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Friday, July 1, 2016

Yakima Radio: KXDD's Dewey Boynton Signs-Off

Country KXDD 104.1 FM personality Dewey Boynton hangs up his headphone today.

After a career in radio that began in 1972, the 64-year-old who has always used his real name as his DJ handle stated “I’ve been blessed to have worked at something I loved for my entire life,”

According to the Yakima Herald, the Tacoma native was in high school when Lee “Emperor” Smith, a top radio personality in the Seattle area in the early 1970s, strolled into a school assembly in his usual toga, gold sandals and crown of green leaves.

As the morning host on KJR 950 AM from August 1969 to the end of 1973, Emperor Smith was right in the middle golden era of personality radio. Seeing him strut across the stage in costume, accompanied by two attractive women, stuck with Boynton.

He was only 20 when he got his first job at a country station in Longview after leaving school early. “I was a rocker, but I grew to love country very quickly,” Boynton said.

From there, Boynton’s career took him to Bellingham, then San Diego and KSON-FM, followed by two years at a Houston station.

Boynton also worked in Lincoln, Neb., before coming back to Seattle, where he was a disc jockey at KMPS among other roles.

“I had the number one afternoon show in Seattle,” he said.

But he and wife Denise, whom he married in June 1972, later decided to raise their three sons in a smaller city. Dewey celebrated 20 years at 104.1 KXDD in May.

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