New 97.3 KIRO FM Host

Seattle media veteran Bill Radke will return to the Northwest as host of Seattle’s Morning news from 5:00 – 9:00 a.m.

Bonneville Media made the announcement Tuesday. He’ll join me with the morning news beginning on November 1st. Tony Miner, who’s been filling in for the past few months, will continue with the station. And for Radke, this is “coming home.”

Radke, 45, moved to the Seattle area first when he was 15 and his military father gave his family the choice of moving to Wichita, Kansas or Seattle for a job with Boeing.

“That was an easy call,” says Radke, who went to high school in Federal Way, and attended PLU before transferring to the University of Washington. Along the way, grew up listening to KIRO radio and was an intern at the station while he was in college.

He also hit the Northwest comedy circuit in the late ’80s after he watched several stand up comics and thought, “I may never be good, but I can be better than that guy.”

In 1992, Radke won the Seattle comedy competition and that opened the door to hosting KUOW FM’s Morning Edition program from 1991-2004. He created and hosted the weekly news satire show Rewind and is currently the host of NPR’s Marketplace Morning Report. He’s author of the book Seattle, and he wrote a weekly humor column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Radke is excited to move back to Seattle with his wife, twin sons and daughter. His three-year-old was a little reluctant to leave Los Angeles at first. She wanted to stay there until she saw a YouTube video of people throwing fish at Pike Place Market.

“Her opposition didn’t run very deep,” he says.

Along with seeing friends and seven siblings who still live in the Seattle-area, Radke is looking forward to getting caught up on events in the Northwest.

“I’m assuming nothing’s changed,” Radke says. “As long as I can go to The Lusty Lady with Mayor Greg Nickels and watch the Mariners in the playoff this fall. I can’t wait.”