Northwest Wild Country Radio Station

On Feb. 1, 2003, I was sitting in the studio at Sportsradio 950 KJR in Seattle, preparing for the debut broadcast of the old "Call of the Wild" show, my very first live fishing & hunting show. It was about 5:50 a.m. West Coast time, pitch dark outside, and as I nervously shuffled through my notes, I glanced up at the studio TV.

Just in time to see the space shuttle Columbia explode over Texas.

My engineer showed up 15 minutes late, and I stumbled through a 45-minute show. I thought it sucked. On the way out, I ran into NFL Hall of Fame broadcaster John Clayton, whose uber-popular "Sports Saturday" show came on an hour after mine.

"Hey, great show!" Clayton said. "I listened to the whole thing while I was driving up here. Nice job! Uh ... what's a Wiggle Wart?!?"

I think JC was just being nice. But, 350 shows and 7 years later, we're still here."
-Joel Shangle, host, Northwest Wild Country

SHANGLE'S FAVES

Favorite fishery: "Coiba Island, Panama. Everything there swims 100 miles an hour and hits like a freight train. Coiba is the definition of 'raw'. It's awesome."

Favorite piece of hunting/fishing gear: "A .270 Winchester given to me by my great uncle. It shoots like a laser. I love that gun."

Favorite NWWC guest: "July 3, 2005, we had a Tuesday afternoon time slot to fill in for The Groz. Bruce Holt at G-Loomis had given me the phone number for Bobby Knight's assistant at Texas Tech, and I had managed to finagle a live interview with Coach Knight. Nobody at KJR could believe that the goofy-ass "Let's Go Kill Something Show" (the Gasman, Mike Gastineau's nickname for us) had landed Bob Knight.

Coach Knight was a dream interview for me. I was a gym rat growing up, had read all the books and magazine pieces about his career at Army and Indiana, and was fascinated by his approach to the game of basketball. To talk to an NCAA coaching legend about fishing was almost surreal, it was so cool. Coach Knight was gracious and funny, and gave us a great interview."

Favorite NWWC guest, part II: "Tred Barta came on the air in early August, 2008, and gave us 20 minutes of the funniest, most upbeat radio you'll ever hear. He was in Garibaldi, Oregon, fishing tuna for his show, "The Best and Worst of Tred Barta", and he was WAY impressed by the fishery. We all just shut our mouths and listened to him."

Favorite moment on NWWC: "The time we grilled a Columbia River spring Chinook fillet live on the air, and chased NFL Hall of Fame broadcaster John Clayton out of the KJR studio forever.

I brought in a George Foreman Grill and fired up a springer fillet while we were doing the show. Clayton had to broadcast his show right afterward, and then had to do a national ESPN show with Sean Salisbury after that, so he was stuck in a studio with the smell of grilled salmon all day long He was P-I-S-S-E-D! He complained about it all day long on the air, and then bitched about it when he went on with Groz and Gas later in the week. Shortly after that, he got a home studio setup, and we haven't seen him since.

By the way: John Clayton is a sweetheart of a guy. We're big fans."

Favorite repeat guest: "The bass guys really understand the whole radio process. Luke Clausen is great every time, as are Mike Iaconelli and Byron Velvick. Shaw Grigsby and Jimmy Houston are spectacular on the air. Eli Rico of Hot Shot Guide Service, Eric Linde of Linde's Sportfishing and Jim Stahl of J & J Guide Service are three local guys who are on-point every single time."

Dream interview: "Most of my dream interviews are musicians. I'd kill to get Eric Clapton on the show. Ditto for James Hetfield of Metallica and Hank Williams, Jr. Jimmy Buffet would be cool, too."

Favorite intro song: "Whiskey in the Jar by Metallica, You Got Another Thing Comin' by Judas Priest and Rawdogs and Warhogs by Ted Nugent are probably my top three.

One of these days, we're going to get the guts to play our own live intro music. I'll play guitar, Herzog will screech like Bon Scott, and Jim Stahl will be on drums. When that day comes, you'll metalized versions of Ghost Riders in the Sky and Hotel California.

And the program director will promptly move us to the 2 a.m. time slot."