As I type these keystrokes, it's precisely 10:55 pm Pacific Time on a certain momentous Sunday night. Like you perhaps, right now I'm struggling to digest the conclusion, some four hours ago, of one the most memorable sporting spectacles in history--the New England Patriots losing their grasp on an undefeated season in the waning seconds of Super Bowl XLII.
This particular point in time would have fallen near the end of the first hour of the February 3, 2008 edition of The Bryan Styble Program on KIRO, the largest newstalk radio outlet west of Chicago and north of San Francisco. But the program didn't make air tonight, because my long-running local open-line broadcast was cancelled last week. This happened en masse, with the brooming of the rest of the station's local newstalk weekend lineup, and of course was the decision of KIRO's new ownership regime, Bonneville Broadcasting. (Management claimed, first privately to me and then publicly in the media, that the decision was purely budgetary.)
I could sit and rue that unfortunate--but long-anticipated, at least by me--development, while continuing to post on BlatherWatch to set the record straight about my somewhat controversial run at the most-respected talk radio operation in the Pacific Northwest...or I could vent my various talk-radio ideas herein.
I'm electing the second option. Accordingly, henceforth you can check Radioactive Seattle for almost daily updates regarding everything heard over Seattle's various newstalk radio stations. (These items, mostly in the form of critiques of hosts and their broadcast styles, shall be posted amid my occasional "radioactive" takes on everything from astronomy to zoology.)
This town's rich variety of hosts are mostly ignored by both of Seattle's dailies, but there's an added reason why there's room for an additional blog monitoring the wide range of commercial newstalk radio bombarding ears around the Sound is warranted, whether or not its author happens to be a longtime host himself. BlatherWatch's leftist proprietor, whose fascination with the genre has always seemed pointedly ideological, of late is said to have largely lost his interest in newstalk radio. Many BW posters have noted the popular blog's recent drift toward politics and away from the magical aural medium.
Radioactive Seattle shall endeavor to help fill this cyber-niche with incisive commentary on the wide range of commercial newstalk radio programming reaching Puget Sound audiences. Behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the typically strong personalities which dominate the genre is generally less interesting than the things these people say on their shows, thus I have no inclination toward (nor any aptitude for, anyway) the sort of aggressive (and sometimes reckless) industry reporting BW has engaged in.
The off-air activities of talk radio professionals are just that, off the air, and thus are presumably irrelevant to an audience seeking information and analysis of the news and the culture. They also happen to be the sole aspect of this arcane end of show business which I shan't miss throughout the months or even years ahead until I'm again "propagating conversation at the speed of light" somewhere.
That's of course assuming that KIRO doesn't end up being the final stage in my 19-year career in commercial newstalk radio. So though I'm no longer one of the privileged few hosting broadcasts at the highest level of what is arguably the most interesting advent of the media age, at least I'll instead be able to freely discuss the genre herein. And in the process cover some matters which, for one or another reason, it was inappropriate for me to discuss on the air, at least over KIRO.
I hope you'll find the musings on newstalk radio in Radioactive Seattle worth reading, and even responding to.
BRYAN STYBLE/Seattle
The Bryan Styble Program featuring Open Lines for Open Minds
KIRO Newstalk Radio 2005-2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Styble loves Seattle...always!
It's my solemn duty to inform the radioactive audience and, in fact, all Puget Sound newstalk radio listeners, that KIRO's new ownership regime has cancelled The Bryan Styble Program, replacing it with an as-yet-unannounced syndicated show to be pulled down off a satellite.
The reason cited is "purely budgetary", and inasmuch as syndicated fare always comes to local-affiliating stations free-of-charge (a fact many newstalk radio fans are surprised to learn), this change will certainly save KIRO and Bonneville the quite-generous salary they've been expending for my professional efforts.
This news, just received directly from the Bonneville's programming chief in Seattle, has been as long-anticipated by the show's host/producer as it is disappointing. Indeed, I'm grateful that my modest radioactive-themed program--once the most-often heard Seattle newstalk radio broadcast, when I had the overnight KIRO show six nights a week for 24 weekly hours--survived as many lineup rearrangements as it did during this past year that Bonneville has owned KIRO.
(It shall be interesting to see if any radio or television newstalker decides my Everything-from-Astronomy-to-Zoology twist on the old-school open-line format is now worthy of theft, before I'm able to return to the airwaves sometime, somewhere. If so, they'll presumably pass on lifting my Open Lines for Open Minds title, which has trademark protection.)
It is without reservation that I state that my 2005-2008 run at KIRO has been the absolute highlight of my media career. That has been a trajectory which started in print in 1975, continued in professional radio in 1982, and since 1989 has been focussed on the type of programming which, from the audience's perspective at least, is the finest variety of media of all, live local newstalk call-in radio.
The reason cited is "purely budgetary", and inasmuch as syndicated fare always comes to local-affiliating stations free-of-charge (a fact many newstalk radio fans are surprised to learn), this change will certainly save KIRO and Bonneville the quite-generous salary they've been expending for my professional efforts.
This news, just received directly from the Bonneville's programming chief in Seattle, has been as long-anticipated by the show's host/producer as it is disappointing. Indeed, I'm grateful that my modest radioactive-themed program--once the most-often heard Seattle newstalk radio broadcast, when I had the overnight KIRO show six nights a week for 24 weekly hours--survived as many lineup rearrangements as it did during this past year that Bonneville has owned KIRO.
