Radio

You know you’ve been around the proverbial radio block if you remember razor blades and grease pencils. Deb does. She started her radio career in college, backing up a quarter turn to the likes of The Pixies and Siouxsie and the Banshees on KWRS in Spokane. (Whitworth Radio Station. Clever, no?)

From there, she walked right into afternoons at Solid Gold KPUG 1170am in Bellingham. It was just her, three reels of music (one 50s, one 60s and one 70s) and a desire to record, edit and play back listener phone calls even though 1) the studio was hardly set up for such a thing and 2) you need listeners to record listener phone calls. After 7pm the music and microphone were put aside and Deb board-oped the nationally syndicated show Sports Byline.

Hungry for more of this thing called radio, she applied for a copywriting position at the big station on the hill (KGMI/KISM) and, a week later, found herself co-hosting The Morning Deal with Dave Walker on 92.9fm Independent Rock. Dave and Deb would continue their successful on-air partnership for five years, gaining an audience that reached from southern Seattle to Vancouver B.C.

Spokane was Deb’s next stop. She took over the morning show at Classy 99.9 (KXLY). It was here that Deb really cut her teeth in the industry and was let go because of creative differences. (There’s a theory that you haven’t really made it in radio unless you’ve been fired.) She likes to think that Spokane just didn’t know what to do with a 30 year old single woman with no divorces or children (to speak of).

Fast forward to the spring of 2008 when Deb received a phone call from KISM and was asked to come back to co-host the morning show. Eager to get back behind the microphone, she hosted with KISM’s Brad Cash. The two had instant chemistry and produced “You’re Not the One” and other Rock and Roll Rip Offs during her time there.

An opportunity to try out television took Deb away from radio, but she will always call radio her first love.