Time to support my former colleague and friend

Jessamyn McIntyre’s 38-year-old sister died suddenly last month

BEND, Ore. - I talked to Jessamyn McIntyre over the weekend. It was a difficult conversation. Her sister died of cardiac arrest a week and a half ago. Jessamyn was on Long Island where she grew up, home with her parents and brother, all grieving the loss of their sister and daughter.

I thought back to last July when I met everyone in Jessamyn’s family at Roche Harbor. They were all there for Jessamyn’s wedding. It was a great weekend, filled with sunshine and happiness. Her sister was there with her husband and two kids. You could not have scripted a better wedding and reception, from the setting to the weather to the fun-loving people who were there.

Then to have this happen 10 months later.

I hesitated to write about this. What’s happened to the McIntyre family is a personal matter. After thinking about Jessamyn and what she’s going through, I thought about her parents - you should never out-live your kids.

I just want to support Jessamyn as she tries to navigate her life through whatever’s next. And I thought maybe some public support might be be of help to her too. You can reach Jessamyn on X at @JessamynMcIntyr or email her at jessamynmcintyre@iheartmedia.com.

I never in a million years thought Jessamyn would be such an important person to me, not only personally but professionally, when I walked into the 710 ESPN Seattle studio for the first time to audition with Kevin Calabro.

Kevin, as you might recall, was the drive-time afternoon host when 710 ESPN Seattle launched its sports talk format in 2009. This development pretty much coincided with the closure of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, where I worked for 26 years.

I planned to retire at the P-I and didn’t have a Plan B. But I had to come up with something - Mikey and Stevie were only 4 years old and I needed to find another way to make a living.

I got to know Jessamyn initially as a once-a-week guest with Kevin that became a full-time job five or six months later.

After Kevin left, our station manager eventually signed off on a show featuring an unlikely trio of two sportswriters and a former Seahawk and called it “Danny, Dave and Moore.”

For the next however many years, Danny O’Neil, Dave Wyman and I yakked and yukked our way through afternoon drive time, and make no mistake about it, any success we had was because of Jessamyn, who produced the show and made sure we stayed on the rails when we barreled off into points unknown.

She and Danny always came up with creative ideas that spiced things up on our show.

“Danny, Dave and Moore” continued with a new producer when Jessamyn was reassigned to produce another show, but it was never quite the same. Her behind-the-scenes and on-air contributions were invaluable and helped set our show apart from others.

I was then fortunate enough to work again with Jessamyn at KJR-FM when she was hired as assistant program director in 2023. She continued to be one my biggest supporters, and we got a chance to work together on a few shows when Jason Puckett was on vacation.

Even more importantly, if I ever finish the book that I started a few years ago, I will owe it all to Jessamyn. She basically told me once to write my book, and actually I don’t think she said it like this:

“Jim, I really think it would be a good idea if you wrote a book.”

It was more like this:

“Write your fucking book already, Jim!”

The book is basically something along the lines of “Going 40 years behind the curtain with a Seattle sports columnist and talk show host.”

Make no mistake, Jessamyn is super nice. But she will let you have it if you have it coming.

One time at 710, Kevin and I interviewed a guest from the Sacramento Bee about the goings-on with the Kings when it appeared that the Sacramento NBA franchise might be ripe for a move to Seattle. The guest sounded like he was eating while he was on the air with us.

Some listeners texted in wondering what the guy was eating so I emailed him and asked him. Well, it turns out the guy had a speech impediment and was so pissed that he told Jessamyn he would never appear on our show or any other at the station because of my rudeness.

I still remember where I was when an irate Jessamyn called me - in the Lakemont shopping center parking lot near Issaquah.

“Jesus Fucking Christ Jim,” she bellowed. “What the fucking hell were you thinking?”

I might be misquoting her a bit there, but I can guarantee I’m not taking her out of context - the four-letter words spilled out of her mouth into my left ear at an alarming rate.

I had to pull the phone away from my ear because she was screaming that loud. I’m pretty sure I got the point that I had fucked up in a big way.

When our conversation ended, I remember thinking I loved her for other things, but I loved her for what just happened too. I deserved all of that.

Among those other things, I love that she’s an adopted Coug. Jessamyn has been the Washington State football sideline radio analyst for 14 years. She loves being a Coug.

When she called the other day, it was one of those conversations where you don’t really know what to say, but the grieving person who called just wants to hear your voice. And I did my best to try and comfort her while knowing that nothing could possibly comfort her now.

You hear her on the KJR-FM airwaves with Ian Furness from 1 to 3 p.m. weekdays. And if you’re a Coug, you’ve no doubt heard her during Washington State’s football broadcasts.

She’s exactly who you think she is, cool as hell and for me, a friend for life.