Mercer Island High School radio station, KMIH is the third in a trio of high school radio stations that I visited while in Seattle in October, 2018. First licensed in 1970, KMIH holds a class D FM license, currently over 88.9 FM in Mercer Island, Washington.
Founded in 1969, KMIH has bounced around the dial and was in danger of extinction in 2002.
According to a 2011-2012 Mercer Island School District communication:
In 2002, the station fought to stay alive when the Federal Communications Commission allowed a commercial station to take its place on the dial. Today, KMIH remains on the air at 88.9 FM and 94.5 FM, thanks to a group of former KMIH students who are now members of the volunteer staff and Booster Club.
A non-profit booster club helped out KMIH and even purchased an FM translator at 94.5 FM in order to expand the station’s signal into parts of Seattle. That simulcast ended in February, 2017 when the club sold the translator. At the time, Mercer Island School District reported, “The Booster Club plans to use the net proceeds from the sale to contribute to capital projects that will enhance the station, the 88.9 signal and will expand student experiences.”
KMIH’s enthusiastic General Manager, Joe Bryant, is in his fourth year at the station. During his tenure, he worked to rebrand and reformat the KMIH. For years, the station was known as Hot Jamz, playing “current hits with little interruption,” according to Bryant. In January, 2017, he worked with his student Program Director (she’s now a college student still assisting Bryant at KMIH) to create a new brand and format: “88.9 The Bridge: Music and Conversation That Spans Generations.”
The music mix ranges from Bob Seger to Arcade Fire, with a dose of music from the Pacific Northwest (Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Alice and Chains, and up and coming bands like Naked Giants and Ayron Jones). Bryant described the format, saying that KMIH “superserves” local music, playing artists from the area every hour. With a background in commercial morning radio, Bryant explained, “I got here” and “I wanted to teach kids to tell stories.”
In addition to putting his stamp on programming, Bryant has also worked to expand the radio program at Mercer Island High School. He relayed that he started with just one class and 18 students and four years later oversees 80 students in three full classes. On top of that, he’s the school’s assistant badminton coach and the adviser for a marketing club (DECA).
Although Bryant did high school radio himself at nearby KASB (see my tour) in Bellevue, Washington, he never imagined that he would some day be a teacher. In contrasting his 25 years in morning radio, he opines, “this is the future,” revealing that his current gig working with students “is a real passion project.”
As we began our tour, senior “Mariner Max” was launching into his solo stint at the helm of KMIH during a National High School Radio Network broadcast (see my Radio World piece about the network). An award-winning sports show host, Max deftly shifted between his take on the World Series and other sports topics to montages of edited clips that he’d prepared in advance of the show. With four years of high school radio experience (he started at KMIH as a freshman), he’s a rare teenager who is already a seasoned broadcaster. Bryant beamed that Max is “one of the greatest baseball minds of any age.”
In addition to Max’s show, KMIH airs live sporting events, a number of sports-themed shows, talk shows, and specialty music programs. A few highlights include a fantasy football call-in show (“Fantasy Island”), “Hip Hop News and Sneaker Talk,” “Science and Politics,” a bluegrass and American roots music show, a program about movies, and a show focused on the school marching band (“Band Camp”).
Bryant sees KMIH as a “learning lab” that is also open to students from outside of Mercer Island High School’s radio program who use the facility to create podcasts and more. In an interesting twist, Bryant even teaches a class over the airwaves. During “Joe’s Class” on weekdays at noon, “Broadcast Media teacher, Joe Bryant, teaches his class live on the radio during the lunch hour! Joe is joined by students, teachers, parents and even the occasional celebrity!” The show description speculates, “Tune in and check out the only high school class taught live on the radio (that we know of)!”
At the time of my visit, there were also some shows hosted by folks from outside the school community, including a progressive rock show, Grateful Dead show, and a long-running late night music mix show (see a station tour video shot by one of its hosts in 2017).
I was also excited to hear that KMIH has its own radio station vehicle. Bryant revealed, “We’re getting a Bridgemobile,” and told me his plans for the remote broadcast van that was handed down from commercial radio station KMPS. “It’s going to be a bright red van and we’re going to have to get it wrapped with our logo…It’s going to have an old Marti unit,” Bryant shared.
His enthusiasm for high school radio was infectious. Reflecting back on his entire career, he told me, “25 years of morning radio was great and I loved being able to do that…but what I love more is being able to sit here and make the next generation get really excited about story telling…”
Thanks so much to Joe Bryant and everyone at KMIH and Mercer Island High School for the warm welcome. This is my 154th radio station tour overall and my 11th high school radio tour report. Don’t miss my recap of all three Seattle-area high school radio station tours on Radio Survivor podcast/radio show episode #177. Scan through my radio station tours in numerical order or by station type in our archives.
