Local radio icon writes book about the historical importance of broadcast

When he decided to write a book, Olympia radio legend Dick Pust knew the story he wanted to tell.

“Local radio, especially small-town radio, was an incredibly important part of people’s lives,” Pust said. “I wanted that history to be preserved.”

Pust self-published “AM 1240: Life at a Small Town Radio Station” in April.

“There was a time when people had multiple radios going at the same time, all tuned to the same radio station,” he said. “If you wanted to know what was happening in Olympia, KGY was there. We had real reporters out there covering the news, and it was immediate.

“People listened to KGY for school closures. … Now you have all different sources, but back then, there was literally one place that you could get the school closure announcements, and that was KGY.”

As much as the book pays tribute to the time when radio was the dominant medium, it also is a history of Olympia. Pust’s time as a broadcaster meant he was listening and watching through the years — during fires, ice storms, May Day demonstrations and two of the biggest events of his five decades in radio: the Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001, and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Through the years, Pust, 81, wasn’t just paying attention: He was taking notes.

“When I was 19 years old, my grandmother gave me a diary,” he said. “For some reason, I stuck with it, and I wrote things in my diary every single day. … And I saved every picture, every newspaper clipping, everything that I had along the way.

“I didn’t really ever think about writing a book, but I knew that I was working for a historic radio station,” he added. “KGY was one of the first radio stations on the air in the United States.”

He started work on “AM 1240” seven years ago after he was asked to speak about an early emergency broadcast system and started doing research in his journals and clippings.

“I thought, ‘I have all this information — all these pictures, all these memories, exact names, dates, places. Maybe I should write a book,’ ” he said. “And I did.”

Pust “knew Olympia like nobody else,” longtime listener Charles Shelan, then executive director of Community Youth Services, told The Olympian in January 2011, when Pust left KGY after losing his job as general manager.

The book includes details about Pust’s life — including a photo of him getting a new radio for Christmas 1955 — along with radio playlists and tributes to many of his KGY colleagues and other significant people.

The book ends in 2011, when Pust left KGY, but Pust is still on the radio, working part time at MIXX 96.1 FM, where he’ll be filling in on the morning show Dec. 28-30.

He’s still keeping journals, too. “I’ve never missed a day,” he said.

Get Pust’s book

“AM 1240: Life at a Small Town Radio Station,” by Dick Pust, is available on Amazon in paperback for $55 or Kindle format for $16.99. To order a signed — and sometimes even hand-delivered — copy, email Pust at am1240book@comcast.net.