Bill Virgin's On Radio January 29, 2009

[radiofan]

On Radio: O'Day is still Seattle's voice
First heard on our airwaves 50 years agoBy BILL VIRGIN
P-I REPORTER

Of all the voices that have crossed the radio airwaves in Seattle the past half-century, none may be so immediately identifiable to so many people, even today, as Pat O'Day's.

A half-century, as it happens, is the appropriate time frame to consider O'Day's place in Seattle radio lore, as he celebrates this week the 50th anniversary of his first day on the air in this market.

That O'Day is still so prominent and recognizable a figure in radio is remarkable given that he hasn't been on the air with a full-time gig in decades.

Newcomers to the region and younger listeners may know O'Day only as the distinctive pitchman for substance-abuse treatment facility Schick Shadle, of which O'Day is part-owner, executive-committee member and a former patient.

Those somewhat older might remember O'Day as the longtime voice of the hydro races. And those with even longer memories recall O'Day as a DJ on and programmer of Seattle's dominant AM rock station of the 1960s, KJR-AM/950.

O'Day was back on KJR-AM (now a sports talk station) this week to reminisce with Mike Gastineau and Dave Grosby about his career. Podcasts of the interview are archived at 950kjr.com. Many more stories can be found in O'Day's book "It Was All Just Rock 'n' Roll."

O'Day didn't start in Seattle on KJR. After spending "three years in the hinterlands" at small stations in Astoria, Ore., Kelso and Yakima, he made his Seattle debut on KAYO-AM as the morning-drive newsman and afternoon host.

Although he doesn't recall the precise playlist of that first shift, the songs of the era would have included the Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me" and the Wailers' "Tall Cool One."

In late 1959, O'Day moved to KJR-AM, a station he says had abandoned rock after the payola scandal, then thought better of it and plunged back into the genre. O'Day spent 15 years there as host, program director and general manager, building for the station a national reputation as well as audience share stations today can only dream of.

For that, O'Day credits owners Lester Smith and Danny Kaye. "They let me do anything" to build the station and its audience, he says. "It was fun being on the radio. Radio was so grand."

O'Day moved on to programming jobs at other stations, dabbled in ownership, ran a concert promotion business and now has a real estate brokerage in the San Juan Islands.

But the years away from the business haven't dimmed his enthusiasm for what he calls his "first love -- first, last and always."

If anything, it has fueled his frustration with what radio has become. Asked if he'd consider getting back into radio, O'Day says he would "if I could find the right ownership that would allow me to devise a station that was local, personable and companionable." But he says there's no opportunity like that now to entice him.

An O'Day station would have a library of about 1,500 songs, played in sets of three that are paced from slowest to fastest tempo, with commercials distributed through the hour rather than stacked in blocks, and a newscast every hour.

Most of all, he says, the station would feature DJs who through talent and personality can connect with an audience and build the "theater of the mind" O'Day says is crucial.

Wouldn't such a station be an anachronism in an iPod world? O'Day thinks not. "The iPod is not a satisfactory substitute for radio because it offers no companionship," he says. The success of talk and news radio indicates the desire for that connection, he says. Radio stations attempt it with their morning shows, then dump what personality they've got the rest of the day.

"That's ludicrous, but that's what consultants do to keep their jobs," he says. "Radio has greater potential than that."

Perhaps the greatest frustration for O'Day is that much of what ails radio is self-inflicted. Fear of new technology is nothing new for radio, he says, since it also feared the long-playing record, the eight-track tape, the cassette and the CD. "People have not changed -- radio is what changed," he says. Radio's "biggest enemy is radio."

In other radio notes:


An addendum to last week's item on the fall-quarter Arbitron ratings for the Seattle-Tacoma market. Now that data for noncommercial stations have been released, we can report that KUOW-FM/94.9 just barely edged out KIRO-AM and FM (710 and 97.3) for the top ranking.


Former KVI-AM/570 talk host Peter Weissbach rejoins the station for a one-hour show at 5 p.m. weekdays beginning Feb. 9. That's the same day Dennis Miller's syndicated show takes over the 9 a.m. slot occupied by Dr. Laura Schlessinger's program.


Shawn Colvin performs in the "Mountain Music Lounge" at 3:15 p.m. Thursday on KMTT- FM/103.7.


The Metropolitan Opera performs Verdi's "Rigoletto" at 10 a.m. Saturday on KING-FM/ 98.1.


Jim Wilke's "Jazz Northwest" at 1 p.m. Sunday on KPLU- FM/88.5 features a recent jam session led by trombonist Jiggs Whigham.

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

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