, but mora and casey and pedro

(01:06:41):
and luciana, and you know heinvited Eric and yeah, yeah,
Eric and, and he even invitedothers that were unable to make
it, but he, all the core peoplethat at least for the last 10
years of our show or so had hadbeen there.
He wanted, he wanted us to bethere and uh, he often reminds
me.
You know well, you're in theradio hall of fame now.

(01:07:04):
Bob had, I think, enough of acareer that he could have been
in the radio hall of fame evenbefore he met me and spike he.
He was amazingly successful onthe east coast but he made that
a a kind of a team award, so sothat that was super special.
And I saw a list a consultant uhput out in january that it

(01:07:26):
escaped me until now but when Iwas looking through things about
bob and he talked about themost influential uh people ever
in music radio and what madethem trailblazers and uh, I
don't can't recall everybody onthe list, but it started at
wolfman, jack and casey casemand tom joiner and mark and

(01:07:48):
brian and kid craddock and andat the end of the list it was
bob rivers and he talked about,you know, the uh that he thought
originally bob was more of asong parodist, but after he
started hearing our show andrealizing that, like Spike
mentioned the authenticity andthe things, the curiosity

(01:08:10):
because Bob was the most curiousguy around, he wanted to know
everything about everything.
And so to see Bob's name on thelist with Wolfman Jack and
Casey Kasem, it's like okay,that tells you what kind of
impact he had.
And the fact that he wouldshare the glory with us and uh

(01:08:31):
and uh, you know, make us partof that was pretty special to me
.
And and then he sent us all anice plaque, uh to.
I have.
I have one hanging in my radiouh studio here at mercer island
high school so the kids can lookat that and go, okay, this is
what I want.
And then I have one hanging inmy basement and I do get a

(01:08:54):
little emotional just thinkingabout you know what a great guy
he was, uh for always wanting toshare the glory.
I didn't want to share all themoney sometimes, but he shared a
lot of that too.
And getting back to where myfavorite spots were.
I agree with Spike, I couldn'tpin one down.
But I will say I had so muchfun at KISW because it was new

(01:09:19):
but I was barely making a livingwage because I started as an
intern and it wasn't until wemoved to KZOK.
Cbs was a great employer andthey really paid us tremendously
fair wages.
And you know Kerry Curlop andLisa Decker and the people who

(01:09:40):
saw the value in what we didperhaps more than anybody in our
careers.
They hired us away.
I loved those years at KZOK butI also loved KISW.
And then in the end, just towork at KJR was so special.

(01:10:01):
And I know you said Akralis wasa palace and that was a quick,
hastily put together studio.
We were in.
It looked like a palace to us.
I mean the original, originalkisw.
There were literally we weresharing it with rodents.
I mean I had a, you know, a ratrun across my foot one day.
I mean it was, you know, it wasgetting pretty run down.
And then when we moved, uh,from there we were in what they
call the tin cans, the spam cansup there, you know, in uh,

(01:10:24):
metropolitan park, yeah, yeah so, uh, and then dexter kzok was
very nice, but but I thought, asfar as the studio goes, the
stuff you guys built out mariowas was great.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
I wish I'd been to the ackerley building, but uh,
yeah you know, yeah, theackerley versus the the 645,
they were like night and day.
The 645 was a great uh facilitystate of the art, one of the
first uh wheatstone uh largeprojects that you know
wheatstone had done.
For those who are um, these aredigital consoles that um using

(01:11:00):
Ethernet over IP to get audio toand from rooms Very still new
at that time but it was like oneof the largest you know halls
for Wheatstone.
And now I look back and I'mlike man, things are way
different.

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
Yeah, we have Wheatstones in every closet at
Cairo.
You can broadcast that wholething from anywhere in the
building.

