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Host, Seattle's Morning News

Charlie Harger

About

I’m a journalist with more than 30 years of experience covering the stories that shape life in western Washington. I host Seattle’s Morning News on KIRO Newsradio, where I help listeners start their day informed, prepared, and sometimes even entertained.

My reporting has earned multiple national and regional awards, including several Edward R. Murrow Awards. I’ve also been named APTRA’s Radio Reporter of the Year and recognized for investigative reporting on major stories like the Boeing 737 MAX crisis and interviews with serial killer Gary Ridgway.

I specialize in making complex issues understandable, focusing on how news affects real people. I’m a fourth-generation western Washington resident and have called Auburn home for over a decade.

Before hosting, I served as News Director at KIRO, worked at KOMO for nearly two decades, and taught journalism at Green River College. I take news seriously — but believe the best reporting connects on a human level.

Expertise

  • Broadcast Journalism and Storytelling
  • Investigative and Accountability Reporting
  • Community Impact and Public Service Journalism

Experience

  • Host, Seattle’s Morning News – KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
  • News Director – KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
  • Reporter and Anchor – KOMO Newsradio
  • Broadcast Instructor – Green River College
  • Communications and Digital Media – Microsoft and tech startups

Education

B.A., Communications – Thomas Edison State University
M.S., Strategic Communication – Arkansas State University

Achievements & Awards

  • Edward R. Murrow Award – Hard News (2020)
  • Edward R. Murrow Award – Continuing Coverage (2019)
  • APTRA Award – Best Investigative Reporting (2019, 2014)
  • Edward R. Murrow Award – Best Newswriting (2015)
  • APTRA Award – Radio Reporter of the Year (2015)
  • APTRA Award – Best Spot News Coverage (2015)
  • Edward R. Murrow Award – Best Documentary (2014)
  • APTRA Award – Enterprise Coverage (2014)
  • Emmy Nomination – Investigative Journalism (2014)

Social Media Profiles

Harger: Washington’s wildland firefighters deserve year-round jobs. Congress could make it happen

My brother spent years as a volunteer firefighter. My brother-in-law has been a professional firefighter for a long time. Then there's a special breed within that world. The wildland firefighter.
4 days ago

Harger: Seattle’s own report says 27% of traffic deaths were homeless. The city’s safety plan barely touches on it

Recently, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a new executive order aimed at making Seattle's streets safer for everyone who walks, bikes, drives, or takes transit.
5 days ago

Incoming storm could bring down tree limbs across region. And Seattle may have seen its last 80-degree day this year

A fall storm arriving in the Seattle area Wednesday afternoon could bring down tree limbs and knock out power across the Puget Sound region.
5 days ago

Harger: Katie Wilson says she’s not DSA. Fine. The DSA platform says ‘defund the police,’ and SPD’s hiring bonus just got defunded

"No WAY," I told myself. There's no way SPD, short hundreds of officers, working through a rough stretch on morale, and still a little tender from the whole "defund" era, would cut its one big recruiting tool: the hiring bonuses.
6 days ago

Harger: Somehow, three years is the full sentence for the Third and Pine shooting. Sentence served, says the state

Monday afternoon, the state sent out a notice that William Tolliver is out of prison. Sentence served. One person dead, seven others shot. He served a little more than three years for it.
7 days ago

Harger: Housing, the Bite of Seattle shooting, security cameras. Mayor Katie Wilson keeps finding new ways to postpone hard decisions

About 46,000 Seattle renter households spend more than half their income on housing. Half. Rent gets paid. Groceries get squeezed.
8 days ago

Harger: A community college radio station gave me a career, a newsroom full of colleagues, and a wife

I talk for a living, on a medium that talks about itself constantly, and I found out about National Radio Day after the show ended yesterday.
18 days ago

Harger: A 17-year-old was convicted, locked up, released, and the allegations got worse. Now what?

