Radio’s Wise Guys: Harder & Holman recount colorful years on Spokane radio

If you grew up listening to Spokane radio, you might recall the on-air escapades of former 98.1 KISS FM morning personalities, Rob Harder and Mark Holman.

The homegrown success story of this beloved DJ duo is as integral to local broadcast history as the music they once played.

When Rob Harder was a boy, he received a transistor radio from his parents for Christmas. It was a gift that kept on giving.

“I could listen to whatever I wanted to: the Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones … there was Charlie Brown and Buzz Lawrence, a lot of disc jockeys,” said Harder, who would often pick up stations broadcasting from San Francisco and Los Angeles on Spokane back roads at night.

The magic of that small device intrigued Harder, but it was the chatter between songs that drew him in.

“I’d listen to all of those disc jockeys from those far away places … they were so cool. I’d think, ‘Man, I want to do that when I get older,’ ” said Harder, who would later co-host one of the most enduring local morning shows in Spokane radio history.

Following his first DJ gig with 105.7 KEZE fresh out of West Valley High School, Harder joined 97 KREM, where he became known as Hot Dog Harder after he donned a giant hot dog bun on-air to celebrate Spokane’s 1974 All-America City Award.

The young DJ was hired as program director for 98.1 KISS FM in the 1980s, where he teamed with Tim Burrows for a new morning show, their Wise Guys nickname pulled from a parody song they had recorded. That partnership was cut short when Burrows left to pursue TV interests a year or so later.

“I was stuck. I needed a new sidekick,” said Harder, who auditioned replacement candidates live on the air to a listener vote. The winner was Mark Holman, a DJ who worked out of the same building as Harder.

“I grew up listening to Rob on the air. I was going to high school when Rob was on KREM,” said Holman, who studied broadcast at Spokane Falls Community College.

In the years that followed, the “Wise Guys Show” dominated adult contemporary radio ratings in Spokane while Harder and Holman gained celebrity status with listeners. Their omnipresence on buses, billboards and at area events key factors in that continued popularity. “The main thing I think that really made us so popular is how local we were,” said Harder, who frequently cemented details for outrageous publicity stunts over beer and golf with Holman.

“We did a ‘Day of 10,000 Prizes’ where people were coming by our station … traffic was backed up on the freeway,” laughed Harder. “Our general manager almost got thrown in jail,” Holman added.

The DJs once dressed as marshmallows and sat in a vat of hot chocolate for a local food drive.

“We were everywhere,” said Holman, who recalled the frenzy of “Suitcase Parties,” when listeners converged at the Spokane airport, bags packed, with high hopes of flying away on a free trip. The talented duo even found success as songwriters. Their parody tune, “Spokamo,” which mocked local winters, was once a number one seller in Spokane.

The arrival of the internet in the 1990s brought sweeping changes to the radio industry. Those online advances were followed by widespread layoffs. The “Wise Guys Show” ended in 2011 after Harder was released from KISS. Holman later joined Harder on station KOOL 107.1, where signal issues derailed their new local morning show. The DJs were invited back to KISS in 2018, but let go in 2020 due to advertising revenue shortfalls tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite those setbacks, both are grateful for over two decades spent together .

“Getting up and going to work and laughing for three hours to start your day is a pretty good thing. No stress. You just go in and have fun,” said Holman, who still enjoys beer and golf with his close friend.

“We see each other several times a week when I’m here in Spokane. Sometimes we need to talk, we did that for so many years,” Harder said. “This business never really felt like work to me. That’s what I liked about it. The best part of my workday was doing the morning show. I always wanted to be on the radio and I fell into management, but I never really wanted to go off the air, because that’s why I got into radio. You know it’s magic.

“I think the best part of it was the feedback from the listeners, how much they enjoyed it.”