Remembering KYAC: the Seattle Black-owned radio station that felt like home

In October 1979, Seattle heard its first rap song on the radio. “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang played through speakers across the city, kicking off a new and active era of Black creativity in Seattle. The DJ who played the song was Robert L. Scott.

He worked at KYAC Soul Radio. By the time “Rapper’s Delight” was played, KYAC had already established itself as a unique and deeply important entity in Seattle. The station was Black-owned and operated and was embedded in Seattle’s Black community.

“Every bit of news that happened in our community came across the airwaves at KYAC,” explained Vivian Phillips, the founder of Art Noire, a Black arts and culture space in Seattle’s Central District and a former KYAC DJ.

Growing up in the 1960s, Phillips’ family was based in the Central District, in a redlined community. She loved the radio and was amazed that she could hear a voice from someone far away coming through the speakers in her bedroom. At 19 years old, she got her radio operator license and soon found herself at KYAC.

“I don't think I ever went and applied for a job,” Phillips said. “What I do recall doing is calling Frank P. Barrow every other day of the week and saying, ‘Hey, Frank, you know, don't you have anything for me to do?’”

She remained at the station for more than a decade, doing everything from engineering to sales and promotions before finally landing an on-air role.

Sheila Locke, a Seattle-based DJ of 45 years, got her start at KYAC. After her first night working the midnight shift at the station, she never looked back. Locke grew up in the 70s in a mixed community in Seattle.

“Growing up, it was basically 30% Black, 30% Asian, 30% other,” Locke said. She became the station’s only Asian DJ, happily stretching herself thin as both a student and on-air host because listening to and working at KYAC felt like home.

The station was more than a place for music — DJs, hosts, and engineers were embedded within the community. If there was a business opening in Seattle’s Black community, KYAC was there.

“We were really members of the community that people could see, touch, feel, and interact with,” Phillips said.

In KYAC’s heyday, the station was sponsored by a variety of brands from within the community and outside of it. Phillips’ show, in particular, was occasionally sponsored by Kraft Foods, which allowed her to DJ from locations where Kraft was sold. She would host her show from 23rd and Union and at the Safeway location on Othello in the South End.

“I loved it. It was just great to be in a space where I had two turntables. I had my headphones, all the remote devices were set up, and I was actually spinning records in the window at the grocery store with all the folks around me,” Phillips said. “The 60s and 70s in Seattle were high points for the black community and black businesses."

By the end of the 70s, and with the end of redline covenants that kept Black people in particular neighborhoods, the community diffused, which eventually led to KYAC's sale, Phillips said.

But that period also featured the rise of syndicated radio. Radio stations could buy syndicated programs, a centralized business that produced radio programming with a single voice for Black radio nationwide.

“With that, you can reduce your staff expenses,” Phillips said.

Only a year into Locke’s on-air spot at KYAC, she realized the station was heading toward bankruptcy.

“We got a notice that paychecks were going to be delayed,” she explained. For a while the DJs stuck by the station and continued to spin records for the community.

But, as payments for staff continued to be delayed, the DJs and station operators had no choice but to walk out.

“That literally was the last time anybody heard KYAC,” Locke said. The shutting down of the station was unfortunate for fans, staff, and Black musicians.

The end of KYAC left a hole in the community so large that listeners held a funeral for the station once it became clear that it was gone for good.

“That was indicative of just how important that communications entity was to the Black community,” Phillips said.

After KYAC was sold, Locke continued to DJ across Puget Sound, but Phillips stepped away from radio for a number of years. When she returned to broadcasting, she focused on interview-style programs.

“But there's nothing like spinning those records and taking requests,” Phillips said.

Related Links:

How Seattle rap crashed the mainstream by swimming against the current — NPR

For three decades, this Seattle DJ electrified the airwaves, paving the way for future Black radio personalities. — Black Arts Legacies

Black History of the Northwest — KUOW

More Listening:

Check out this Black History Month playlist from Stax Records, an iconic, Memphis-based record company that helped birth the Soul genre.

Learn more about Seattle's Black music history on KEXP’s podcast, “Fresh Off the Spaceship,” which tells the story of the Black Constellation, an artist collective (Shabazz Palaces, THEESatisfaction, and Ya Tseen) with Seattle roots.