He's 17 years old. He's already been through the juvenile justice system for serious crimes. But we know what happened next. He eventually got out.
19 days ago

Harger: You think Brian Heywood spends big? A caregivers union in Olympia outspent him on campaigns

The union SEIU 775 likes to note that The Seattle Times once compared it to Boeing and Microsoft and called it one of Olympia's most powerful players.
20 days ago

Harger: Ordinary abundance and how the most astonishing thing about your life is no longer being astonished by it

A website called Ordinary Abundance blew up on my feed this weekend. It walks you through an ordinary modern apartment, and every ordinary object opens a quote from someone in history for whom that object was unimaginable.
21 days ago

Harger: Auburn Police arrested five shoplifters at Fred Meyer and booked them into jail. Here’s why that matters more than you think

Last year, Kroger closed the Fred Meyer in Kent, about 10 minutes from the Auburn location, citing "a steady rise in theft and a challenging regulatory environment."
22 days ago

Harger: 2 students, 1 bear, pastrami, and a dorm kitchen that needed 2 days of professional cleaning

Two Cornell students wanted to do some home cookin' in their communal dorm kitchen. These two guys wanted to make bear pastrami. Kind of complicated, but sure.
25 days ago

Harger: SPD described a Georgetown stabbing suspect down to his jacket. For the Bite of Seattle shooters? Nothing.

Here's what SPD has released about the shooters who opened fire into a crowd at the Bite of Seattle on July 26, killing two bystanders: nothing.
26 days ago

Harger: Sound Transit’s radical new idea that riders should pay to ride

Discover Sound Transit's bold plan for riders to pay, set for a vote on Aug. 27. Is this common sense or a new challenge?
27 days ago

Harger: A Kent business lost $90,000 to copper wire theft. The accused got $113.40 at a recycler. He didn’t show up for court

$113.40. That's what the copper was worth at the recycler. The business it came from has lost more than $90,000. Merry Christmas.
28 days ago

Harger: The legislature built a perfect trap for the income tax repeal. A Thurston County judge just proved the trap works

Before any of this started, the Democrats asked experts to design a perfect bill to enact an income tax. Guess what? The experts delivered.
29 days ago

Harger: Pierce County forgot to charge me for a school levy, sent a letter blaming nobody, and wants $1,100 by November

I got a letter from the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer, informing us of a "discrepancy" on our 2026 property tax statement. Not a mistake. A discrepancy.
1 month ago

Harger: A killer. Medium to high risk. Questioned about arson 3 times. 2 states had his file. Hundreds of homes in Spokane are gone

The situation in Spokane is hard to believe. A man has been arrested and is being held on suspicion of starting the biggest of those three fires.
1 month ago

Harger: The Bite of Seattle shooter is still out there. SPD won’t release a description. Here’s what may be slowing this investigation down

I'm frustrated. I don't have inside information. What I have is police reports, public statements, and the same questions you have.
1 month ago

Harger: My primary ballot is sitting on my microwave. If a politics nerd is cramming, the August primary isn’t working

We moved primaries from September to August in 2008 to give election officials more time to process mail-in ballots. That made logistical sense. For actually getting people to vote, it's a flop.
1 month ago

Harger: Washington leads the nation in retail theft. Vancouver’s answer is to stop citing shoplifters. What could go wrong?

A study ranked us No. 1 among the states for retail theft impact. No. 1. Out of 50. The study found Washington had 48% more reported retail theft than our share of the national population would predict.
1 month ago

Harger: The Seattle Times wants to ban the Blue Angels. I’ve changed my mind. They’re right

Thanks to The Seattle Times' editorial board, I've changed my mind. The Blue Angels don't belong in modern Seattle. Not because they're loud. Not because they're military. Because they're just too exciting.
1 month ago

Harger: A 15-year-old allegedly opened fire at the Bite of Seattle. Two broken laws will almost certainly let him walk

The bullets that killed Whitehead and Villalba do not appear to have come from the teen's gun. Think about what a defense attorney does with that.
1 month ago

Harger: Seattle took in 40% more in taxes, spent all of it, and now wants the highest sales tax of any major city in America

This fall, Seattle voters, who are generally open to raising taxes on themselves, will decide whether to raise the sales tax to expand bus service, and whether to boost the library levy.
1 month ago