Longtime downtown Olympia radio station KXXO set to change hands, owners confirm

KXXO, best known as Mixx 96.1 FM, a radio station based in downtown Olympia for the past 35 years, is about to change hands, the longtime owners of the business confirmed to The Olympian on Thursday.

The Olympian learned of the sale via a radio-focused publication called Radio Insight.

Dave Rauh and Toni Holm, owners and life partners, are getting out of the business because it’s time to retire, plus both are dealing with some health challenges, they acknowledged.

“We always intended to divest from the get-go,” Rauh said.

The buyer is Portland-based Bustos Media, which already has a presence in Washington state. Bustos could not immediately be reached for more information.

“At Bustos Media we are proud to be one of the few independent Hispanic-owned radio groups in the USA,” President and CEO Amador Bustos says in a message on the company website.

“We are headquartered in Portland, Oregon, but own and operate stations in the states of Washington, California, Arizona and Texas,” he writes. “Our stations serve a diverse linguistic and ethnic population. Although most of our stations broadcast primarily in Spanish, some of them broadcast in English, Russian, Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese. Our vision is focused on building a first-class broadcast company.”

Rauh and Holm said they were unfamiliar with Bustos Media because the buying and selling of radio stations, similar to the residential real estate market, is done with a broker, they said.

Both attended The Evergreen State College and both worked as station managers of KAOS 89.3 FM, the campus radio station, before they graduated in the late 1970s.

About a decade later they opened KXXO in the Rockway-Leland Building at the corner of Washington Street and State Avenue in downtown Olympia, providing “soft rock for the Great Northwest,” Holm said.

“We were proud to be part of the downtown community,” she said, adding that she hopes Olympia continues to grow and flourish and remains a community that cares about people.

KXXO cared about community, too, pointing out that the station recently helped raise nearly $25,000 as well as school supplies for the nonprofit Little Red Schoolhouse.

When the station first opened in January 1990, the station could be heard from northern Oregon to British Columbia, although that would change as other stations emerged in Canada, Rauh said. The strength of its broadcast signal remains high at 85,000 watts, he said.

Longtime radio voice Dick Pust joined KXXO after his exit from KGY about 14 years ago.

“It was kind of a life-saver,” said Pust Thursday about landing a job at the station. “I didn’t know what to do with my life and it was a real hard time in my life, but they offered me a job there and brought me into their family. They kept me in the business. I owe a lot to Dave and Toni.”

Pust hosted a longtime Sunday and then Saturday morning interview program called “Your Community.”

Pust, who is 85, believes this is the end of the road for his broadcasting career, although he acknowledged that he feels good and that if Bustos Media offered him a position, he would consider it.

“You never know,” he said.

Pust pointed out that he first set foot in the Rockway-Leland building as a 15-year-old sophomore at Olympia High School. Now, 70 years later, he’s about to exit that same building.

“It’s been a wonderful ride,” he said. “You’ll get no complaints from me.”

Rauh and Holm described Pust as a “true community treasure.”

“We really enjoyed the heck out of it,” said Rauh about their time at KXXO.

This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 10:50 AM.