Bill Virgin's Radio Beat August 10, 2006

[radiofan]

Thursday, August 10, 2006

On Radio: Glenn Beck plays everywhere but where he got his start

By BILL VIRGIN
P-I REPORTER

Glenn Beck is nearly ubiquitous in the media world: a nationally syndicated radio talk show heard on more than 200 stations as well as satellite radio, a nightly show on CNN Headline News, books, speaking appearances, a Web site with downloads and audio archives, even a magazine.

He's everywhere, in short, except in the town that gave him his start in radio -- Seattle.

Beck's show can be heard on stations in Aberdeen, the Tri-Cities and Spokane, and by streaming on his Web site (www.glennbeck.com). But it's not heard on any station in this market, a source of some frustration to him.

When he left the region at age 18, having graduated from high school in Bellingham, "I just wanted to get really good and come home," he says. Coming home, at least in radio terms, hasn't happened yet. "We are always interested and pitching in Seattle. It's the only market that has rejected me since the day I left it."

Beck, 42, was born in Everett, and spent several years in Mountlake Terrace and Mount Vernon. When his parents split up, he lived with his mother in the Sumner-Puyallup area. When she died, he moved in with his father in Bellingham.

Beck says he got his interest in radio from his mother who, for his eighth birthday, gave him a record album of golden-age broadcasts. "At 8, I knew what I wanted to do."

His first on-air experience was at a station in Mount Vernon, where he won a contest to be on the radio for an hour. When he moved to Sumner, he got a weekend job at a Puyallup station; his mother drove him to work.

He wasn't, by his own admission, very good. "My voice hadn't even changed," he says. "I was sounding out words."

What he lacked in skill and experience, he made up for in drive and audacity. While still in his midteens, he sent an audition tape to the then-fledgling KUBE-FM.



Michael O'Shea, the longtime manager of KUBE and now chief executive of All Comedy Radio, says no one pressed the issue of just how old Beck was. "I just assumed he was 18," he says. Beck was "as ordinary as they come" on the air, O'Shea adds, but to KUBE the attractions were that Beck actually showed up and did the graveyard shifts for what the station was willing to pay.

Just showing up was an adventure. O'Shea says Beck would ride a Greyhound from Bellingham to Seattle, transfer to a city bus to get to KUBE's studios in Leschi, do his midnight-to-dawn Friday and Saturday shifts and sleep in the conference room.

Beck left town at age 18 and bounced around the radio world as a Top 40 DJ. By age 30, he says, he was a mess professionally and personally, what with drug and alcohol addiction, a divorce and a reputation as, in his own words, "an out-of-control egomaniac."

Beck says he cleaned up his life, remarried, was baptized as a Mormon and discovered a part of the radio scene he hadn't tried before: talk radio.

"It was the first time I was actually natural on the air," he says. He started in Tampa in 2000, then began his national show in January 2002.

Beck says his show is not wall-to-wall politics. "I'm a conservative but I don't live for politics or the Republican Party," he says. "So much of talk radio is 'inside baseball' about politics. ...

"Talk radio is in a dry spell and a dangerous place," because so many hosts are so focused on politics, he adds. "Who gets up and says, 'Man, I wish I could listen to a three-hour (political) commercial?" Talk radio, he says, has to broaden its range of interests and topics and "stop narrowcasting."

"I think he's the hottest thing in talk radio right now," O'Shea says. "I think he's the new Rush Limbaugh -- not that he's imitating Rush, but he's got such presence, he's so in touch with what a lot of people are thinking. ... He gets the most out of his callers."

Adds O'Shea about his former prot?g?, "To see what he has done in a relatively short time is stunning."

In other radio notes:


Don Riggs' guests on "Introspect Northwest" at 7 a.m. Saturday on KPTK-AM (1090) and 7 a.m. Sunday on KMPS-FM (94.1) include Carolyn See, author of "There Will Never Be Another You."


KING-FM (98.1) presents Seattle Opera's production of "Der Rosenkavalier" at 7 p.m. Saturday.


Lizz Sommars' guests on "Conversations" at 6 a.m. Sunday on KISW-FM (99.9), KBSG-FM (97.3) and KKWF-FM (100.7) include Andy Kessler, author of "The End of Medicine."


Kate Daniels interviews J.A. Jance, author of "Dead Wrong," on "Inspirational Women" at 6 a.m. Sunday on KRWM-FM (106.9).


The Sunday edition of Jim French's "Imagination Theatre," heard at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on KIXI-AM (880), includes a new Harry Nile mystery.


"Voices of Diversity" at 6 p.m. Wednesday on KBCS-FM (91.3) looks at the issue of same-sex parents.



RADIO STATIONS

AM STATIONS
Freq. Format
KVI 570 Talk
KCIS 630 Christian
KIRO 710 News/Talk
KTTH 770 Talk
KGNW 820 Christian
KIXI 880 Nostalgic pop hits
KJR 950 Sports/Talk
KOMO 1000 News
KBLE 1050 Religious
KPTK 1090 Air America
KKNW 1150 News/Talk
KNWX 1210 Spanish
KKDZ 1250 Radio Disney
KKOL 1300 Talk
KKMO 1360 Spanish
KRKO 1380 News/Talk
KRIZ 1420 Classic soul/R&B
KXPA 1540 Spanish
KLFE 1590 Christian
KYIZ 1620 Urban contemporary
KTFH 1680 Spanish

FM STATIONS
KPLU 88.5 Jazz/News
KNHC 89.5 Top 40/Dance
KGRG 89.9 Alternative rock
KEXP 90.3 Alternative/ World music
KSER 90.7 Public affairs/Music
KBCS 91.3 Jazz/Folk/World
KLSY 92.5 Adult contemporary
KUBE 93.3 Urban contemporary
KMPS 94.1 Country
KUOW 94.9 News/NPR
KJR 95.7 Classic Rock Hits
KRQI 96.5 Classic Alternative
KBSG 97.3 Oldies
KING 98.1 Classical
KWJZ 98.9 Smooth jazz
KISW 99.9 Rock
KQBZ 100.7 Talk
KPLZ 101.5 Adult contemporary
KZOK 102.5 Classic rock
KMTT 103.7 Adult alternative
KMIH 104.5 Contemporary hits
KFNK 104.9 Rock
KCMS 105.3 Contemporary Christian
KBKS 106.1 Adult contemporary
KRWM 106.9 Soft rock
KNDD 107.7 Modern rock




P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com.

Bill Virgin's Radio Beat in the Seattle P-I