Too Beautiful to Live

Last updated
Too Beautiful to Live
TBTL Boat.jpg
Presentation
Hosted by Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh
GenreTalk/Comedy/Pop Culture
LanguageEnglish
UpdatesDaily (weekdays)
Length1 hour - 90 minutes (approximate)
Production
Audio formatMP3
Publication
Original releaseOriginal Radio Run: January 7, 2008-September 11, 2009, –
Podcast Inception September 14, 2009-Present
Provider American Public Media

Too Beautiful to Live (often abbreviated to TBTL) is a podcast originating from Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, co-hosted by Luke Burbank, CBS News Sunday Morning correspondent, host of Live Wire Radio and frequent NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! panelist, and veteran radio producer and one-time radio host Andrew Walsh. The podcast originated as a radio show on KIRO-FM [1] which aired from January 7, 2008, to September 11, 2009. Upon its radio broadcast cancellation, it immediately transitioned to a podcast on September 14, 2009, and is still produced Monday through Friday.

Contents

Fans of the show are often referred to as "The Tens", stemming from an early radio episode where Luke would mention how they only have "tens" of listeners, rather than "hundreds" or "thousands". [2] [3]

Format

The show begins with the song "Catch My Disease" by Ben Lee, underneath a number of audio quotes from movies, TV shows or viral videos. Burbank welcomes listeners and outlines the upcoming show, followed by introducing his co-host and guests for the show. His current co-host/producer is fellow former KIRO radio host and veteran radio producer Andrew Walsh. Infrequently, former TBTL radio show producer Jennifer Andrews and engineer Sean DeTore will appear. In addition to the commentary of Burbank and Walsh on life, pop culture, and current events, the show features listener e-mails and voicemail, and closes with a music selection by the hosts. On Friday shows, the closing song is chosen by a listener.

Radio show

TBTL aired on 97.3 KIRO FM (and 710 KIRO AM before the station moved to FM) from 7:00 to 10:00 pm weeknights and at the same time on Saturdays for the "Best Of", which included clips from the past week's shows. The format was similar to that of the podcast, with Luke Burbank joined by Jennifer Andrews and Sean DeTore. TBTL was a non-caller-driven program; listener phone calls were accepted on an infrequent basis. Instead on Wednesdays the shows had a "Call Makers" feature where listeners who previously sent in a phone number and question(s) were called and the question(s) discussed live on-air.

Sign Off History: No Mountain Too Tall and Good Luck to All!:

This is how Christy Wise explains it: "Thanks to the archive I know that the origin is: A listener signed off an email with it and they loved it. You can hear it along with Ahoy Hoy, and Eagle Soaring at 1:10."

News reports about the show characterized it as an attempt by KIRO, and its owner Bonneville International, to add a younger audience to KIRO's older listener base, [2] [3] [4] however, the Seattle Times noted that the show had only managed to draw 1.4 percent of 25- to 54-year-olds - the program's target sales demographic - who were listening to a radio at 7:00pm. [5] While the program was Seattle Weekly 's choice as "Best Radio Talk Show" in July 2009, [6] [7] after a poor showing in the Arbitron ratings, KIRO cancelled the program in September. [7]

Conversion to podcast

While TBTL was an over-the-air ratings disappointment, it had attracted a national download following. [8] In its final month of broadcasting, it had attracted more than 225,000 podcast download hours. [8] The Stranger noted that "the younger listeners were, in fact, tuning in... they just weren't using the same equipment that KIRO's general audience uses." [8] Thus, when the radio program was cancelled, Burbank and KIRO announced that the program would continue as a daily podcast. [7] [8] [9] On March 2, 2015, TBTL transitioned to Infinite Guest, American Public Media's Podcast Network. [10] In July 2023, the podcast left APM Podcasts and is now independently produced and published. The show has produced over four thousand episodes. [11]

Related Research Articles

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Dave Ross is a talk show host on Seattle's KIRO-FM radio station. He joined KIRO as a news anchor in 1978 and was given his own talk show in 1987. He has sometimes broadcast his show while on assignment in other locations, including overseas, such as Baghdad, Iraq in April 2004. Ross is also heard on the CBS Radio Network, where he provides daily political commentary.

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References

  1. ↑ Virgin, Bill (January 10, 2008). "AM Radio fills niche markets". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Hood, Michael (June 2008). "Can Luke Burbank Make A.M. Radio Cool Again?". Seattle Magazine. p. 38. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
  3. 1 2 Sanders, Eli (9 December 2008). "Beautiful Thing — The Best New Radio Show in Seattle Is on... KIRO?". The Stranger . Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
  4. ↑ Davila, Florangela (9 January 2008). "Luke Burbank is hip, vain, back in town and back on the air". Archived 2012-07-17 at the Wayback Machine Seattle Times . Retrieved on March 1, 2009.
  5. ↑ Lacitis, Erik (September 11, 2009). "KIRO radio's Luke Burbank show canceled over low ratings". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on September 12, 2009. Retrieved September 12, 2009.
  6. ↑ Hobart, Erika (2009-07-29). "Best Radio Talk Show: Too Beautiful To Live". Seattle Weekly . Archived from the original on 2009-08-02. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  7. 1 2 3 Lacitis, Erik (2009-09-11). "KIRO radio's Luke Burbank show canceled over low ratings". Seattle Times . Archived from the original on 2009-09-12. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Sanders, Eli (2009-09-17). "Too Beautiful to Litigate". Archived from the original on 2012-10-13. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  9. ↑ "Show #395: Open Thread". Archived from the original on 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
  10. ↑ Infinite Guest Staff. "Episode #1807: Dad Hair and Lucky Teeth". Infinite Guest. APM. Archived from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  11. ↑ "After eight years at APM, 'Too Beautiful to Live' finds its footing as an independent podcast". August 2023.
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