SeaTac, SEA and TAC

SeaTac (si-tæk) is a city in southern King County, Washington State.  The name of the city is a compound word a reference to the city's location between Seattle and Tacoma.  SeaTac only became incorporated in 1990. Various reasons have been bandied about, but it probably has a little something to do with all the Fortune 500 companies located in that zipcode and the airport. More here. It's twice as far from Tacoma as it is from Seattle, and being incorporated so late, it has zero local stations. Of course, it gets some of each market.

My first band scan was notable at 1:00 AM yesterday.On 88.5 KPLU there's a lot of NPR but tonight thankfully is jazz.   89.5 KNHC was playing dance music, it's the only non-com dance station in America. 89.9 KGRG was playing metal, following a spot promoting a program called "Dead Air."  I could barely get 90.1 KUPS which I've always understood to be free-form but was very AAA that evening. 90.3 KEXP spun Sigur Ros and Dead Can Dance back to back which was utterly appropriate.

Unsurprisingly I could not get the very independent urban station 88.9 KMIH until I got to Seattle.Also local to Seattle were stations 90.7 KSER and 88.9 KASB due to it's co-channel interference from KGRG.IN a similar situation,in Tacoma Peninsula High School 89.9 KGHP is either off air or otherwise inaudible from interference from co-channel KGRG also. The fifty thousand watt 90.9 KVTI comes in clearly in both metros but no longer plays top 40.  As of June 1st 2010 they carry Northwest Public Radio bringing NPR and classical to Seattle. FM stick and AAA stalwart  91.3 KBCS is strong in Seattle and still audible in Tacoma but it breaks up as you head south. I had hopes to hear 89.3 KAOS in Olympia, but they are not audible outside that zip code. North of Seattle is 91.7 KSVR who is only audible normally north of Everett, but is also available on 92.9 from K225AX-FM in Seattle.

On the west side of Seattle there was a pirate operating on 87.7 but they're not right now.  87.9 is perennially home to FSR Free Seattle Radio supposedly 5pm to midnight at 30 watts. In the Capitol Hill neighborhood is 101.9 FM The Whore. Also notable, but to the South of Tacoma is Free Radio Olympia, 125 watts of far left mischief.  More here and here. Also notable are the local webcasters Hollow Earth Radio and Radio Free Tacoma. Locally I spent some time at Rocket records to peruse vinyl and oh yes.. even shellac. Special thanks this week to The Stranger Weekly for telling me exactly where to get fried Chicken in Seattle.