Seattle host for 25 years, Bob Rivers to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame

Bob Rivers, host of The Bob Rivers Show with Bob, Spike and Joe in Seattle for 25 years, will be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

Born in Connecticut, where Rivers started his 50-year career in radio, Rivers had stops in Massachusetts and Maryland before he arrived at KISW in Seattle in 1989.

Bringing Spike O’Neill with him from Maryland, Rivers released an album of holiday-themed music, and Twisted Tunes was born.

Twisted Tunes would be known worldwide, with six studio albums of parodies covering pop culture, current events, and songs about local sports teams and their players.

On bobrivers.com, Rivers mentions a time he confessed on-air that he had a lifetime fear of flying. He was ridiculed on-air to take flight lessons, which eventually led Rivers to buying his own plane.

That plane, of course, was later stolen and crashed by Colton Harris-Moore, known as the Barefoot Bandit, in 2009.

In Sept. 2001, Rivers and his cast moved from KISW to 102.5 KZOK, where it would be simulcast in Portland, Oregon, for several years.

His show would raise over $10 million for World Vision, finding sponsors for more than 3,000 children in Senegal, Ethiopia, and other Third World countries.

Rivers would leave KZOK in 2010, when a contract deal with CBS wasn’t reached.

A year later, Rivers and company were on 95.7 The Jet from 2011 to 2014, ending on the 25th anniversary of his first day on the air in Seattle.

Rivers announced his retirement. He and his wife, Lisa, now live in Las Vegas.

According to bobrivers.com, he continues his charitable work, using his podcast audience to launch The Black River Innovation Campus in Springfield, Vermont.

Rivers is one of eight 2023 inductees to the Chicago-based Radio Hall of Fame.