Ron & Don Show

The Ron and Don Show was a talk radio show in Seattle, Washington. It aired on 97.3 KIRO FM from 3:00-7:00 pm (Pacific Time) weekdays. The show was hosted by Ron Upshaw and Don O'Neill. The show's cancellation was announced on January 11, 2019.

Ron & Don Show
GenreVariety Talk Show
Running time4 hours
Country of origin United States
Language(s)English
Home stationFM 97.3 KIRO:
Puget Sound region, Washington
Hosted byRon Upshaw
Don O'Neill
Created byRon Upshaw
Don O'Neill
Executive producer(s)Tina Nole
Jen Andrews
Carolyn Branson
Katie Sprenger
Janel Koval
Jason Stein
Libby Denkmann
Recording studio97.3 KIRO-FM Headquarters Seattle, Washington
47°38′8″N 122°19′29″W
Original releaseMay 2006 – January 2019
Audio formatMonaural Sound (Mono)
Websitewww.mynorthwest.com

Hosts

Ron Upshaw

Ron Upshaw was born in Mt. Vernon, Washington and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington.[1] He also greatly enjoys beekeeping and has produced several instructional DVDs for beginning beekeepers.[2]

Don O'Neill

Don O'Neill was born outside Chicago and raised in New Mexico where he attended high school with Ron Upshaw. He lives in Seattle.[3]

Program

History

The show began as a weekend sports radio program on KJR-AM in 1995 before moving to San Francisco in 1997 where Upshaw and O'Neill hosted morning drive on KCTC.[4] While on the Flagship Station for the Oakland Raiders, Ron & Don hosted the Joe Bugel Show, The Tim Brown Show, and The Jon Gruden Show.

The show subsequently moved to Phoenix station KZZP-FM[5] and then Dallas' KYNG-FM[6] In Dallas, Don O'Neill hosted the CBS Network shows on the Dallas Cowboy Radio Network with Drew Person and Charlie Waters for the 2001-2002 NFL season. Ron Upshaw hosted the Pre and Post game shows at the first Dallas Cowboy home game after the 9/11 Terrorist Attack.

The Ron & Don Show returned to Seattle in 2002 where they broadcast the morning show on former Hot Talk station KQBZ-FM.[7] After a stop at WKLQ in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Ron & Don Show settled briefly at KKND-FM in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina destroyed the KKND transmitter, leaving the show without a broadcast home. An opportunity to fill-in for KIRO-AM host Dave Ross led to a permanent assignment from 9:00pm to 1:00am in Seattle. In May 2006 their time slot was changed to afternoon drive from 3:00pm to 6:00pm.[8]

The program was live on-air at the time of the Seattle Jewish Federation shooting in 2006; KIRO-AM won a 2007 Edward R. Murrow Award for Spot News for its coverage of this incident.[9] The show also received attention for fundraising efforts in response to Hurricane Katrina, in conjunction with the Seattle Seahawks and the Preservation Resource Center, including a live show from the front porch of a rebuilt New Orleans home.[10]

In 2008, following the cancellation of KIRO's short-lived long-form newscast - "The Big Story with Tony Miner" - the Ron & Don Show was extended by an hour to its current time slot of 3:00pm to 7:00pm. As of winter 2008 the program was designated as the top rated radio show in its time slot in the Seattle-Tacoma market but in summer of 2009 Arbitron's introduction of PPM's (Personal People Meters) dropped the now FM-only KIRO along with "Ron and Don" to approximately 15th in the market.

The show was cancelled abruptly by KIRO and Bonneville on January 10, 2019, which came as a surprise to listeners and KIRO employees.[11]

On May 17, 2019, the return of Ron and Don was announced on various Social media platforms. "As the radio tower dies… we now rise." Ron & Don Radio returned on Radio.com on May 27, 2019. [12]

Guests

Since returning to Seattle, show guests included Sig Hansen and Keith Colburn of television program "Deadliest Catch". Famous guests have included Jimmy Carter, Arianna Huffington, Colin Hanks and Bill Maher.[13]

Topics

The program was a variety talk show, dealing with a mixture of sports, entertainment and news topics.

Awards
  • The Ron & Don Show was voted Best Local Radio Show by the readers of Seattle Weekly in 2008.[14]
  • Presented with the Citizen's Award by the Seattle Police Guild. "The Seattle Police Guild honored the Ron and Don Nation with a citizens award Wednesday for the money raised with Armed Around Our Officers and for the phone tips that helped capture Christopher Monfort."[15]

References
  1. "Meet Ron Upshaw of The Ron and Don Show". mynorthwest.com.
  2. "WorldOfBeekeeping.com". worldofbeekeeping.com.
  3. "Meet Don O'Neill of The Ron and Don Show". mynorthwest.com.
  4. Susan Slusser, "On the Air:`Ticket' Targets Gen X Market," San Francisco Chronicle, July 4, 1997.
  5. Robertson, Anne (August 27, 2000). "Channel 12 lands new morning show co-anchor". Phoenix Business Journal. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  6. "KYNG Dallas Midday Team Fired During Charity Event," Radio Ink, October 8, 2001.
  7. "Ron & Don Set To Waken Seattle On KQBZ-FM". Radio Ink. March 4, 2002. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011.
  8. "On Radio: Dave Ross reclaims the morning talk-show host duties at KIRO". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. April 27, 2006.
  9. "2007 EDWARD R. MURROW REGIONAL AWARD WINNERS". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  10. Dave Walker (April 10, 2008). "Live from New Orleans: It's Seattle talk radio!". New Orleans Times-Picayune blog post.
  11. Lacitis, Erik (January 12, 2019). "Not even a goodbye: KIRO abruptly cancels 'The Ron & Don Show'". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  12. Upshaw, Ron (May 17, 2019). "As the radio tower dies… we now rise". Ron and Don Radio. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  13. "The Ron & Don Show - Guests" at mynorthwest.com.
  14. "Readers Reveal the City's Best". Seattle Weekly. August 5, 2008. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  15. "Ron and Don Nation receive citizen award". mynorthwest.com. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
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