On Radio:





By BILL VIRGIN
seattlepi.com
June 21st, 2007



    Glenn Beck
(File Promo shot/cnn.com)

Glenn Beck has been waiting since he was 18 years old and left town to seek his fame and fortune in radio to be back on the air in the city that gave him his start in the business.

Beck is now 43 and while he's achieved national prominence in the talk-radio world -- and extended that to other media -- there's been one item left unchecked on the "to do" list: being heard on Seattle radio.

That will change as of Monday when Beck's nationally syndicated show, already heard on 230 stations, debuts locally on conservative-talk station KTTH-AM (770) 3-6 p.m. weekdays.

"We've been pitching them a long time," Beck says.

Beck takes over the time slot currently occupied by nationally syndicated Michael Savage, who moves to 6-9 p.m. The weekday schedule starts at 5 a.m. with the local show hosted by Dan Sytman and David Boze, followed by Rush Limbaugh at 9 a.m. and Michael Medved at noon. Bill O'Reilly's show moves to 9 p.m., followed by Lars Larson at 11 p.m.

Beck is "a real up and comer in the talk-radio business," says KTTH program director Rod Arquette. His show does particularly well with listeners ages 25-54, and improving performance in that demographic audience is "one thing you're always trying to do in a talk-radio station."

Beck got his start in radio as a teenager, working first for a station in Puyallup, then for Seattle's KUBE-FM, having a parent drive him or taking the bus to get to those jobs.

After leaving Seattle he worked as a Top 40 DJ around the country, left the business at age 30 to clean up his life, then got back into radio with the emerging format of talk.

In addition to the nationally syndicated show, he also hosts a show on CNN Headline News, is a contributor to ABC's "Good Morning America," has written books and produces a magazine and runs a comedy tour.

Although it's a national show, Beck says Seattle listeners will immediately hear local material. He does a regular segment called "My Mount Vernon," which takes a current news story or issue and relates that to his memories of growing up in Skagit County.

Beck says he'd love to bring the comedy show to Seattle once his radio show gets established locally and builds an audience.

In other radio notes:


KMCQ-FM (104.5), the station that is moving from The Dalles, Ore., to Covington, is testing its signal at its new home. For material to be used in that testing, it has turned to an interesting source: KMIH-FM, the Mercer Island High School station that fought to stay on that frequency before agreeing to a settlement in which it will move to another position on the dial.

"KMIH appreciates KMCQ's willingness to preserve our programming for our operations and for our listening audience," says KMIH general manager Nick DeVogel.


The Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound holds its 15th annual Old-Time Radio Convention at the Bellevue Coast Hotel Friday and Saturday. Details are available at http://www.repsonline.org.


KPTK-AM (1090) brings its nationally syndicated talk hosts to Town Hall in Seattle at 7:30 p.m. July 14 for a program on "Perfect Presidents or Perfect Politicians." Scheduled to appear are Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, the Young Turks (Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz), Mike Malloy and Thom Hartmann. The event is sold out, so KPTK says it will do a webcast of the event at http://www.am1090seattle.com.


King County Executive Ron Sims is the guest on "Weekday" at 10 a.m. Thursday on KUOW-FM (94.9).


Library Science performs on "Sonarchy" at midnight Saturday on KEXP-FM (90.3).


Don Riggs' guests on "Introspect Northwest" at 7 a.m. Sunday on KMPS-FM (94.1) and 9 a.m. Sunday on KPTK-AM include Robert Kurson, author of "Crashing Through."


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


Jazz vocalist and Roosevelt High grad Sara Gazarek performs live in the studios of KPLU-FM (88.5) at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday.

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