Who’s on your top-10 list of Seattle’s best sports radio shows of all-time?

Here’s mine…

Note: This was also published by the Tacoma News Tribune today.

Sports radio shows in Seattle started in the 1970’s, typically at night, and have now morphed into all-day affairs at two stations in town, KJR-FM and Seattle Sports, formerly known as 710 ESPN Seattle.

My best guess after thorough (minimal?) research is that the first Seattle sports radio show was hosted by J Michael Kenyon on KVI. Let’s say it started in 1975 for the sake of this column and announce that 2025 is the 50-year anniversary for sports radio in Seattle.

As such, I’ve decided to come up with a top-10 list of the all-time best of the bunch. I also thought about compiling a bottom-10 list of the worst all-time shows but thought better of it - that’s mean-spirited and besides, I might have to put myself on one of those unlistenable shows on the list. Anyone remember “The Golf Show” on Saturdays on 710 ESPN Seattle? Didn’t think so.

So here we go, agree to disagree not only with the shows included here or the order I’ve put them in. Let’s start with No. 10:

10. Ian and Puck on KJR from 2010-16. Think I’m going to leave a couple of Cougs off the list? Or one who quit after I was fired and I continue to work with on his podcast at PuckSports.com? No and heck no.

Ian Furness has his own show now, from 1 to 3 p.m. on KJR-FM, providing Kraken and hockey expertise along with fun baseball and football banter with his producer and adopted Coug, Jessamyn McIntyre.

Jason Puckett’s a likable goof who was a mainstay at KJR-FM until he launched his own podcast last year. Puck is always prepared for every show or podcast but shines over others because he doesn’t stick to a format, driving down unplanned detours, embracing tangents and going off to points unknown, favoring entertainment over substance.

9) John Clayton Saturday Show on KJR from 1990-2008 and on 710 ESPN Seattle from 2009 to 2022. We all miss “The Professor” and his back-and-forth with regular listeners who called in every week to get answers to their NFL questions. An encyclopedia of information, Clayton reigned on the radio for the better part of three decades and was a longtime fixture on ESPN too. An absolute legend.

8) The J Michael Kenyon Show on KVI in the 1970’s. Kenyon defined the word “character.” A Seattle Post-Intelligencer sportswriter who covered the Mariners when they were born in 1977, Kenyon was all over the place on his KVI show, never seeing a curveball he couldn’t throw. That’s what made his show so entertaining. If you can find one of his shows in the digital archives, listen to it and see what I’m talking about. One of a kind.

7) Danny, Dave and Moore on 710 ESPN Seattle from 2014-2019. Yeah, I know, I was on this show, talk about a subjective pick, geez. I’m including it at No. 7 because in the time since Danny O’Neil, Dave Wyman and myself have moved on to other things, I’ve heard so many positive comments from listeners who liked that show.

McIntyre was the one behind the scenes who made whatever magic we had happen. Honestly, we never knew what the hell we were doing every day as a couple of newspaper guys thrown together with a former football player. But we’re certainly glad that listeners found us as much fun to listen to as we had doing the show.

6) Brock and Salk on 710 ESPN Seattle and Seattle Sports from 2009-2025. An unlikely pairing for morning drive when the station launched a sports talk format in 2009, the former Boston broadcaster and Seahawks and Husky quarterback developed a good rapport over the years and have built a solid show. Plenty of knowledge about the local teams and enough personality to form a show that’s a must listen for many.

Salk is polarizing - in fact, I can’t stand the guy since he fired me and is otherwise arrogant and abrasive - but he’s very good as a host and works well with Huard.

5) Sportsline with Wayne Cody on KIRO-AM in the 1970’s and ‘80s. If you were here back then, you knew who Cody was - he was everywhere, calling Sonics’ games on TV, gambling at Longacres or card rooms and even finding time to host the popular night-time show called “Sportsline.” Cody was occasionally prepared, sometimes not, but he was always amusing and entertaining, two staples for a good sports radio show.

4) The Fabulous Sports Babe on KJR from 1991-94. Nanci Donellan was a kick, so much fun, so rude and obnoxious, but we loved her, didn’t we? “Let’s go to the rich boy on the car phone,” she’d bellow into her microphone, and we knew we were about to hear the Babe give that rich boy a piece of her mind.

In all my years of being a sportswriter, I never had a person I wrote about be so protective about her private life. I couldn’t pry anything out of her, but that’s all well and good, she was who she was on the air, larger than life, bringing a style to Seattle that had never been heard before.

3) Softy on KJR from 1997-2025. Like Brock and Salk, Dave “Softy” Mahler is still cranking it out, doing his bombastic thing every afternoon, all riled up about the Mariners’ lack of offense or something else. Softy is never boring, which sets him apart from so many other hosts who occasionally are. I’d give him a 10 as a host, but in my book he gets a 9 since he’s such a rabid Husky, annoyingly rambling on about everything purple and gold. Then again, if I’m a Husky fan I love him for that.

2) Mitch Levy, Mitch in the Mid-Day and Mitch in the Morning on KJR from 1994-2017. Far and away Seattle’s best drive-time morning sports radio show, Levy knew how to stir it up and complemented that with terrific interviews of notable guests. Mitch would hit you from outta left field. “The Bigger Dance” contest would never fly now, but it soared when he was ruling the airwaves, running a March Madness bracket with women squaring off against each other. They would advance based on listeners’ votes, largely determined by beauty and popularity.

Quite frankly, you never wanted to miss one of Mitch’s shows and the same holds true now for his podcast, Mitch Unfiltered.

1) Groz with Gas on KJR from 1996 to 2009. They put these two out-of-towers together and struck gold with Dave Grosby and Mike Gastineau deservedly earning the top spot on my list after owning afternoon drive for 13 years. Other shows could try to imitate what Groz and Gas had, but nothing ever came close. When you listened to them, you felt like they were your buddies and you were hanging out with them at the corner bar, B.S.ing about the Seahawks and the Mariners.

In my opinion, the best kind of sports radio is when you know the hosts are actually who they are off the air too, and Groz and Gas certainly were, lovable and unbeatable on my top-10 list of the best Seattle sports radio shows of all-time.