Bob Rivers

Rivers played keyboards for a cover band affiliated with the show, Spike and the Impalers, until 2015.

In November, 2015, Seattle's KING-TV ran a story about Rivers's decision to sell his mansion, an estate that Rivers called "like something out of a fairy tale," for $2.3 million. He told the interviewer that he and wife Lisa plan to spend their time traveling and hiking: "It would be really nice to wander and explore a little bit."

Rivers' last regular radio program, The Bob Rivers Show with Bob, Spike and Joe, was broadcast on Seattle oldies station KJR-FM until August 8, 2014, ending a 25-year run in the Seattle market.

In 2014, Joe, Bob and Spike provided almost daily news about a diet on which they all lost weight.

Downtown Joe was a favorite among listeners, and in 2014 he was given the role of hosting "The Warm-Up Show," a half-hour of chat (before Bob Rivers arrived) among Joe, Spike O'Neill, and Jodi Brothers, with guests ranging from their young radio interns to special guests including famous fishing guru Bill Herzog. Joe is locally known as an expert in fishing and other out-door activities.

Arik Korman and his wife Monique adopted a Korean boy, A.J., and Arik was frequently consulted for facts and science explanations. Luciana Bosio and Pedro Bartes provided another side of Americana by discussing their ongoing attempts to earn legal citizenship and Pedro's disinclination to drive; in early 2014, they both earned their permanent residence status with green cards.

Bob Rivers announced on July 28, 2014, that after 42 years on radio (33 years in morning zoo format for drive time listeners and 25 years in Seattle), the legendary host was stepping away from morning radio to pursue other projects. The finale on Friday, August 8, was attended by many family members and featured local musicians playing music one last time on the show. With the end of the show, Bob ended KJR's "Oldies" format; the station switched formats to a new show called "95.7 The Jet, Seattle's Variety From the 70's, 80's and More".

Rivers was featured in an interview about his enjoyment of hiking in a 2014 summer issue of Washington Trails Magazine (a publication of the Washington Trails Association). The article was accompanied by five photographs of Rivers in the wilderness.

Rivers' granddaughter, Hazel Rivers, Keith Rivers' daughter, was born on August 8, 2014, the same day on which Rivers ended his radio show.

The show invited listeners to call in or text the show, in order to guess the answers to questions or to provide autobiographical anecdotes illustrative of a given topic, usually a topic in the news. (On May 8, 2013, an example of the latter was, "Have you ever participated in a practical joke that went wrong?") These segments were prefaced with a musical sting and the lyric "Is there anybody out there?" (from the Pink Floyd song of the same name). Prizes, such as tickets to upcoming musical events or Spike and the Impalers CDs, were given to callers-in who correctly guessed an answer (for example, "Which flavor of ice cream is more popular nationally, chocolate or vanilla?")."

A lengthy 2012 article in The Seattle Times praised Rivers for his wit and philosophy of perseverance.

The Bob Rivers Show ran on KJR-FM from April 1, 2011 to August 8, 2014, ending on the twenty-five year anniversary of Bob's first day on air in Seattle.

The radio business is changing: Fewer stations, fewer jobs, fewer personalities. But for nearly 23 years, Seattle has been listening to lovable misfits Bob, Spike and "Downtown" Joe Bryant. Since April 1, 2011, after adding Seattle radio veteran Jodi Brothers to the mix, they've been cracking wise from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays on KJR. The show is consistently one of the top three in its time period with the all-important 25-to-54 age group, along with The BJ Shea Morning Experience on KISW and Morning Edition on KUOW. It's the last remaining local talk/entertainment program on Seattle morning radio — others play music between gabbing, or focus on news... Everything's rainbows and great ratings now, but the incredible longevity, the easy chemistry and current success of these radio survivors has been hard-earned. Their long, strange trip has included failed contract negotiations, cast changes, rehab, a lot of work and a recent health scare. But as the show and its players have evolved, there has also been laughter, love, support and family. Always, family — on and off the air.

In September 2001, the cast and show moved to KZOK, where it played through September 30, 2010. O'Neill was added to the show for a slate of talents that include vocal impersonations (as of Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, and William Shatner, for example) and improvisation. The producer was Mike Jones; Arik Korman, a 2001 Visionary Award winner, joined the show as director in 2002; news and comedic commentary were provided by Maura Gallucci and, for a few years, Kaci Aitchison (who also is a singer with Spike and the Impalers).

During December 2010, when the show members sat out their non-compete period from KZOK, Bob and his wife Lisa traveled to Bangladesh, where they spent the holiday helping to build schools for the poor in Dhaka.

In 2009, Bob Rivers' Cessna 182 was stolen from the airport at which it was based by Colton Harris-Moore, who flew it to Yakima, Washington, landed the plane excessively hard and then fled the scene. The Cessna was declared a write-off by Rivers' insurance company. Rivers publicly condemned the theft and decried Harris-Moore's legend status, telling a news reporter, "I'm not a fan of the media frenzy because I don't like the whole cult hero thing, but if keeping it alive helps solve it, then I think it's worth it." He said on the radio, "I don't buy this folk-hero stuff. I was furious that something like this could happen. I really want him caught."

