Preserving KOOL Oldies is a local effort

Bob Fogal’s dial was set on broadcast at an early age. A lifelong passion for rock history and vinyl is fueling his efforts to keep the locally owned and operated oldies station, KOOL 107.1 FM, churning out vintage hits for years to come.

Captivated by the quirky banter of Spokane radio personalities Charlie Brown and Buzz Lawrence in the 1960s, Fogal knew fresh out of North Central High School his career path would involve music. A deep love for the Beach Boys, Beatles and Rolling Stones landed him his own position in front of the mic with Seattle station 96.5 FM in 1970 at the age of 20. That gig was the first of a channel surfing expedition that included stints with Spokane country station KSPO 1230 and 97 KREM, where he served as program director in the mid 70s, briefly planting roots on the South Hill with his wife Pati.

The lure of a dream position with BOSS Radio 93 KHJ in Los Angeles later sending the young couple back on the road.

“We went down there and it was like, oh man, we just bought a house in Spokane, what are we doing? Are we crazy? What’s going on? But I couldn’t help myself,” said Fogal, who used the name Bob Anthony on air. That spur of the moment decision laid the groundwork for the next 25 years. His notes on a yellow notepad later planted seeds for the Educational Media Foundation and K-Love Radio Network, which now reaches 7 million listeners weekly and is the largest Christian music network in the country.

The chance opportunity to purchase a Deer Park radio station paved a path back to Spokane for the Fogals in 2012. The husband-and-wife team later created KOOL 107.1 FM, which recently celebrated 10 years on the air. Their mom-and-pop operation is one of just a handful of oldies stations in Washington.

“Our station plays pretty much everything that was played on the radio in the first 30 years of rock and roll,” said Fogal, whose initial lineup boasted popular Spokane on-air duo Rob Harder and Mark Holman. “Right at that time, Harder and Holman left KISC and Rob’s an old friend of mine. He said, ‘Why don’t you have Mark and I do mornings and we’ll put together a good radio station?’ so that’s what we did,” said Fogal, who formed the nonprofit Oldies Preservation Society in 2018 to help keep KOOL afloat amid ongoing changes in the broadcast industry.

“The oldies formats were going away. They were going away in Portland, in Seattle and so many other markets up and down all over the country and we said, ‘Well, what can we do to not let that happen here?’ and the only thing that can be done is to have the listeners step up and support it,” Fogal said. His plans to recruit volunteers and expand Oldies Preservation Society operations to a North Spokane rental location were shelved in 2020 by the pandemic, but now front and center once again.

“The plan is to begin to transition everything over to the Oldies Preservation Society and have OPS raise the support it needs. The cost to operate a station like this, it’s only about $36 an hour, which is actually pretty cheap when you think about it,” Fogal said.

His biggest challenge reaching and retaining younger listeners with a format that skews older. The station has found success recently with family friendly features, such as a popular TV Theme Tuesday segment which showcases the music of “Superman,” “Batman,” and other legendary programs of the past.

“If we had 728 people contributing $36 a month or if those 728 sponsored an hour or underwrote an hour, well that’s enough for the radio station to continue indefinitely,” said Fogal, who has developed a new website, OldiesPreservationSociety.com, to assist with funding and volunteer recruitment.

Despite a weaker signal than local competitors, KOOL still manages to cover the entire Spokane listening area.

“We’re the low-powered David against the giant Goliaths of radio,” said Fogal, whose station rests at the far end of the FM spectrum. New listeners typically discover KOOL through word of mouth or when scanning the radio dial.

His independent operation offers greater programming discretion than advertising-based rivals, including shorter commercial breaks and a 5,000 song playlist chock full of lost oldies.

“We get the comments all the time, ‘Wow, you played a song today, I haven’t heard that song in probably 20 or 30 years.’ We love to hear that,” said Fogal, known as Big Bob Anthony to KOOL listeners – an appropriate nickname given his 6-foot-5-inch stature. “When I bought the station here in Spokane I thought, ‘Well how about I resurrect the Big Bob name, just to have a little fun?’ ” laughed Fogal, who hopes to retire from day to day operations in the coming years. “The whole plan is for (the society) to operate the radio station into the foreseeable future. I’m turning 73 in a month or so, so obviously I won’t be doing this forever,” he added.