KLAY

---

title: "KLAY" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["radio-stations-in-seattle", "lakewood,-washington", "1978-establishments-in-washington-(state)", "radio-stations-established-in-1978"] description: "Radio station in Lakewood–Tacoma, Washington" topic_path: "general/radio-stations-in-seattle" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLAY" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Radio station in Lakewood–Tacoma, Washington ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox radio station"]

Field	Value
name	KLAY
logo	SacredHeartRadio.jpg
logo_size	200px
city	Lakewood, Washington
area	Tacoma and South Sound area
branding	Sacred Heart Radio
frequency	1180 kHz
translator
airdate
format	Catholic radio
power
class	B
facility_id	11890
coordinates
callsign_meaning	Clay Frank Huntington, original station owner
former_callsigns	{{unbulleted list
owner	Sacred Heart Radio, Inc.
sister_stations	KBLE / KBUP / KTTO / KYTR / KBKW / KBKO
website
affiliations	Sacred Heart Radio
licensing_authority	FCC
::

| name = KLAY | logo = SacredHeartRadio.jpg | logo_size = 200px | city = Lakewood, Washington | country = US | area = Tacoma and South Sound area | branding = Sacred Heart Radio | frequency = 1180 kHz | translator = | airdate = | format = Catholic radio | power = | class = B | facility_id = 11890 | coordinates = | callsign_meaning = Clay Frank Huntington, original station owner | former_callsigns = {{unbulleted list | KQLA (1978–1980) | KLAY (1980–1990) | KDFL (May–June 1990)}} | owner = Sacred Heart Radio, Inc. | licensee = | sister_stations = KBLE / KBUP / KTTO / KYTR / KBKW / KBKO | webcast = | website = | affiliations = Sacred Heart Radio | licensing_authority = FCC

KLAY (1180 AM) is a Catholic radio station licensed to Lakewood, Washington, United States, serving the Tacoma area. The station is owned by Sacred Heart Radio, a Catholic radio network based in Seattle.

History

Clay Frank Huntington, a commissioner of Pierce County, filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on September 18, 1972, seeking to build a new 1,000-watt daytime radio station on 1480 kHz and requesting the deleted facilities of KOOD, a station that had previously operated on the frequency but folded in 1969. Huntington, who had acquired the former station's assets, competed with Dale Owens of San Francisco for the application, which went to comparative hearing. FCC administrative law judge Frederick W. Denniston ruled in Huntington's favor on April 23, 1976.

KQLA went on the air with an "adult easy listening" format on October 2, 1978. The next year, Huntington agreed to sell the other station he owned, Tacoma's KLAY-FM, and move the KLAY call letters to the former KQLA.

Huntington obtained authorization to move KLAY to 1180 kHz in 1989 and sold the 1480 license to do so. In April 1991, KLAY returned to the air and began a talk format with South Sound–oriented features including Tacoma Tigers baseball and syndicated programs such as The Rush Limbaugh Show. Huntington hoped the station would be more successful at its new dial position. In 1997, the station was authorized to increase its daytime power to 5,000 watts. Into his 70s, Huntington continued working, in part to cope with the 1996 death of his son Mark.

Sacred Heart Radio

Clay Huntington died in 2011. In 2018, Clay Huntington Legacy LLC sold the KLAY facility and a construction permit for FM translator K293CA to Seattle-based Sacred Heart Radio. Sacred Heart completed construction of the FM translator in 2020.

References

References

1. Leffingwell, Robert Down. (1983). "Causes and Indicators of Commercial AM Radio Station Failure: 1962-1976". The Ohio State University.
2. "History Cards for KLAY". Federal Communications Commission.
3. (1976-04-26). "Huntington radio bid clears hurdle". The News Tribune.
4. MacGougan, Denny. (1978-10-02). "We're loct into Oct.". The News Tribune.
5. Webster, Kerry. (1979-11-28). "Puyallup firm to buy Huntington's KLAY". The News Tribune.
6. Szymanski, Jim. (1991-04-11). "Talk radio returns to Tacoma". The News Tribune.
7. Popham, Art. (1997-07-29). "A 'meeting place' for antiques shoppers". The News Tribune.
8. McGrath, John. (1999-05-24). "Tacoma to thank Clay for many feats". The News Tribune.
9. (2012-03-27). "Cheney Stadium street now 'Clay Huntington Way'".
10. Venta, Lance. (2018-11-16). "Station Sales Week of 11/19". RadioInsight.
11. "About SHR".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::