KGHP (89.9 FM) is a student-run

high school radio High school radio are radio stations located at high schools and usually operated by its students with faculty supervision. The oldest extant high school AM radio station is AM 1450 KBPS in Portland, Oregon. Portland radio station KBPS, first li ...

station operating on a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

license in

Gig Harbor, Washington Gig Harbor () is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington, Pierce County, Washington (state), Washington. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Gig Harbor bills ...

. Owned by the Peninsula School District #401, the station's studio is located on the campus of Peninsula High School. With its two translators, K207AZ 89.3 and K289BZ 105.7, the station's signal covers most of the

Gig Harbor Gig Harbor () is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census. Gig Harbor bills itself as "the Maritime City" and maintains a strong connection to its ...

Peninsula,

Key Peninsula The Key Peninsula lies along Puget Sound to the south of Kitsap Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. It is part of Pierce County and is bordered to the west by Case Inlet and to the east by Carr Inlet. The peninsula is approximately 16 mi ...

and portions of

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

Fox Island, Washington Fox Island is an island and census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington, United States, in Puget Sound. It is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) from Gig Harbor. The island was named Fox by Charles Wilkes during the United ...

and

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

. The station came on the air in 1988 and was one of three high school radio station in the state of

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. The first manager and teacher was Don Hofmann, a former KNBQ-FM general manager. KSTW-TV technician Max Bice was the engineer. The last station manager was Spencer "Walrus" Abersolds. As of June 2023, Abersolds was let go of his position due to budget cuts. The multi-format station is run by students at Peninsula High School and

Gig Harbor High School Gig Harbor High School is a public high school in the Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, Washington. The school opened in September 1979. The school enrolls 1611 students (2017) in ninth through twelfth grades. Facility history and remod ...

during the day, and in the evening to night hours it is run by community volunteers. The station gives a variety of shows from the students which range from sports broadcasts to classic rock. A variety of genres is played, including

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

Reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

Roots A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients. Root or roots may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusin ...

Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana music, a genre or style of American music * Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1981 film), an American drama film * ''Americana'' (20 ...

Classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

and vintage music. As the station is also an educational tool for the students, KGHP also runs news briefs and fact segments, at various times throughout the day, along with taking requests via the phone. The station broadcasts Peninsula High School and

home varsity football games with the broadcasting crew called The Sports Guys. The station also provides emergency information during

power outage A power outage, also called a blackout, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, a power cut, or a power out is the complete loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an el ...

s, severe

storms A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm) ...

and

natural disasters A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

. In November 2023, the Key Peninsula News reported that the Peninsula School District would consider transferring ownership of the station to a local non-profit organisation.

External links

KGHP-FM
* * * {{coord, 47.241, N, 122.772, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title GHP High school radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1988 Gig Harbor, Washington