When the management of KIRO radio told Luke Burbank that his show,
Too Beautiful to Live, was being taken off the air effective
September 11, he wasn’t surprised.

“It’s like the prophecy has come to pass,” said Burbank, who, with
longtime producer Jen Andrews, built an eclectic, musically hip, and
unabashedly nerdy evening show around the idea that it was far too,
well, beautiful to survive on a talk-radio station controlled by the
Mormon Church and accustomed to a formula of outrage and traffic
reports.

“The least surprised guy to get fired is, like, that guy from
FEMA—the ‘heckuva job, Brownie’ guy—and then me,” said
Burbank, 33, who KIRO management originally brought on in January 2008
in an attempt to capture a younger demographic. Instead, ratings showed
that Too Beautiful to Live, which lasted for 395 on-air
episodes, was hurting the station more than it helped.

“It was, like, chasing away their listeners,” said Burbank.

Rod Arquette, KIRO’s program director, agreed. “It didn’t appear to
be working,” he said. “It just didn’t seem to fit with the overall
theme of what KIRO is about.”

Which might suggest that Arquette and Burbank would now be speedily
parting ways. Instead, something unusual is happening. The station is
paying Burbank through the end of the year to do the show
online—where TBTL, as it’s known by fans, had its biggest
success—and Arquette, asked if Burbank is free to take the
concept elsewhere come January 1, is saying: “We’re going to have to
negotiate… I’m not sure who owns what.”

The reason for the hedging: While TBTL was an on-air ratings
failure, it was a hit online, drawing more than 225,000 podcast
download hours last month. “Which is a huge number,” Arquette said,
noting that no other KIRO radio show has anything close to that large
an online following. The younger listeners were, in fact, tuning in.
From all over the country. They just weren’t using the same equipment
that KIRO’s general audience uses.

Arquette knows this and wants, if he can, to preserve the option for
KIRO to somehow make money off of an online-only broadcast of
TBTL in the future. Burbank, who on September 14 began
webcasting the show out of a small room in his Mount Baker house, said
any attempt by KIRO to exert control over the show’s future probably
wouldn’t be hostile—”These people aren’t jerks,” he
said—and could ultimately be a compliment. “I think if we’re
fighting about who owns TBTL when my contract is up, that’s a
good thing,” Burbank said. “Because it means there are multiple parties
who are interested.”

But, Burbank added, he’s trademarked the show’s name, owns the web
addresses now associated with it (including www.tbtl­
.net, the
show’s new homepage), and recently formed a limited liability
corporation to manage its financial future. He believes the show is
his, and he’s hoping to follow the model of Adam Carolla, who in
February had his popular morning radio show canceled—and then, a
few days later, launched The Adam Carolla Podcast, which drew
more than 1.5 million downloads in its first week.

Assuming Burbank can clear any legal hurdles that may be involved in
parting ways with KIRO, can he actually make a living running
TBTL out of a Mount Baker craftsman with creaky wood floors
and—at the moment—doing it with just a webcam, a laptop, a
mic, and a borrowed monitor set up on a $60 IKEA table? He thinks so.
“Really, it costs nothing to do the podcast,” he said. Scheduled for
his first week of online-only broadcast: interviews with John Hodgman,
the Long Winters, and, fittingly, Carolla. Fans have offered to intern,
make iPhone apps, and donate money; one even appeared at his door the
first day and delivered popcorn.

“It’s like a fucking radio barn-raising,” Burbank said. “The whole
little town of nerds shows up.” recommended

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

4 replies on “Too Beautiful to Litigate”

  1. Now I feel much, much better about the cards dealt to TBTL. The story of their departure from KIRO does seem to further the likelihood that terrestrial radio, especially talk radio, may at some point have to adopt to the tastes of younger generations or go the way of the dinosaur. But I’m confident that Luke, Jen, and Sean will be just fine for years to come.

    Thanks for the story, Eli!

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