In 2007, Spike O'Neill, in charge of sports news, persuaded former Seattle Seahawk placekicker Norm Johnson into an extended interview about Johnson's having saved the life of a woman, Virginia Sayson, who was trapped in an overturned car in a ditch in Silverdale, Washington. Rivers's and O'Neill's admiring and humorous interview, and Johnson's modest replies, turned the local-interest story into national news.

The Bob Rivers Show was simulcast on Portland, Oregon's "1980s Rock Hits" radio station KVMX (now KXJM) "Mix 107.5" from March 20, 2006 until October 5, 2006, when the station dropped the morning show and switched to a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary format under the new branding "Movin' 107.5".

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote in 2005, "The mixture of talk (with such long-running cast members as Spike O'Neill and Joe Bryant), interviews and song parodies has consistently been one of the top-rated morning shows in the Seattle market." A Kitsap Sun columnist agreed: "As much as I treasure the information I can get from a couple of hours of NPR, I've found it's hard to pass up the mix of pop-culture info, topical news, off-the-wall humor and wealth of interviews I can get from Bob, Spike and Joe." KING-TV called Rivers "one of the Northwest's most popular personalities." Cynde Slater, a radio talent scout who hired Rivers to work at WAAF in 1985, said of Rivers's talent for making comedy out of topical subjects, "Bob has the ability to seize the opportunity. He does that better than anybody I've ever met."

In 1999, Rivers wrote a "twisted tune" song called "Kosovo", a parody of the Beach Boys hit song "Kokomo", about the Kosovo War. While earning many fans, the song also gained international attention and some controversy when it was used in 2005 by some Norwegian peacekeepers in Kosovo to make a music video.

In late 1999, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that, after 10 years at the station, Rivers had the longest tenure of any radio personality in the local market.

Rivers claims that more Twisted Tunes were written about the 1994 O. J. Simpson murder case than about any other individual; an example is the Twisted Tune "White Ford Bronco" (based on the 1955 song "Hot Rod Lincoln", "Bronco" appears on the Twisted Christmas Boxed Set). Rivers has said that there might have been more Twisted Tunes sung about the Seattle Seahawks and Super Bowl XL. Rivers and his colleagues have guessed that his most famous Twisted Tune based on a pop song is "What if God Smoked Cannabis?", based on the 1995 Joan Osborne hit "One of Us". (This Rivers parody is often incorrectly attributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic.)

Rivers released a second album of humorous holiday-themed music in 1993 entitled I Am Santa Claus (the title track was a parody of Black Sabbath's song Iron Man). Later, three other Christmas-themed albums were released: More Twisted Christmas (1997); Chipmunks Roasting On an Open Fire (2000); and White Trash Christmas (2002).

Arriving at Active Rock radio station KISW-FM in Seattle in 1989, Rivers debuted a morning show with fellow radio host Sean Donahue, also from Baltimore. Their chief rival was the station KXRX. Rivers brought Spike O'Neill with him; Spike served as sportscaster, writer, and impressionist. They spent "six weeks of 14-hour days doing production and brainstorming and writing" before their first show on air.

He talked freely on the air about his hard-partying days, which ended when he entered rehab to treat his alcoholism in 1989, shortly after he moved to Washington.

In the spring of 1988, at Baltimore radio station "98 Rock" WIYY-FM, as a lead morning show personality between 1987 and 1989, Bob Rivers gained national attention for an 11-day, on-the-air marathon during a Baltimore Orioles losing streak. He vowed to remain on the air until the Orioles won a game. He kept his vow and became a local celebrity among Orioles fans for his pledge. During the marathon, he only took naps during songs and started to develop health complications from the lack of sleep.

In 1987, Rivers released Twisted Christmas, which contained the Christmas music radio hit "Twelve Pains of Christmas", a parody of the holiday standard "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Twisted Christmas was certified a gold record.

Bob and Lisa Rivers have two sons. The elder, Keith Rivers (b. February 2, 1983 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a film-maker. Their younger son, Andrew J. Rivers, is a stand-up comedian.

During his tenure with WAAF, Rivers started producing parody and novelty songs, both for the station and for the KATZ/Newcity "American Comedy Network", a radio syndication service that provided comedy material to local U.S. and Canadian radio stations. One of the first parodies he produced was "Breakin' Up Is Hard On You", about the lawsuit and the resulting Bell System divestiture, the court ordered split up of U.S. telecommunications company AT&T's Bell System. The song was sung to the tune of Neil Sedaka's #1 1962 hit "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and peaked at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop music chart. He followed it up with "Just a Big Ego," a parody of David Lee Roth's version of "Just a Gigolo". It went on to be included on Volume 2 of The Rhino Brothers Present the World's Worst Records and had a music video produced by Steve Rotfeld for Bob Uecker's Wacky World of Sports.

Robert Rivers (born July 7, 1956 in Branford, Connecticut) is a retired American rock and roll radio on-air personality in the Pacific Northwest, as well as a prolific producer and songwriter of parody songs, most famous for his Christmas song parodies. His album Twisted Christmas was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Rivers was born in Branford, Connecticut on July 7, 1956 and raised as a Catholic. On the air, he occasionally referred to the work ethic and competitive streak he learned from his parents. (His father was the head of a utility company.) He is the eldest of several children in his family; next in line is Beth, and his other three sisters are Patty, a school teacher, Mary, and Catherine. He has a brother, Michael, fifteen years younger.