Radio Waves: April 15, 2022
The Radio Return of Bryan Suits
One of the more popular specialty hosts on KFI (640 AM) was Bryan Suits, especially when he hosted The Dark Secret Place on weekends in which he spoke of military operations and related subjects. Suits left the station in 2021 to focus on a paid podcast program.
Suits was an Army medic during Operation Desert Storm, served in the National Guard, and was deployed as part of a NATO mission to Bosnia and as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and more. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and was wounded in action several times, eventually being awarded a Purple Heart.
His experience combined with superb storytelling made for a must-listen program; my email was filled for weeks when he left the local airwaves.
Reader Nancy J. recently brought it to my attention that Suits is back on the air. “Don’t know if you’ve covered the most recent whereabouts of Bryan Suits but he has moved back to the Seattle area and, since early February, has a regular drive-time gig on conservative talk radio KTTH,” she wrote.
“From the sounds of it, many SoCal fans are listening via livestream because he reads texts on the air and notes the area codes – 714, 949, 909, 562, etc. including a recent 661 from Bakersfield. The podcasts are available on all platforms.
“The nice thing is to be able to hear salient, intelligent information about the war in Ukraine. He also throws in current references to CA politics as a cautionary tale to the local Washingtonians,” she concluded.
Suits’ new show is live and local for the Seattle area, airing over KTTH from 6-9 a.m. locally. Beginning on February 7th, the program is part of a total revamp of the station’s programming day, though he is among the few local programs. Others include Dan Bongino, Michael Medved, Jason Rantz, Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles and Mark Levin … outside of Suits, only afternoon driver Rantz is local to the area.
“When we moved back to Western Washington, the last thing on my mind was radio,” Suits told Radio-Online.com at the launch of the daily show. “After filling in on KTTH mornings, I realized that I was born to do this. This is where I started and found my voice. Someone has to reflect what the sensible people are thinking and thankfully, KTTH is doing that. I’m humbled and grateful to be part of the team that tells the truth every day.”
Suits was previously heard in Seattle on sister station KIRO; in 2002 he left the area to work at KOGO/San Diego (600 AM) and later, KFI.
KTTH programming is available on various apps or through their own podcasting network, but like many stations across the country, the station streams its programming. Access it on the website at https://mynorthwest.com/category/ktth/.
Best April Fool’s “News” Story
“ Audacy Surrenders KNX-AM license, keeps KNX-FM,” screams the headline of an April 1st posting on Facebook’s I Love AM Radio group. The story goes on to say that the city of Torrance has sold the land on which the transmitters are located to developers, so it made sense to just turn in the license.
The tremendously well-done story — good enough to fool a few people — was written by Steve Mittman, who posted a story last year that KHJ (930 AM) was going back to playing music of its Boss Radio days.
Alas … the KHJ story would be great, if it were true.
How’s School?
KCRW (89.9 FM) wants to hear from students by asking the question: How has this school year treated you? The followup? What does “normal” now link like?
KCRW has always been active in reporting on local education issues. If you want to give your perspective on the study, head over to https://kcrw.co/3uoY5uu.
Quick Takes
According to one study, more than one-third of regular radio listeners own a turntable. I do myself, though it is rarely used. Are these listeners/owners hip, or just old? …
The FM simulcast of KNX (1070 AM), heard on 97.1, is no longer in stereo. Is owner Audacy doing this to try to extend the usable range of the signal? With rare exception, monaural signals have a larger clean reception area than do multiplex stereo signals, and without the ability to manually select mono on most receivers, it is a plausible reason. I don’t believe the station has broadcast in mono in my radio listening lifetime …
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