Too Beautiful to Live
 |
|
| Hosting | Luke Burbank |
|---|---|
| Debut | January 7, 2008 to September 11, 2009 (radio) September 14, 2009 to present (podcast) |
| Genre | Talk |
| Website | http://www.tbtl.net |
Too Beautiful to Live (often abbreviated to TBTL) is a podcast and a former radio show originating from Seattle, Washington.[1] It first aired on January 7, 2008 and its final broadcast was September 11, 2009. It 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 includes clips from the past week's shows. 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 25-54 year-olds - the program's target sales demographic - who were listening to a radio at 7:00pm.[5]
Contents |
[edit] Format
The show began with the song "Catch My Disease" by Ben Lee. Host Luke Burbank welcomed the listeners and started the show by revealing his weight and commenting on it, followed by a questioning of his on-air partners, producer Jennifer Andrews and engineer Sean DeTore. They revealed their weights and compared it to the previous show’s total. TBTL was a non-caller driven program; listener phone calls were accepted on an infrequent basis. Instead on Wednesdays the shows have 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.
Fans of the show are often referred to as "The Tens", stemming from an early episode where Luke would mention how they only have "tens" of listeners, rather than "hundreds" or "thousands".[2][3]
[edit] Radio cancellation and podcast
Too Beautiful to Live ran on KIRO for 20 months. The program was Seattle Weekly's choice as "Best Radio Talk Show" in July 2009,[6][7] but after a poor showing in the Arbitron ratings, KIRO cancelled the program in September.[7] Burbank and KIRO said that the program would continue as a daily podcast from Burbank's living room until "at least" January, at which time Burbank's contract with KIRO expires.[7][8] As of 2011, the podcast continues to be produced and hosted on KIRO's Web site.
[edit] References
- ^ AM Radio fills niche markets. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. January 10, 2008. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-107885790.html.
- ^ a b Hood, Michael (June 2008). "Can Luke Burbank Make A.M. Radio Cool Again?". Seattle Magazine: p. 38. http://www.seattlemag.com/pages/index.cfm?PAGE_ID=38&ARTICLE_ID=409. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
- ^ a b Sanders, Eli (9 December 2008). "Beautiful Thing — The Best New Radio Show in Seattle Is on... KIRO?". The Stranger. http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=830690. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
- ^ Davila, Florangela (9 January 2008). "Luke Burbank is hip, vain, back in town and back on the air". Seattle Times. Retrieved on March 1, 2009.
- ^ Lacitis, Erik (September 11, 2009). "KIRO radio's Luke Burbank show canceled over low ratings". The Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009847617_weblukeburbank11m.html.
- ^ Hobart, Erika (2009-07-29). "Best Radio Talk Show: Too Beautiful To Live". Seattle Weekly. http://www.seattleweekly.com/bestof/2009/award/best-radio-talk-show-730116/. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
- ^ a b c Lacitis, Erik (2009-09-11). "KIRO radio's Luke Burbank show canceled over low ratings". Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009847617_weblukeburbank11m.html. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
- ^ http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=78&sid=211108