Speaker 3 (01:11:21):
I've got a 30-watt channel.
But I've got a wonderfulWheatstone board I can show you
right over here.
I mean we're running Wheatstoneeven at the high school level
now and I believe Voxpro isowned by Wheatstone as well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
Too right, I think that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
So, as we wrap things up from the Pacific Northwest,
I so, as we wrap things up fromthe pacific northwest, I want to
thank both you guys for takingthe time to hang out to share
bob's stories.
Um, uh, you know my crossingwith bob.
I did, uh, yeah, I mean I wasjust a little broadcast engineer
, um, but I've always, I'vealways wanted to be on the radio
.
I mean that was, that was why Igot on.

(01:11:57):
You know that's why I?
got into the business, going toKGRG, and I thought this was
important to me to share thatpiece, that microscopic piece of
my crossing with a tremendousindividual who was compassionate
about everything that hetouched, if it was from making

(01:12:20):
maple syrup to doing broadcasts,to parodies.
What a special individual whowas kind to give time to people
who wanted his time but to share.
Like you know, listening toeveryone you know over who has
shared their thoughts, you knowlistening to everyone you know

(01:12:42):
over who has shared these theirthoughts, from Tom Evans to
Randy Lane, who I work with on aregular to keep this show in
line, and I think that Randy hasreally done tremendous things
for myself to make sure that Iam able to to be a you know, to
be a partner, to be able toshare my stories without being
like I'm not worthy of it, butto to continue to grow.
And I think that's one thingthat I, that I learned about Bob

(01:13:04):
, was, even though I may havebeen from afar, there was a lot
of things that I was putting inthe, in the, in the toolbox, in
that bag, so that I would beable to use those, because if
you're not imitating someone inthe business, as someone who
said Gary Bryan always said he'slike if you take something from
somebody else, you're doingsomething right because you're
learning from somebody else'scraft.

(01:13:24):
And that was one thing that Iloved about Bob was that there
was so much complexity to yourguys' radio show that no one
really had an idea that reallywas going on.
It just sounded good right as alistener.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
What's a duck analogy , joe with a duck.

Speaker 5 (01:13:41):
No, the duck glides across the water, smooth as
glass.
You can't see any effort belowthe surface.
The feet are going a thousandmiles an hour.

Speaker 3 (01:13:49):
That's how bob did radio and you mentioned, uh,
continue to grow.
Mario.
That was bob.
He was a lifelong learner.
I mean, we all learned a tonfrom him, but he was always
looking to learn from others,and not just in radio.
I mean flying he.
He had a fear of flying.
He got over his fear of flyingto the point where he became a
pilot and you know, and flewblueberries.

(01:14:12):
He decided he liked blueberries.
He never did anything halfway.
He started a blueberry farm,and I don't mean just a few
blueberry plants, I mean lots ofblueberries, honey, maple syrup
, recording, um, everything hedid.
He was a lifelong learner and Ithink that's one thing we can
all take from Bob is be curiousand learn.

(01:14:34):
I'm a teacher, but I do a lotmore learning around here with
these amazing young people.
Uh, they teach me about as muchas I teach them, and I think
that's one thing we can all uh,none of us know at all, and the
minute you do think you know itall is the minute you're gonna
see whatever you're doingdecline.

(01:14:55):
Your show's gonna get worse andyou know.
And so so, being curious, beinga lifelong learner, being good
to people, um those are allthings that bob was was really
uh accomplished at and thelessons that I think uh
everybody uh can take somethingaway from uh on the way he lived
as we wrap things up, I justwant to thank you both.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
Uh, joe, uh, tremendous success over there at
uh.
What I would when my stint wasthere, it was hot jams uh radio
back in those days um yeah, itfelt good to blow up a format.

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
I killed hot jams I mean I never got the chance, you
know, to uh and it was fine.
But it was kind of a hit radioformat.
It was great.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
But I'm really proud of you, joe, for what you've
done for that community, formercer island high school.
I am very jealous to be a analum of kgrg to see such a
program that is does not reallyexist anymore, that there are a
lot of students that should bealumni, that should be giving
more to that uh, to that program.

