Close
MyNorthwest
News
Opinion
Sports
Tools
Connect

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

Swain: ‘Super’ El Niño building off the coast may bring Seattle its first muggy, humid summer in a generation

Seattle doesn't do humid. We brag about dry summers, cool nights, sleep with the window cracked, and no air conditioning. It's part of the deal in Washington.
2 months ago

Harger: Katie Wilson built Seattle’s biggest business tax. Amazon drove to Bellevue. Downtown lost 30,000 jobs

Thirty thousand jobs gone. A third of the office space empty. Nearly half the value of the office towers wiped out. And the fingerprints on the policy that helped drive it belong to the woman now running the city.
2 months ago

Harger: Corey Rattleff stole from stores for 13 years to feed his fentanyl addiction. Now he’s clean, working, and asking Washington to fund what saved him

His mother reached out to Andrea Suarez at We Heart Seattle, who stepped in and got him into a 21-day inpatient program at Evergreen Health in Monroe. From there, he found Battlefield Addiction.
2 months ago

Harger: King County raised your sales tax without a vote. The one time voters got a say on this issue, they said no

On Friday, the King County Transportation District voted 5-4 to raise your sales tax by a tenth of a percent. You didn't get a say. You won't get one.
2 months ago

Harger: Our leaders say they love this economy. Try affording it at $5.56 a gallon

Around here, they say a single adult needs $135,000 a year to live comfortably. One person. No kids. That ranks Seattle as the sixth-highest among any metro in America.
3 months ago

Harger: 16 words about how oatmeal raisin cookies are the best cookies, and the KIRO text line has not forgiven me

I have a lot of divisive opinions. I know this about myself. Oatmeal raisin cookies beat chocolate chip. It's not even close. The raisins are the whole point.
3 months ago

Harger: Greeting cards are the original AI

Greeting cards got me thinking about the world we live in now. Many of the same people convinced AI is the end of authentic human connection, are also the ones standing in line at the Hallmark store.
3 months ago

Harger: ‘Hey Bob, enough is enough.’ A Kent sober home’s plea to Gov. Ferguson on fentanyl

A Kent sober home urges Governor Ferguson to address the fentanyl crisis impacting lives in the community.
3 months ago

Harger: Ferguson’s phone ban gives every parent a fall guy, including me

Ferguson's plan is simple: No smartphones or smartwatches from the moment school starts to the moment it ends. Every public school in the state, kindergarten through 12th grade.
3 months ago

For one Oak Harbor sailor, the 2026 Warrior Games started with a promise to his kids

James Shoemaker is a retired Navy Aircrew Survival Equipmentman 1st Class, and will compete from his wheelchair as part of Team Navy at the 2026 Warrior Games.
3 months ago

Harger: Governor Ferguson admits Washington’s 2027-29 budget is in trouble. His own OFM director is preparing for it to be worse

Ferguson's budget director sent a letter to every state agency telling them three things. Stop expanding programs. Prepare significant cuts. Don't count on the new millionaires tax to cover anything.
3 months ago

‘I’ve never seen a march like that’: Aurora neighbors, King County prosecutors demand action on Seattle sex trafficking

Hundreds of neighbors marched along Aurora Avenue this weekend, demanding action on the gun violence, sex trafficking, and open prostitution.
3 months ago

Harger: Mayor Katie Wilson skipped the North Aurora march Saturday. Several city leaders showed up instead

Several hundred North Aurora residents marched the avenue Saturday evening, blocking traffic, demanding the city take action. Mayor Katie Wilson did not show up. Again.
3 months ago

Harger: HUD pulls funding from Housing First. King County spent 20 years and billions on it. It got worse

King County adopted a 10-year plan to end homelessness in 2005. We are in year 20. Homelessness has roughly doubled.
3 months ago

Harger: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson on the defensive over homelessness, dodges on KCRHA and Spencer Pratt at Civic Cocktail

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson walked onto the Civic Cocktail stage Wednesday night and got a sustained grilling from Fox 13 Seattle anchor Hana Kim.
3 months ago

Seattle heatwave forecast: Models hint at 90s in Western WA

Some forecast models are flirting with a real heat wave across the Puget Sound region in about 10 days. It's not a lock. It could fall apart.
3 months ago

Harger: Mayor Katie Wilson walked Seattle into an avoidable World Cup security trap. Every day she waits, it spirals

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced the Stadium District cameras would be installed, but not turned on unless the city became aware of a credible threat.
3 months ago

Harger: Auburn fired a cop in two weeks, while an Arlington cop is charged with 10 counts. WA’s police chiefs have stopped circling the wagons

The Auburn Police Department fired one of its officers on May 28. He had been arrested two weeks earlier on a felony charge of immoral communication with a minor.
3 months ago

Harger: Amid explosion of violence, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson applauds her team for going to the Aurora safety walk. She could not be bothered to go herself

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson wrote that her team was deeply saddened by the stories they heard. Her team. She used the words "my team." She did not write that she was there.
3 months ago

Harger: An unelected Sound Transit board just decided which of your transit projects live and which die. You did not vote for any of them to do that

The Sound Transit board decided Ballard would get cut off at Seattle Center. They pushed South Kirkland to Issaquah to 2050. They raised a car rental tax.
3 months ago

Bear traps at the doors: Illegal marijuana operation in Pacific nearly hurts firefighters

Firefighters who rushed into a burning warehouse in Pacific last weekend narrowly avoided stepping into a set of bear traps positioned near the doors of an illegal marijuana grow operation.
3 months ago

Gunfire returns to Aurora Avenue less than 48 hours after Seattle replaced neighbor barriers with drive-through bollards

Less than two days after SDOT removed neighbor-installed steel planters and replaced them with concrete barriers, gunfire again rattled the Aurora Avenue neighborhood.
3 months ago

Harger: Seattle removed the Aurora Avenue planters and installed barriers a driver can pass right through. The pimps and prostitutes were back by Thursday night.

This is the fifth piece I have written about the pimp war on Aurora Avenue in 12 days.
3 months ago

Harger: Watching Mayor Katie Wilson govern Seattle feels like a body-switching comedy. The reality of the job is catching up to her

This is Katie Wilson's first real job. It is like one of those body-switching comedies from the 80s where the kid wakes up in the adult body and isn't really sure what they're doing.
3 months ago