The End was introduced a couple of different ways around town:

1) Before the station signed on….random interns walked around Westlake Center downtown with sandwich boards that said “The End is Coming” & “The End is Near”

2) Eerie commercials ran on the frequency (before we became The End) also proclaiming that “The End is Coming” & “The End is Near”

And of course…our first TV commercial

Former End DJ Brian Beck remembers when he discovered The End for the very first time:

Brian Beck – This is my Station by 1077 The End

and here’s our modern day re-enactment

On March 7th, 2000 End Session #40 went down EARLY in the morning with Stone Temple Pilots at the old General Petroleum Museum on Capitol Hill.

Our friends over at Q-13 tagged along with us all morning for the intimate performance from Scott Weiland and Dean DeLeo.

When the city of Seattle decided to blow up (or blow in) the old Kingdome to pave the way for Qwest Field The End was smack dab in the middle of the gigantic dust cloud.

At any given time there have always been a bunch of the End staff that were “musically inclined” and for this special occasion they got together and wrote “It’s The End of the Dome as We Know It” to the tune of the R.E.M. song of a vaguely similar name

Our friends over at Q-13 heard about it and decided to share it with their audience as well.

Another dark moment in the history of the station was the passing of Alice in Chains front-man Layne Staley. In a coincidence almost too strange to fathom Staley passed away nearly 8 years to the day after fellow Seattle front-man Kurt Cobain. Their immense talent, history of drug use and untimely death will always link the two.

In recent years the story of Alice in Chains has turned 100% positive. Rarely does a band suffer this kind of loss and return with the force, credibility and class that remaining members of the band haev with new lead singer William Duvall. They’ve made us all proud.

Quite possibly the darkest moment in the history of The End was the day we found out that Kurt Cobain was no longer with us. He wasn’t just a musician, he wasn’t just a celebrity….he was one of us.

It made the untimely passing of this all time great that much more painful and surreal. Below, former End Jocks Marco Collins and Travis Bailey discuss what it was like to be in Seattle and working at the station during as these events unfolded.

No one forgets when 7 strangers moved into a beautiful loft on the downtown Seattle waterfront to have their lives taped….

The End was a big part of The Real World Seattle experience and is still what we use to impress our 12 year old nieces when we tell them where we work.

Here’s KOMO’s coverage of the MTV invasion back in 1998

We had a chance to catch up with Nathan from the cast of Seattle’s Real World earlier this week (more on that soon) and he filled us in on what he’s up to now!

Get more info on Teaspoon Willies here

Pretty cool coverage of the 2nd Endfest by the folks over at MTV News. This was before everyone and their brother was holding a music festival and getting this many bands in one place (especially Bremerton) was a pretty big deal

While digging through The End’s archives in preparation for our 20th birthday we came across this fun profile of former End Morning Guy Andy Savage on Evening Magazine (plus some “best of” bits that dug up as well.)

Keep checking back to the “Essential End” blog for more gems we unearthed for our 20th birthday

Andy Savage – KNDD 20th Birthday by 1077 The End

Imagine your first concert. Did it involve a school cafeteria? Hopefully it was a little more glamorous than sidelined, folded up lunch tables pushed out of the way for a band to perform during homeroom… That is unless the band playing is there because you won a contest from The End and the performers are WEEZER! Check out the fun from 1996:

Weezer already proved their value in the music world with the iconic Blue Album and were preparing the launch of their sophomore follow up Pinkerton. 15 years later, the band hit the road to play both of those album in their entirety.

Former End DJ Marco Collins talks about being the first station in the world to play Weezer

Marco Collins – First Playing Weezer by 1077 The End