[6] Rivers got his start as disc jockey in Connecticut, where he was heard on WAVZ, WNHC, WCDQ, WELI, WFIF, WCCC-FM, WWCO, and WLIS.
The song was sung to the tune of Neil Sedaka's #1 1962 hit "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart.
[13] During his time at 98 Rock, he and WIYY radio collaborated with Sheffield Recording Studios to continue his campaign of Twisted Tunes.
[14] Rivers released a second album of humorous holiday-themed music in 1993 entitled I Am Santa Claus (the title track was a parody of Black Sabbath's song Iron Man).
Bob Rivers and his Twisted Radio show also produced many non-holiday parodies covering such topics as pop culture, politicians, and the various sports teams and players in the Seattle area.
[17] Rivers and his colleagues have guessed that his most famous Twisted Tune based on a pop song is "What if God Smoked Cannabis?
While earning many fans, the song also gained international attention and some controversy when it was used in 2005 by some Norwegian peacekeepers in Kosovo to make a music video.
[20][21][22] In late 1999, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that, after 10 years at the station, Rivers had the longest tenure of any radio personality in the local market.
O'Neill was added to the show for a slate of talents that include vocal impersonations (as of Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, and William Shatner, for example) and improvisation.
[6] The producer was Mike Jones; Arik Korman, a 2001 Visionary Award winner, joined the show as director in 2002;[26] news and comedic commentary were provided by Maura Gallucci and, for a few years, Kaci Aitchison (who also is a singer with Spike and the Impalers).
Listeners who called in got to vote on the better contestant, and Kim won the prize, probably in part because of her tearful, yearning cries of "Rhett!
Rivers's and O'Neill's admiring and humorous interview, and Johnson's modest replies, turned the local-interest story into national news.
[27]) By the count of listeners who called or wrote to the station, they soon found sponsors for more than 3,000 children in Senegal, Ethiopia, the Dominican Republic, and other Third World countries.
[28] During December 2010, when the show members sat out their non-compete period from KZOK, Bob and his wife Lisa traveled to Bangladesh, where they spent the holiday helping to build schools for the poor in Dhaka.
The Bob Rivers Show cast at 95.7 FM included Spike O'Neill,[30] Joel "Downtown Joe" Bryant,[31] newswoman Jodi Brothers,[32] director Arik Korman,[33] and producers Luciana Bosio[34] and Pedro Bartes,[35] a married couple who also contributed news and jokes on air.
Over the years, between the news and music segments, show members frequently discussed the lives of their families, with emphasis on the pleasures and perils of parenthood.
For years, Joe Bryant provoked laughter from callers-in by discussing how he and his wife, Kelli, allowed their school-age daughter, Emily-Jo, to eat whatever she wanted for dinner (chiefly chicken nuggets), while dealing with his own preference for overeating and drinking; when she was in high school, Joe spoke about Emily-Jo's interest in singing and her trip to Europe to sing in a choir.
Downtown Joe was a favorite among listeners, and in 2014 he was given the role of hosting "The Warm-Up Show," a half-hour of chat (before Bob Rivers arrived) among Joe, Spike O'Neill, and Jodi Brothers, with guests ranging from their young radio interns to special guests including famous fishing guru Bill Herzog.
Prizes, such as tickets to upcoming musical events or Spike and the Impalers CDs, were given to callers-in who correctly guessed an answer (for example, "Which flavor of ice cream is more popular nationally, chocolate or vanilla?").
The finale on Friday, August 8, was attended by many family members and featured local musicians playing music one last time on the show.
[39] Rivers lived for many years in North Bend, Washington, with his wife, Lisa, where he gardened, tended to his bees and chickens, hiked, and recorded and played music in his home studio.
He talked freely on the air about his hard-partying days, which ended when he entered rehab to treat his alcoholism in 1989, shortly after he moved to Washington.
He told the interviewer that he and wife Lisa plan to spend their time traveling and hiking: "It would be really nice to wander and explore a little bit.
[3] In 2009, Bob Rivers' Cessna 182 was stolen from the airport at which it was based by Colton Harris-Moore, who flew it to Yakima, Washington, landed the plane excessively hard and then fled the scene.
Rivers publicly condemned the theft and decried Harris-Moore's legend status, telling a news reporter, "I'm not a fan of the media frenzy because I don't like the whole cult hero thing, but if keeping it alive helps solve it, then I think it's worth it.
"[51] A Kitsap Sun columnist agreed: "As much as I treasure the information I can get from a couple of hours of NPR, I've found it's hard to pass up the mix of pop-culture info, topical news, off-the-wall humor and wealth of interviews I can get from Bob, Spike and Joe.
Since April 1, 2011, after adding Seattle radio veteran Jodi Brothers to the mix, they've been cracking wise from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays on KJR.
Their long, strange trip has included failed contract negotiations, cast changes, rehab, a lot of work and a recent health scare.