For years, this was the only sports talk radio station in town. This was the place that has encouraged fans to throw their Mariners’ gear into a coffin or print the signs plus T-shirts at all those rallies when this city was trying to save the Sonics from ultimately leaving.
But this has also been the sports talk radio station that has been engaged with a competitive rival in a demanding market to the point they have lost the radio rights deals for some of Seattle’s most beloved teams.
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That is what made Wednesday extremely meaningful for everyone at the KJR-AM 950 studios. It wasn’t that they landed the Seattle Kraken radio rights deal. It was the fact that their station will be the one that becomes the first to introduce hockey into a brand new market. That their brand will be associated with something many people believe can be the next big thing that could create a generation of diehards that will experience triumph and heartbreak.
“I don’t know if there was a road map or a story. It just naturally evolved,” said Rich Moore, senior vice president for iHeartMedia Seattle. “We built our brand around our name. We have a lot of people who are from here and lived here a long time, including myself. We pride ourselves on owning the Seattle story, even if it might not be the NFL. Whether it be saving the Mariners from moving or saving the Sonics. Adding a pro franchise to this city, it was natural for us to be fired up about it. We did it the way we traditionally do anything, and that is activating and engaging the fans.”
Figuring out which local radio station would be the first flagship home of the Kraken remained a mystery. Unless you were one of the people who came into contact with the KJR-AM 950 Twitter account this week. The iHeartRadio-owned Seattle sports talk radio station posted a message about “something BIG” coming Wednesday afternoon. The tweet came with a graphic featuring dark blue water and red text stating how they have been there for a number of the great sports moments in Seattle’s history.
And then the announcement came that KJR and the Kraken agreed to a multi-year deal for the station to become the radio home for the NHL expansion club. It comes more than a month after the Kraken announced that Bellevue-based ROOT Sports would be their official television partner. The Kraken announced that same day that former Carolina Hurricanes TV play-by-play announcer John Forslund would be the TV voice of the franchise on ROOT.
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“KJR and iHeartRadio have been friends of the organization for quite some time,” Kraken vice president of marketing and broadcasting Heidi Dettmer said. “From the deposit campaign three years ago in 2018, they have been super supportive. … They have been at all of our events. They are good people and it made a lot of sense.”
Dettmer would not get into the specifics of the contract negotiations, but she did say that the early relationship between KJR and the Kraken made it clear that the station had “hockey people” and that they understood what the NHL’s 32nd club was trying to build.
Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke toldThe Athleticlast monththat finalizing a radio deal was among the details the club was sorting out. He said the objective was to have affiliates up and down the West Coast, including Alaska. Leiweke added that radio would play a large role in building “a big regional fan base.” He also said that the Kraken are developing an app that would have an audio feature to make it easier for fans to have access to the team.
iHeartRadio has affiliates throughout Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Washington — states also included in the team’s TV deal with ROOT Sports.
“That is one of the exciting things. They have an app that has a ton of reach to stream our games on the iHeartRadio app that will be available,” Dettmer said. “We are also building a team app and there are conversations around the streaming part of our app as well. That is still to be sorted out. But it will all be a benefit to our fans.”
Moore said the station has had a relationship with key people over the years. He believed that KJR was able to engage with the Kraken to the point that they just wanted to find any way they could for the station to be involved.
Such as when afternoon drive time host Dave “Softy” Mahler was one of the biggest advocates who pushed for naming them the Kraken. Moore recalled how listeners kept telling Mahler that his idea was not going to gain traction while rolling their eyes. But Mahler and KJR made the future name for what was then known as NHL Seattle a bit of a talking point that played a part in more people in the area taking interest in what the team would be called.
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It is another reasonwhy the conversation around the Kraken’s radio rights had intrigue. On one hand, there was KJR. But there was also KIRO-AM 710 , which is known as ESPN Seattle. The Bonneville-owned ESPN Seattle currently serves as the flagship station for the Mariners, Seahawks and the Washington State men’s basketball and football programs. Getting a fourth team would have given ESPN Seattle an even stronger dossier in addition to its local on-air talent that is also challenging for listeners at the same time as KJR.
Landing the Kraken also came with significance for KJR. There was a time when the station had on-air talent, but little live programming. That began changing in 2018 once KJR acquired the radio rights to become the Seattle Sounders’ flagship station. Last March, the station added another key addition in the factit won a bidding war to regain the rightsto the University of Washington’s men’s basketball and football programs after losing the contract after the 2013 season to KOMO News.
Enough was in place to suggest KJR was positioning itself as a potential front-runner. The station gradually integrated hockey into its broadcasting schedule. KJR previously held Tuesday segments with Leiweke and current Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippett back when he was a senior advisor with the Seattle organization. Then there is the fact the Ian Furness show features a daily segment discussing hockey, and Kraken radio play-by-play broadcaster Everett Fitzhugh recently filled in as a guest host in place of Dick Fain alongside Mahler on the station’s afternoon drive time show.
Obtaining the Kraken’s radio rights gives KJR the opportunity to capitalize on being the flagship station for Seattle’s newest professional team. It also means it will have at least 82 days of programming with airing live games, pregame shows and postgame shows. That also gives the station a chance to own the landscape in other ways, such as having an exclusive time slot with the Kraken’s coach and players.
Moore equated KJR’s recent history to that of an actual sports team in that there have been ups and downs. That having another sports station come to town legitimized the idea that sports talk radio in Seattle really can work. But with it came the reality they encountered challenges like losing rights deals with the idea that those fortunes would soon turn around.
“We never lost our drive and our passion,” Moore said. “It is how we built what we do. We love activating and connecting with Huskies fans. We love firing up Seattle sports fans. You saw the reaction to the Kraken in general. It was easy to get on those coattails and go on that ride. We have a great team that represents us and for us to have ups and downs and have more ups in the last three years, it has been fun and it has been rewarding.”
(Photo of Everett Fitzhugh: Courtesy of Tony Bailey Photography)