(It shall be interesting to see if any radio or television newstalker decides my Everything-from-Astronomy-to-Zoology twist on the old-school open-line format is now worthy of theft, before I'm able to return to the airwaves sometime, somewhere. If so, they'll presumably pass on lifting my Open Lines for Open Minds title, which has trademark protection.)
It is without reservation that I state that my 2005-2008 run at KIRO has been the absolute highlight of my media career. That has been a trajectory which started in print in 1975, continued in professional radio in 1982, and since 1989 has been focussed on the type of programming which, from the audience's perspective at least, is the finest variety of media of all, live local newstalk call-in radio.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Bugliosi & Styble on KIRO
Famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, the man who got death sentences for several members of the Manson Family, will appear on KIRO's Bryan Styble Program in the 10-11pm hour of the Sunday, January 27, 2008 broadcast.
During this return radioactive engagement, Bugliosi will take listener questions and comments on his entire career, including the prosecution of Charles Manson, his book on the O.J. Simpson case and Reclaiming History, his 2007 exhaustive study of the JFK assassination.
That radioactive interview will be followed, as always, by two hours of Open Lines for Open Minds from 11 pm to 1 am. In newstalk radio's most wide-open format, Styble improvisationally responds to unscreened listener contributions regarding all manner of subjects in or out of the news, from Astronomy to Zoology.
During this return radioactive engagement, Bugliosi will take listener questions and comments on his entire career, including the prosecution of Charles Manson, his book on the O.J. Simpson case and Reclaiming History, his 2007 exhaustive study of the JFK assassination.
That radioactive interview will be followed, as always, by two hours of Open Lines for Open Minds from 11 pm to 1 am. In newstalk radio's most wide-open format, Styble improvisationally responds to unscreened listener contributions regarding all manner of subjects in or out of the news, from Astronomy to Zoology.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Seth Shostek of SETI Project w/ Styble on KIRO
Dr. Seth Shostek will discuss the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence project, the systematic radio-telescopic scanning of our galaxy for signals being broadcast by alien civilizations, during the 10pm hour of the Sunday, January 13, 2008 edition of KIRO's Bryan Styble Program. That radioactive interview shall be followed of course by two hours of Open Lines for Open Minds, featuring unscreened calls on all subjects in or out of the news, ranging from Astronomy to Zoology.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Murray Lerner and Styble discuss Dylan on KIRO
In an unprecedented break with my broadcast's long-standing and ironclad no-Dylan policy, the format shall be temporarily abandoned for the Sunday night, December 9, 2007 edition of The Bryan Styble Program. Styble--who happens to have been a semi-professional Dylanologist in the 1970s--will telephonically interview longtime film documentarian Murray Lerner, the producer and director of Festival and several other seminal rock and pop music documentaries.
Lerner will discuss and take calls during the show's first hour, 10-11 pm Pacific Time [Monday 6-7 am UT] regarding his new film The Other Side of the Mirror, which is the Oscar-winning filmmaker's first Dylan-specific project.
Lerner's 83-minute cinema verite opus preserves Dylan's historic performances at the Newport Folk Festival beginning in 1963, and climaxes with his Sunday night, July 25, 1965 appearance, during which the artist infamously "went electric" (and which constituted the first time since high school he had played electric guitar onstage). Many rock historians regard that brief-but-stunning set a turning point in pop music history rivaled in seismic significance only by the initial Ed Sullivan Show appearances of Presley and The Beatles.
Lerner's radioactive interview will of course be followed by two hours of Open Lines for Open Minds, giving KIRO callers a chance to engage Styble on everything from Astronomy to Zoology, with the exception of a certain Zimmerman.
To stream via the Internet, simply log onto www.710KIRO.com and click on the "Listen Live" button. (KIRO's call-in lines work well, generally, from overseas.)
Lerner will discuss and take calls during the show's first hour, 10-11 pm Pacific Time [Monday 6-7 am UT] regarding his new film The Other Side of the Mirror, which is the Oscar-winning filmmaker's first Dylan-specific project.
Lerner's 83-minute cinema verite opus preserves Dylan's historic performances at the Newport Folk Festival beginning in 1963, and climaxes with his Sunday night, July 25, 1965 appearance, during which the artist infamously "went electric" (and which constituted the first time since high school he had played electric guitar onstage). Many rock historians regard that brief-but-stunning set a turning point in pop music history rivaled in seismic significance only by the initial Ed Sullivan Show appearances of Presley and The Beatles.
Lerner's radioactive interview will of course be followed by two hours of Open Lines for Open Minds, giving KIRO callers a chance to engage Styble on everything from Astronomy to Zoology, with the exception of a certain Zimmerman.
To stream via the Internet, simply log onto www.710KIRO.com and click on the "Listen Live" button. (KIRO's call-in lines work well, generally, from overseas.)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Styble subs for Shiers on Friday, November 23rd
Bryan Styble will fill in on KIRO's Frank Shiers Show on Friday, November 23, 2007, from 9pm-1am.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Styble subs the Saturday night after Thanksgiving
Bryan Styble will substitute for Carl Jeffers on the Saturday night, November 24, 2007 edition of KIRO's On Fire program, which runs 10pm-1am, into Sunday morning. Styble shall also, of course, do his own program later that Sunday 10pm-1am, featuring three hours of Open Lines for Open Minds.
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