About KGY & History

AM 1240 KGY Olympia

News, Sports, Information & The Best Music Ever Recorded

About KGY & History

WELCOME!!! KGY Radio is one of the Northwest's oldest radio stations. The KGY call letters were issued on April 4, 1922 to Father Sebastian Ruth, OSB. A Benedictine monk who taught at St. Martins College during the early part of the Century. For the first three years that KGY was on the air, occasional programming was aired from a small shack on the St. Martins campus on a wavelength of 450 meters and then 258 meters at only 5 watts of power. In 1925, the station actually had a studio, when the station equipment was moved to a log cabin on the St. Martins campus (the building had previously been used as a student clubhouse). In 1932, the station facilities were moved to the Capital Park Building at 11th and Capitol Way and ownership was taken over by Archie Taft who also owned KOL in Seattle. It was also in 1932 that newspaperman Sam Crawford began his employment at KGY and for the next 16 years, pioneered radio news casting in the area.

In 1935, KOL joined the Mutual Don Lee Network and KGY immediately followed. In 1936, KGY changed frequencies and began broadcasting at 1210 Khz. In 1939, Tom Olsen, an Olympia native purchased KGY. Before doing so, Mr. Olsen was a sports reporter for the Seattle Star newspaper and had also managed Fox theatres around the country and was manager for a Warner Brothers theater in Aberdeen. Mr. Olsen was a charter member of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters, served in a similar capacity with the Capitol City Press Club. He helped organize the Capitol Radio News Bureau...the state’s first wire service. For a time, Mr. Olsen was part owner of radio stations in Yakima and the Tri-cities. He also owned the Olympia News during the late 1950's and also began cable television in Olympia.

In 1941, KGY moved its facilities again... This time to the second floor of the newly completed Rockway-Leland Building at State and Washington Streets. Here, the old horizontal 4-wire antenna was replaced with a 150-foot vertical tower on the roof of the Rockway-Leland Building. In August of 1960, KGY moved into its current waterfront facilities. A new 200-foot tower was erected and power was increased from 250 to 1 KW.

It was in the early 60's that KGY also began its radio format of music (currently adult contemporary) and an emphasis on news and sports...now including Local High School sports, Seahawks, WSU Cougar football, and Mariners baseball.

With the changing times, KGY added an FM station to its lineup in late 1991 and went on the air with KGY-FM (licensed to McCleary, Washington) on October 30, 1992. The FM studios are located in the Olympia waterfront facility at 1700 Marine Drive NE in downtown Olympia and the transmitter is located in SW Mason County on Maxwell Hill. Programming on the KGY/FM features a Country music format and some local news.

KGY AM/FM is owned by the Kerry family: Jennifer, Mike and Mathew.

Real Country 96.9 FM is our sister station. Click on the logo for the Real Country 96.9FM website

KGY Live Broadcast, circa 1940

Father Sebastian Ruth (left) and Tom Olsen