Congrats to KING-FM in Seattle

From Radio-Info.com:

Seattle’s classical KING-FM is doing so well with donations – it’s converting to non-com status two months early. GM Jennifer Ridewood thanks “Seattle’s strong community of classical music supporters” and says there’s enough money to pull the deadline up from July to May. The already-unique KING-FM announced last year (March 24, 2010 TRI Newsletter) that “with all the changes in media, commercial advertising is no longer a fit for KING-FM.” … being a standalone commercial station became less and less tenable (same thing happened to Boston’s WCRB), and the plan was announced to convert to non-commercial status. Now we learn that the market’s been extra-generous with donations and underwriting.

You can read the Seattle P-I article here.

I have my own perspective on this shift.  KING’s management has done a superb job of learning how to be a public station.  The managers have visited a number of stations and have consulted with many of the best minds in the business to learn how to run the station as public radio outlet, rather than a commercial one.  They have hired consultants and have listened to experts.  They have plunged wholeheartedly into community service, forging new partnerships with local arts organizations and supporting local events.  I applaud them for the systematic and thorough way they have embraced the change.  Fortunately they had a year to prepare, unlike KDFC in San Francisco, which was thrown into the public arena in a surprise move and is now having to learn the public radio ropes quickly.  We at Scanning the Dial congratulate both stations and welcome them to public radio.