KBRD

KBRD (680 kHz) is a non-commercial radio station broadcasting a nostalgia radio format. It is licensed to Lacey, Washington, and serves the Olympia area. It is owned by the BJ & Skip's for the Music foundation, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, so donations are tax deductible. KBRD is dedicated to the preservation of the music of the first half of the 20th century.

KBRD is a daytimer station, powered at 250 watts. Because 680 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A KNBR San Francisco, to avoid interference, KBRD can only broadcast from sunrise to sunset. But it is heard around the clock on 250-watt FM translator K266BM at 101.1 MHz in Olympia.

History
The station signed on the air on March 7, 1994. The original call sign was KNTE. On October 7, 1994, the station changed its call letters to KLDY. Then on February 17, 1995, it switched to the current KBRD.

Larry "Skip" Morrow owned an FM radio station but was interested in also owning an AM station. When he purchased the construction permit for KBRD, he didn't have enough radio equipment to go on the air. He was also interested in securing the KBRD call sign. When the station was ready to sign on, the call letters belonged to someone else, so the station began as KLDY. When the KBRD call sign became available, Morrow transferred the KLDY call letters to his Classical music AM station at 1280, clearing the way for 680 KBRD.

KBRD was named for BJ, Morrow's Moluccan cockatoo, whom he described as the "music director". If BJ danced to the music, it was put on KBRD's playlist. Morrow ran both KBRD and his FM radio station from his living room. Ten years after KBRD went on the air, Morrow died of cancer. Before his death, he transferred ownership of the radio station to a foundation he created: BJ and Skip's for The Music Foundation. The station is now run by Adrian DeBee (music) and Jack Ondracek (engineering).

Format
Although officially described as a "nostalgia" station, KBRD plays an eclectic mixture of jazz, rock, swing, country, dixieland, ragtime, zydeco, western swing, novelty and other music, much of which is not available on commercial radio stations.

A typical hour broadcast on KBRD might contain music by Artie Shaw, Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party, Bessie Smith, Boots Randolph, the Clicquot Club Eskimos, Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers, Bing Crosby, the Harmonicats, Sheb Wooley, Marty Robbins, Jelly Roll Morton, Nat King Cole, the Korn Kobblers, George Formby, Nana Mouskouri, Perry Como, Merle Travis, Louis Armstrong and the Hoosier Hot Shots.

KBRD broadcasts without commercial interruption. It seeks donations on the air and on its website.

Awards
The KBRD website states that the station was named the 9th best radio station in the country by E! Entertainment.

Listening online
KBRD's AM signal reaches out only about 35 mi from Lacey, Washington, and only during daylight hours. It can be heard around the clock on its FM translator, 101.1 K266BM. But that signal is also limited to Lacey, Olympia and adjacent communities. However, KBRD programming is available via streaming media worldwide from its website.