KING-FM

KING-FM (98.1 FM; "Classical King FM") is a classical music radio station in Seattle, Washington. Its transmitter is located near Issaquah, Washington on Tiger Mountain.

KING-FM broadcasts in HD.

History

The station has been a non-profit, listener-supported public radio station since May 2011.

KING-FM was once co-owned with KING (1090 AM, now KFNQ) and KING-TV (channel 5), but was donated to a non-profit partnership (consisting of the Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, and ArtsFund) by King Broadcasting upon that company’s sale to The Providence Journal Company in 1992. Even after the sale, the radio station was long co-located with the television operation. KING-FM moved to an office building several blocks away in 1999.

KING-FM began broadcasting in Seattle in 1948, originally at FM 94.9, owned by King Broadcasting co-owner Dorothy Bullitt. The year before, Bullitt had bought KEVR and changed it to KING. (Seattle is located in King County, for which its call letters were chosen.) Bullitt also owned KRSC-FM, which had gone on the air around 1947 at FM 98.1 under different ownership and been acquired by Bullitt in 1949. The classical-music station KING-FM moved from 94.9 frequency to 98.1 in 1958, replacing KRSC-FM. The transmitter at the 94.9 frequency was donated to Edison Vocational School, who used it to begin broadcasting KUOW-FM on that frequency.