Radio Raunch

Andy Savage has pissed somebody off. Again.

This time it's a 17-year-old woman whose generally euphonious voice slowly contracts to a whine as she complains to Savage that he'd hung up on her earlier that morning, just because she wasn't "enthusiastic enough" when she rang in to his radio program, hoping to score some of the "free crap" (concert tickets, T-shirts, CDs, etc.) that he gleefully dispenses to callers every weekday. And if that wasn't insulting enough, this is apparently not the first time that Savage has given this woman the ol' dial tone. She'd phoned his KNDD-FM talk/music show a few days before, and Savage—sensing her shyness and mischievously capitalizing on it for any entertainment value—had pressured her to disclose her bra size on the air before he'd award her any prizes. When she'd equivocated, Savage cut her off.

"If it makes you feel any better," Savage tells her, "I hung up on five other people today because they weren't enthusiastic enough, either."

The woman isn't satisfied. She wants a prize. And by now she's ready to do just about anything to get one. "OK," she says finally, "what if I send you one of my bras?"

"No, no," Savage answers, a smile spreading beneath his mustache as he turns to share the coming comic moment with other folks crowded into his broadcasting booth, "how 'bout if you wait till you're 18. Like the other girls do."

Budda-bing.

Forget about Seattle morning radio as it used to be—soothing, civil, rarely controversial. Judging by the performance of two highly rated local drive-time hosts—Andy Savage on KNDD (107.7 FM) and especially Rob "the T-Man" Tepper on KUBE (93.3 FM)—the near future may not belong to radio shows on which the "A" topics are Seattle's suicide-provoking weather or the latest Frasier episode, but rather to those programs on which you're likely to hear from, say, a woman who is convinced that she can't remain faithful in marriage, or a young guy who was unexpectedly seduced by a pair of frisky grandmas in a rustic mountain cabin.

In these final mad months of the 20th century, when every other TV commercial seems to be about a new feminine hygiene product and the president's sex life is debated openly, almost any subject is considered fair game for daybreak deliberations on-air. The more lewd or ludicrous, the better. Now, not everyone wants an earful about blow jobs and lesbian sex videos before they've showered or downed their first cup of joe in the a.m. Somebody accustomed to waking up to National Public Radio or one of those time-warp "oldies" stations might react to the sarcasm, risqu頲epartee, and calculatedly over-the-top antics of Savage or the T-Man with the same enthusiasm they'd display at being whipped across the proboscis with a damp salmon. Parents, eavesdropping on their young children's radio choices, have been known to object strongly (and often in the form of angry letters) when they hear some of the topics discussed oh so casually by Tepper and Savage.

Yet the audience for this style of entertainment has been growing. The fall 1998 Arbitron ratings (radio's equivalent of television's exalted Nielsens) found that, for the first time, Tepper's T-Man in the Morning show had won its 6-10am time slot among all local listeners, ages 12 and up, pushing previously dominant all-news KIRO-AM down to second place. Tepper was also numero uno among listeners between the ages of 18 and 34—the choice demographic for so many of today's radio advertisers. In that latter age category, Andy Savage in the Morning pulled in at no. 3 (with KISW-FM's award-winning but less outrageous Bob Rivers in the Morning program occupying the no. 2 spot).

Why have such spicy, edgier morning talk shows proved so successful, not only in Seattle , but elsewhere around the country? "From a psychological standpoint," muses KNDD program director Phil Manning, "people like to be talked awake. I think the provocativeness of Andy's show and others has evolved, particularly during the late '90s. If hosts can get away with talking about sex and lesbian love letters on TV, we can get away with it on the radio."

Eric Powers, Manning's counterpart at KUBE, sounds a similar note. "This format is compelling. It's humorous, but it's also very real," he says. "Our legacy of programming in Seattle has been milquetoasty radio. But people don't want to be talked to like they're idiots. They want to be talked to realistically, but in a twisted and sort of crazy way. They want to hear someone's honest opinions about society and sex, and share the kind of gossip that people talk about behind closed doors or in their cars when they are going to work. That's what this format gives them."

And it isn't only these two stations that see the potential for drive-time "talk jocks" who (ࠬa David Letterman) are willing to make on-air crank calls to sports personalities and folks with weird jobs, or perhaps coax women into driving topless down city streets. On any given morning, you can now hear other Seattle radio hosts peppering their shows with playful salaciousness and comic stunts of the Tepper/Savage sort.