Riding down Queen Anne Hill in a cab recently, I heard the familiar voice of Tom Olsen very faintly in the background. The driver was surprised when I said, "Oh, you're listening to KING-FM." There followed a brief discussion on the merits of classical music. The driver admitted his car radio was perpetually tuned to 98.1 FM, the dial position of Classic KING-FM radio.
Classic KING-FM has been a favorite for many years. It is the only 24-hour classical music station in this area playing seven days a week. There is something about the continuity of classical music that is international, comfortable, and familiar.
I remember when we first arrived here from England, turning the radio dial until we found the familiar "1812 Overture," cannon and all. This turned out to be KXA, another classical music station (at that time located on Queen Anne Hill). It seemed strange to hear a very local and informal format with an announcer asking people to call him. A direct line to the chap on the air - one could actually talk to a real person? Something completely unheard of in the hallowed halls of the BBC.
Subsequently it was on KXA that "The British Hour" was introduced. I also aired a series on the stately homes of England and collector's corner about antiques. This is where I earned the title "The Antique Lady."
It was at KXA that we first met Peter Newman and Tom Olsen, both very knowledgeable about classical music. Peter Newman had been at KING-FM since 1977 as the station manager, retiring last year after 26 years at the helm. The reins now rest in the capable hands of Bob Goldfarbe.
KING-FM has graced the airways for 55 years. A far cry from when the late Dorothy Bullitt started KING-FM.
Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, daughter of the pioneer Seattle lumber and real-estate tycoon, C.D. Stimson, was already an established businesswoman, managing two family fortunes, those of her father and her late husband. Mrs. Bullitt had been fascinated with radio since 1924, when she heard a live broadcast of "Aïda" from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium so clearly in her living room in Seattle. In the mid-1940s, radio in Seattle was a highly competitive, all-male industry, with only eight radio stations producing homemade local programming and sports. The two leading local stations were KOMO (NBC) and KIRO (CBS) - and, according to Mrs. Bullitt, not a scrap of beautiful music amongst the lot of them.
In 1947, she decided to start a new FM station in town. She'd already received a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission when Arch Talbot, one of her tenants, dropped in to see her with a suggestion: "Why don't you buy my station?"-- that is, KEVR. He added that KEVR wouldn't cost much since "it's at the bottom of the list." KEVR had the dubious distinction of being the least-listened-to station in town, with precious few advertisers to support it. It was an AM-FM station with a feeble 100-watt signal that on a good day could be heard from Queen Anne to Ballard, and possibly Magnolia. Its dilapidated offices were located in the Smith Tower.
Mrs. Bullitt was quite taken with the challenge of trying to turn a losing station with no audience into a worthwhile business. She bought KEVR on May Day 1947 and set about promoting a new image of beautiful music for the station. She was now on the air and part of the broadcasting brotherhood.
First she needed new call letters. She wanted something pronounceable and meaningful, and, of course, it had to consist of four letters starting with a "K." Thumbing through the dictionary she ran across the word "king," which she thought would be easy to promote - and it was appropriate, Seattle being in King County and all. It was such an obvious choice that she wondered why nobody had thought of it before.
In actuality, just about every broadcaster in town had thought of it, but for well over 20 years - as long as there had been such a thing as radio broadcasting - the government had been pronouncing that call sign "unavailable." Unlike every other broadcaster, Mrs. Bullitt took the trouble to ask why it was unavailable. It turned out the letters had been assigned to a US freighter, the Watertown, as its marine radio call. Mrs. Bullitt contacted the ship's owners, negotiated a release of the call sign, and was using KING on station breaks by the end of June.
She also upped the power to 50,000 watts, built new studios, and began promoting the KING motif in new, imaginative ways, such as getting Walt Disney to create that jaunty cartoon character, "King Mike," who occasionally still appears in the station's ads.
During the next four decades the fledgling broadcasting company, which now included television, turned into one of the finest broadcasting companies in the United States. Many honors and awards followed for KING-FM's quality programming.
In 1974, KING-FM became the first station to hire a full-time woman announcer, Mary Fain, who became extremely popular through the years. KING-FM, now Classic KING-FM ("98.1 on your dial"), went on to win the prestigious Marconi Award, which recognizes outstanding stations for their excellence in broadcasting.
In 1994 the Bullitt Foundation donated the station to the arts, its proceeds to be equally divided amongst Seattle Opera, the Seattle Symphony and the Corporate Council for the arts.
Because of its longevity, the hosts of KING-FM become part of the family. You are awakened by the dulcet tones of Brad Eaton giving you news, travel and weather reports to start in the right frame of mind (a recent addition to the morning hour is the prestigious BBC World Service news). That's followed by Steve Reeder, who carries you through your work day to the afternoon, sometimes presenting complete works by the masters. Tom Dahlstrom makes your commute home easy by guiding you through traffic. This brings us to the evening and sometimes special live performances from the studio, until midnight. And for the night owls, it's "Music Through the Night" with Tom Olsen.
We mustn't forget the other members of the KING-FM royal family. We are hearing more of the mellifluent voice of Lee Jackson, not forgetting Martha Zekan with her Classic KING-FM on Saturday mornings, Gigi Yellenn and our friend Terri Richter of Seattle Opera fame.
So listen generously. When you listen to Classic KING-FM, you are supporting the arts. And if you have a business or product, KING-FM is an ideal place to broadcast your message.
So we thank the late Dorothy Bullitt and the Beethoven Foundation, and wish Classic KING-FM a happy 55th birthday. Long may it flourish.
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