MediaMaven

I'm pleased to offer another in our series of interviews with past and present Seattle TV & radio  personalities.    This time it's  Allen Schauffler , who had a legendary career at  KING5 ,  and much later had a terrific final anchor run at Central Oregon Daily News in Bend.   It was a 35-year journey with many international stops as well. 1.  Allen, take us through your long career and don't leave anything out! I would never have landed at KING if it hadn’t been for the Veritable Quandary. I managed to parlay an Ivy League education into a 7-year stint as a bartender in my hometown of Portland, OR, most of it at the venerable VQ, a popular downtown lunch spot and late-night drinking joint. I worked the day shift for years and some of my regular afternoon customers were news-peeps from KOIN, Channel 6, just down the street. I got to know them pretty well (Kirk Mathews, Linda Cobell, Phil Volker and others) and after a while realized they...

  See you Monday. Don't expect much, if any, local media news till then.   I thank all of you for checking in and commenting when you feel the urge.   Besides sports, may I recommend watching Ken Burns 'The American Revolution' on PBS.   It's detailed, illuminating and thought-provoking, for sure.   Spoiler Alert: We Won.

Adam Bjaranson has announced he is leaving KOIN in Portland to take a sales job at Lawyers Title Oregon, where he says he's actually been doing double duty while still on the TV job.   He previously worked at KGW and was a host on Portland Trailblazers TV.   He escapes the other evil empire, Nexstar.

Here's the broadcast team for the new women's hockey franchise.  This looks like a time buy for the team and selling the spots on a revenue share.

Spokane's CBS affil shows off brand new studio space for its KREM+ content.   https://x.com/KREM2/status/1991597577507139667?t=O42wWySG3YxUx9lBUEtNjg&s=19

From what I see here, the new MLB baseball/media deal means Mariners games will be streamed thru the new ESPN app or MLB.tv app. Guess that will be the only way to watch?   Haven't seen anything about cost or schedule. More from KIRO radio:    https://x.com/SeattleSports/status/1991292907471376385?t=sHIBahnspbUjOHWk00pJUg&s=19

The new Seattle Torrent of the Professional Women's Hockey League has partnered with Fox 13+ to be its flagship TV outlet, starting with this Friday's game plus 23 more.  A half dozen games will be seen on KONG, primary home of the Kraken.

With Thanksgiving now in plain sight, let's put the Seattle TV Media on the MENU as we compare it to the scrumptious holiday fare ahead, shall we? First, I've selected an 'extremely' dry  SAUVIGNON 'BLANK'  for KIRO 'blank'-ing out weekend morning news.   Bad in the aftertaste. Healthy GREENS  to properly welcome the four most recent meteorologists added to our local TV, who may still be just a little 'green' to  the tricky 'Emerald' City forecasts, but who seem to be making a positive impact so far: (George Waldenberger and Stella Sun (KOMO), Ashley Ruiz (KING) and Robert Van Winkle (KIRO). MASHED POTATOES for FOX 13 'mashing' two weather anchors into morning news anchors, saving money while apparently unworried about journalistic credibility.  YAMS for ALL of the local 'lifestyle' programs and their incessant daily 'yammering' about cooking, fashion, social media trends, self-help, health, pets and celebs.  A lot...

  This is from our friends at ftvlive.com.  Abby Acone of Fox 13 creating some unusual content at her station. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2025/11/12/wtf

I would love to see a Seattle TV go all out to help laid off tech workers and worried computer grads here.  Heavily promote a true job line, run a streaming telethon for job matches, produce a job fair, and create multiple impact stories with an assigned team.   Full court press.   This issue is important to the city, region and state's economy and I believe it would get multiple sponsors.   Just an idea for a station to separate itself from the others.    Could also be done for other sectors, education, health, etc.  

Amazingly, KING was the only Seattle TV NOT to carry the first key speech by newly-elected Mayor Katie WIlson.  The other three locals all took it live wall to wall.    KING may have streamed it, but to ignore a linear telecast is highly unusual.    Her election is revolutionary in the city, but apparently, not important enough to air in full.    Meanwhile, Fox 13 merged its Live Desk on FOX 13 (KJZO) with the main channel with Matthew Smith joining Hana Kim for coverage over the usual TMZ.    KIRO dumped a CBS soap opera!  KOMO per-empted Kelly Clarkson.   KING stayed with Access Hollywood.   Yikes. Sorry for the word play on The King's Speech movie.   

All props to KING for first projecting Wilson over incumbent Harrell Wednesday.   Fox 13 second.  Other stations were picking up the leftovers.  KOMO called it 'likely' win, but Chris Daniels had an interview with Katie Wilson.   Big race, big decisions.   

Jack Bilyeu, from the Fox station in Memphis and previously Florence, SC, is now on board at KIRO 7.   I wish him luck. He'll need it.  

Paul Rivera, who left KOMO in January,reporting on hurricane aftermath in the Caribbean: https://x.com/PaulRiveraNews/status/1986621207995638180?t=vV8Vp7T4EtNLCDk9FBz3pw&s=1

Interesting note: I wanted to see if Rick Boone, ousted as Managing Editor at KIRO7 last July after only four months, had landed a new mgmt. job, as he alluded to on social media just after he left.  However, his current linkedin page says he is still at the station?    It reads "Managing Editor (asst. ND) KIRO 7 Full-time March 25 - present, 9 mos."  Ditto on FB?  BTW, Boone has a reputation of very short tenures at multiple television stations, often in very small markets, like Gulfport, MS and West Monroe, LA, as I previously posted here.      Hmmmm.

Talk about a Fall Classic, KIRO AM Seattle Sports dramatically leaped into a first plade tie with KUOW.  The latter had topped the charts alone for months.    The M's playoff run and early Seahawks success profoundly pushed the portable people meters.   Meanwhile, the big music radio story was the spasmodic slash southward for KZOK-FM.   Radio Online has the numbers. https://ratings.radio-online.com/content/arb039

Fox 13 Seattle, aka KCPQ, has celebrated 45 years on the air.  Happy anniversary.   Read all about it.   Breeze thru the hype. https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/fox-13-seattle-45-years-air

Legendary Seattle radio host Bob Rivers will be memorialized Nov. 13 at the Snoqualmie Casino and Hotel Events Center, per the Seattle Times.    Rivers died last March at 68.   

Well, we mentioned that the November ratings sweeps were underway and to watch for special reports to boost numbers.  Instead we get KIRO 7 giving money away with a key word contest. Nothing like having your morning and evening news anchors fronting a graphic with dollar signs behind them.    

A few have asked me this; it began in 1976: Here's an article from The Baltimore Banner Monday about the origin of my crazy idea of reporters becoming vampires.  From the mean streets! https://www.thebanner.com/opinion/column/wayne-lynch-wmar-baltimore-vampires-journalism-novel-XRBXH2BGEVHG3CV7KAUVG3MHOU/