KXXO has a new owner. Here’s what’s happening to the radio station in the coming days

KXXO, the longtime downtown Olympia FM radio station, is being sold so that the station’s founders, Dave Rauh and Toni Holm, could retire, The Olympian reported in August.

And now here’s the rest of the story, as a former famous radio voice used to say.

Rauh and Holm said Thursday that the Mixx 96.1 programming will come to an end at midnight Oct. 26. The station’s new owner, Portland-based Bustos Media, will begin its programming the following day, they said.

Bustos Media could not be reached, but John Foster, KXXO’s departing program director, said Bustos intends to introduce a “Spanish language soft pop” format.

When Rauh and Holm launched the station in the Rockway-Leland Building at Washington Street and State Avenue in 1990, they began by playing The Beatle’s “The Long and Winding Road.”

Thirty-five years later they plan to sign off the same way on Oct. 26.

“I really think we did some pretty amazing things, and I’m proud of our track record, but unfortunately it wasn’t something that could go forever,” said co-founder Rauh about the station.

At its peak, the radio station employed about 30 people, the founders said. Now it exits broadcasting with a staff of about 10, some of whom will retire and some who will be looking for work, they said.

Some also are wondering: What will happen to the charities that KXXO used to support?

One of those is the Little Red Schoolhouse, an area nonprofit that donates school supplies to school districts throughout Thurston County. In early August, the annual KXXO fundraiser raised about $25,000 and “tons of school supplies” for the nonprofit, according to a KXXO Facebook post.

The schoolhouse falls under an umbrella organization called Family Education & Support Services, development director Lynsi Polanco said Thursday.

KXXO created a lot of media awareness and helped get out the word about the schoolhouse, said Polanco, but now the organization is looking for a new media partner, she said.

“I’m sure there’s a media outlet out there somewhere that would love to hitch their wagon to it,” said Polanco about the schoolhouse.

And there’s an upcoming KXXO opportunity to help the schoolhouse one more time before the station says goodbye, said program director Foster.

On Monday, Oct. 27, the station, which is moving out of the Rockway-Leland building, will be giving away furniture, fixtures, kitchen supplies and other items between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., he said.

In return, they are asking for a donation to the Little Red Schoolhouse. Anyone who wants something, though, must be prepared to haul it away on their own, Foster said.