Editor Eric Mathison's recollection of Burien past, present and future, in the 06/18/08 edition of the Highline Times, was thought provoking.

He forgot one item missing from the local scene: Burien's Radio Station KQIN.

The studios were housed on SW 153rd St in the mid 70's and early 80's, next to a driving school. It was 500 watts from sunrise to sunset.

Ray Kelly was General Manager. It was a local station doing local news with locally produced programming and Burien area sponsors.

At one time I was an announcer/salesperson for KQIN. I remember when former Green Bay Packer Willie Davis bought the station from Tom Read and turned it from a daytime operation to full time and 50,000 watts of power in the mid 1980's.

That change was made with a promise to Burien and the Federal Communications Commission that it would be a local station promoting Burien in a much wider broadcast area.

Before, you could not hear the station in downtown Seattle or Tacoma. With the 100x increase in power the station could be heard promoting Burien from Everett to Olympia!

Then it was sold again to Salem Communications and the local studio was closed. It became KGNW.

Burien news and information disappeared from the airwaves. The promise to serve Burien was forgotten. The FCC doesn't care and neither do the current owners.

The reason for the move to downtown Seattle is simple: money.

With a Seattle address KGNW increased its revenue substantially.

It must say "Burien/Seattle in its call letters. But no truth to their station ID. They are not serving Burien by any means.

Will Burien ever have a radio station of its own again? Probably not.

Low-power FM is hard to come by since the Seattle stations fear their huge 50,000+watts would be compromised by any small 100 watt FM local radio station.

Bill Wippel

Normandy Park