KING FM

In 1995 Priscilla Bullitt Collins and Harriet Stimson Bullitt made a gift of Seattle's Classical KING FM 98.1 radio statio to Beethoven, a non-profit corporation formed to realize the sisters' charitable purposes for the station. Since that time, the Beethoven corporation has successfully operated KING FM as a commercial classical station, while generating nearly seven million US dollars for the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and classical music grantees of Arts Fund. We are now excited to announce that from 1 July 2011, KING FM will become a listener supported station, a move to help ensure that we can continue to broadcast classical music in the coming decades.

'This is the next logical step in our evolution as a great classical station', claims Christopher Bayley, president of the Beethoven corporation's board. 'KING's founder, Dorothy Bullitt, built a legacy of great classical programming and innovation at KING FM. Then her daughters, Harriet Bullitt and Patsy Collins, gave the station to the community, endowing us with their vision that the station would not only be part of Seattle's arts and culture framework forever, but that through advertising it would also generate financial support to the symphony, opera, and smaller classical performing groups.'

'That vision worked well for a time, but the handwriting is on the wall', says Bayley. 'With all the changes in media in the United States, commercial advertising is no longer a fit for KING.'

Information: king.org

Posted: 26 March 2010

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