KYAC was the first Black-owned radio station in Seattle, broadcasting from 1965 to 1981 with a focus on playing music by Black artists. In addition to music, KYAC broadcast local news relevant to Seattle’s Black population, ran radio contests, hosted live events for listeners, and engaged in activism in the Black community. Initially, KYAC was owned by a white man. In 1969, the mostly Black employees of the station went on strike in protest of low pay and poor treatment from the owner. Don Dudley, a Black manager at KING Broadcasting, was hired as general manager at KYAC and successfully negotiated for most of the employees’ demands. He also negotiated an option to buy the entire station. Dudley gathered a group of investors and purchased KYAC, becoming one of only seven Black radio station owners in the US and the only one on the West Coast. Under Dudley’s ownership, KYAC grew from a daytime only station broadcasting from a studio in Kirkland to a 24-hour station based in Seattle and simulcasting on 1250 AM and 96.5 FM.
This image shows Seattle Community College (SCC) students A. Frank Williams (on telephone) and Bob Davis at the KYAC studio. Williams was the Black Student Union (BSU) chairman and Davis the BSU vice-president. At the time, SCC was facing boycotts, demonstrations, and rioting in protest of disparities in funding and academic focus between the College's central campus, located near the city's Black residential area, and the north and south campuses, located in predominantly white neighborhoods. The protests also objected to the lack of African American representation on the Board of Trustees of the college.
A. Frank Williams and Bob Davis spoke on a special edition of KYAC’s “Soul Dialogue” program about the SCC protests. During the program, BSU members issued a list of requests to the governor. One was to appoint Dave Mills, the BSU’s choice for SCC’s Board of Trustees. Their other requests included: the creation of an independent central campus at SCC governed by a council of Central Area residents, more focus on Black studies and works by Black authors, greater opportunities for Black students to attend SCC, and establishment of May 1st as Black Day to recognize “Blacks who have given their lives for Blackness.” The BSU spokepeople also took questions phoned in by listeners.
Caption information source: “BSU Issues 9-Point Plan for SCC Campus,” by James C. Lewis, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 24, 1969, page 10. Caption information source: “Governor Dan Evans appoints Marvin Glass to Seattle Community College Board of Trustees on July 24, 1969.” by David Wilma, retrieved from https://www.historylink.org/File/2036. Caption information source: “The History of Seattle’s First Black-owned Radio Station,” interview with Vivian Phillips and Don Dudley, February 15, 2016, retrieved from https://www.kbcs.fm/2016/02/15/the-history-of-seattles-first-black-owned-radio-station/.
