Longtime Seattleites love to wax nostalgic about the city before everything changed — meaning, basically, the city they knew as kids and teenagers. Boomers, however, seem to have co-opted the nostalgia market.
The recent dust-up over KIRO-TV’s dismissal of Pat O’Day as one of the broadcast voices of the annual hydroplane races is much ado about nothing.
But KIRO-AM — good at spotting a smart public-relations move — has O’Day on board to broadcast the races.
O’Day, 78, made his mark on this city in the 1960s as the leading disc jockey on KJR 95 AM, which, with its top-40 format, dominated the Seattle radio market. Lately, he’s been the voice for Schick Shadel Hospital and its recovery program.
KIRO-TV is owned by Cox Media in Atlanta, Ga., owner of more than a dozen TV stations and a portfolio of other broadcast and print outlets.
O’Day’s temporary dismissal has been portrayed in the press as conflict between cold-hearted, corporate suits who don’t get it and a “cultural icon” who, on Aug. 3 this year, would have marked his 46th year broadcasting the races on TV or radio.
Boomer nostalgia triumphs again.
(Not incidentally: Do you know anyone, anymore, who cares about the hydros? In the 1950s and 1960s race days dawned like Christmas. Oops, we’re waxing nostalgic.)
And about that other item missing from the Seafair calendar: the Blue Angels? Beneath the quiet, early August skies of Queen Anne and Magnolia, may our pets sleep in peace.
[[In-content Ad]]
