KGHP (89.9 FM) is a student-run

high school radio High school radio are radio stations located at high schools and usually operated by its students with faculty supervision. The oldest extant high school AM radio station is AM 1450 KBPS in Portland, Oregon. Portland radio station KBPS, first li ...

station operating on a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

license in

Gig Harbor, Washington Gig Harbor is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington,. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census. Gig Harbor is one of several cities and towns that claim to be "the gateway to the Olympic ...

. Owned by the

Peninsula School District The Peninsula School District is the main school district for the city of Gig Harbor, Washington, USA and the unincorporated areas around Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula. These areas include Artondale, Arletta, Rosedale, Purdy, Wollochet, Va ...

#401, the station's studio is located on the campus of Peninsula High School. With its two translators, K207AZ 89.3 and K289BZ 105.7, the station's signal covers most of the

Gig Harbor Gig Harbor is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington,. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census. Gig Harbor is one of several cities and towns that claim to be "the gateway to the Olympic ...

Peninsula,

Key Peninsula The Key Peninsula ("The KP" or "The Key" to some locals) is a finger of land in Puget Sound, Washington, United States. It is approximately long and extends south from the Kitsap Peninsula. It is part of Pierce County, Washington. Some of its ...

and portions of Tacoma,

Fox Island, Washington Fox Island is an island and census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington, United States, in Puget Sound. It is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) from Gig Harbor. The island was named Fox by Charles Wilkes during the United S ...

and

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

. The station came on the air in 1988 and was one of three high school radio station in the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. The first manager and teacher was Don Hofmann, a former KNBQ-FM general manager. KSTW-TV technician Max Bice was the engineer. The current station manager is Spencer "Walrus" Abersolds. The multi-format station is run by students at Peninsula High School and

Gig Harbor High School Gig Harbor High School is a public high school in the Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, Washington. The school opened in September 1979. The school enrolls 1611 students (2017) in ninth through twelfth grades. Facility history and remode ...

during the day, and in the evening to night hours it is run by community volunteers. The station gives a variety of shows from the students which range from sports broadcasts to classic rock. A variety of genres is played, including

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

Reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

Roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...

& Americana,

Classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

and vintage music. As the station is also an educational tool for the students, KGHP also runs news briefs and fact segments, at various times throughout the day, along with taking requests via the phone. The station broadcasts Peninsula High School and

home varsity football games with the broadcasting crew called The Sports Guys. The station also provides emergency information during power outages, severe storms and

natural disasters A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econo ...

External links

KGHP-FM
* * * * {{coord, 47.241, N, 122.772, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title GHP High school radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1988 Gig Harbor, Washington