From a number of perspectives, AM Top 40 Radio never sounded this good. First, thanks to FM simulcasting, frequency response holds steady to 14,500 Hz on this aircheck; many studio checks of that era do not sound this good. Second, Robert O. has every attribute I look for in a DJ: both a knowledge and love of the music, a smaller than usual ego and technical competence with something interesting to say. Plus much more: intelligent humor, political satire and voices of famous people and those of his own invention.

This being Thanksgiving morning, Robert O. is a little more laid back — “casual”, as his Eloise Hugaboom character puts it — than on his typical weekday morning drive show. But he has not left his regular cast of characters at home. He even makes the most of the fact that the new jingles are late by trying his hand at singing his own. Commercial buffs will enjoy the classic Janet Leigh ad, especially with Robert O.’s great Hitchcock Psycho lead-in.

By my calculation, I listened to more than a thousand hours of Robert O. Smith on KOL and I never once heard him “lose it” on the air. But, you will here, as he plays a new record by Hurricane Smith. Bad enough he has the same last name, without a saxophone that sounds like flatulence, hence the remark about being self-propelled around the track.

Tacoma shared Seattle’s airport, making it almost a suburb. KTAC hired Robert O. as simulcast AM/FM morning drive, FM afternoon drive and Program Director. With a night-time power of 1KW on 850, KTAC-AM could be hard to hear. 850 was also then home to a station just outside Vancouver. And at night, 50KW KOA in Denver often caused interference in Seattle.

When it was not simulcast, KTAC-FM was Underground album cuts. Today, it is KMTT The Mountain, the favourite Seattle-area station for many of us, playing an interesting mix of current and classic album-oriented rock.

As always, in those years, KJR was the Seattle area Top 40 station to beat. Ironically, KTAC-AM is now KHHO, simulcasting Sports Radio KJR.

After KTAC, Robert O. Smith continued in Seattle radio at KIXI and KVI, before being hired by another long-time fan, Ted Wendland, for CFMI-FM Vancouver morning drive in 1982. After lengthy stints at Vancouver area Oldies stations CISL and Radio Max, Robert O. has retired from radio and spends his time doing commercials, animation voices and powerlifting.

As a teenager, Robert O. was a fixture in my life. I tried never to miss his afternoon drive show on KOL Seattle, but suddenly one day in 1971, he was gone and I had no airchecks of him. Despite good ratings, he had been transferred to FM, to make room for Tom Murphy, who had been PM drive at KJR before a very brief stint at KRLA Pasadena; Tom’s stay at KOL was also brief. Neither KOL-FM nor KTAC AM/FM was listenable in Vancouver, but Bruce Portzer recorded this aircheck for me from Seattle.

Robert O. Smith lost his life to cancer on May 30, 2010.