R.I.P.: Bellingham WA Radio Broadcaster Walter Fay

Haines Fay

Longtime KGMI 790 AM radio announcer and former Bellingham City Council member Walter “Haines” Fay died Wednesday morning.

He was 87-years-of-age, according to The Bellingham Herald.

Fay retired from KGMI in March 1992 after being a radio announcer for 48 years. Fay, who went by Haines rather than Walter, was immensely well-known in the community as a distinctive voice in local radio news, for his play-by-play coverage of high school football and basketball, and as the host of a daily call-in talk show, “Impact,” which first aired in 1970.

A hometown figure, Fay began his broadcast career while a Bellingham High School student by announcing football and basketball games for Rogan Jones, then the owner of KVOS radio.

While home for Thanksgiving in 1946, Jones offered Fay a full-time job at KGMI. Fay worked there for the next four decades as a disc jockey, program director, news reporter, news director, and a radio and TV sports reporter.

KGMI and KSIM radio stations, owned by the Rogan Jones family, were sold to a Michigan corporation in 1998, putting an end to local ownership of one of the oldest family-owned radio stations in Washington.