(01:16:03):
And I, I, joe, thank you somuch for being the person to
continue to pound the pavementin a small little high school
radio station, to continue toevolve and to to bring that next
chapter.
So, thank you, joe, spike, uh,continue to go kick ass over
there at the Mighty Cairo.
I know that there are radiostations out there that are that

(01:16:26):
are suffering, that aren't assuccessful.
It's good to hear that thereare still local talent like
yourself out here doing theirthing.
And, as I told Joe earlier,before we got on the radio show,
I wanted to kind of bring youguys together and I know that
you're on another radio stationbut like how Jimmy Fallon and
Kimmel and all those guys youknow will go through the TV sets

(01:16:48):
and they're like oh, I'm overhere and then I'm on ABC and you
know NBC, and that's what Iwanted to do.
And I think Bob was someone whotranscended across the dial in
the Pacific Northwest and togive him this time is a complete
honor.
I wish I would have had moretime to spend with him and at
the end I I mean my, my lastvivid memories were being in the

(01:17:12):
studio, because I was told youneed to be in there in case, joe
, that he goes rogue and I'mlike bob go rogue.
I barely knew bob and I'm like Ijust didn't think that was
bob's you know ammo and I waslike, okay, I'll be in the
studio, but make sure he hitsthe button.
You know this.
These are things that don't gettalked about.
You know the ugly of radio.
And that was never him.

(01:17:33):
He was just, yeah, justbeautiful in that piece.
Thanks, buddy.
Before we leave, I want toleave with a little piece of
Bob's voice on the show here.
So let's take a listen to apiece of Bob Rivers on 95.7.

Speaker 6 (01:17:55):
You wonder who those are.
It was your love that pulled methrough yesterday.
You wonder who those are.
Those are the original Sons ofThunder.
When you hear the Sons ofThunder story, the original Sons
of Thunder will play live todayin the Carter Subaru Live
Theater and that's in the 9o'clock hour.

(01:18:15):
They're talking about theirlife project.
Joe and I were talking aboutthese guys.
Famous past they had and thenthey disbanded.
And now are they back togetheror just doing a reunion thing?

Speaker 4 (01:18:30):
They're back together .
They are doing a reunion.
They want to make a movie iswhat they want to do, to tell
their story and to have a bigconcert.
I believe one of them has somehealth issues now and they would
like to make sure movie is whatthey want to do to tell their
story and to have have a bigconcert.
I believe one of them has somehealth issues now and they would
like to uh make sure the storygets told, make sure so they
were teenage preacher kids.

Speaker 6 (01:18:49):
By the way, uh, being the son of or daughter of a
preacher man, uh well, there'ssongs about that it's probably,
in some ways, an interestinglife, in some ways not an easy
life.
Did they sing on that RollingStones song you Can't Always Get
what you Want or did they justtour with the Rolling Stones?

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
Well, what happened is their dad was a local
preacher here in Seattle andthey got so good that word
started getting out about thesekids as two black kids, two
white kids.

Speaker 6 (01:19:16):
Four kids.

Speaker 4 (01:19:21):
Yeah, and they were teenagers at the time, think, uh
, 17 to 20, something like that.
Well, the stones and steviewonder went out on this big tour
in the early 70s, which waskind of unheard of, because in
the early 70s it might be newsto younger people, but there
were tensions between black andwhite people.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Tension between black and white yeah, there still are
, but this was isn't that still,to this day, something that, uh
, the tension is there.
Um, bob was an amazingindividual, someone who was able
to be an amazing puppeteer uh,master that's a great way to put
it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:55):
You know some conductors, conductors, kinder,
come on.
Yeah, maybe I Come on.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Yeah, maybe I leave maybe the puppeteers more for
like a, a T man or someone ofthat nature who was like oh, my
God yeah.
Yeah, um, as we wrap things up,I want to thank you guys again
for your time.
Uh, joe uh, continued success.
If you need anything from me,where to get a hold of me, spike

(01:20:21):
.
Thank you again.
So much for your time as we, mypleasure, my friend, as we wrap
things up from the pacificnorthwest, I'd like to thank our
guest, uh, from my entire team,which is very small myself, uh,
sophia magana, uh, markchristopher and myself, mario
magana, be sure to look up atthe sky, because you never know
what you might see.
Good night,