Dick Pust finally writes it all down

He’s charming.  But you knew that.

His name is Dick Pust and for 50 years, local old timers and newcomers alike, listened to his soothing voice on the radio.

For 50 years he was “their” disc jockey. Working without a director or producer, he chose their music, put together their news and emptied his own wastepaper basket. He loved every minute of it and so did his audience. And he did all fifty years at the same radio station – KGY.

And then he retired…for a minute, before going to work on a project that took six years to complete.

A member of the Tumwater Rotary Club suggested he write the book and at first, he resisted. But after going through all the things he had saved over the years he became enthusiastic about sharing the history of the radio station and the community it served.

His new book, AM 1240, Life at a Small Town Radio Station, just arrived. Unless you preordered a hard copy you are out of luck. A sell-out before it was published, it is now being printed in softcover.

You can, however, find copies at the Timberland Libraries and others, along with the Lacey Museum, while you wait for the arrival of the next shipment. 

We agreed neither one of us have ever met anyone that didn’t have a story and for a while it was hard to tell who was interviewing who. But eventually we got down to business – the book.

Many pages of this memoir are devoted to photographs. It’s a historical pictorial stroll down the Olympia that was. For newbies like me, it was fascinating but I suspect it will bring back a ton of memories for those who grew up here, or moved here many years ago.

Born and raised here, he spent about eight years in Minnesota and then returned and stayed. He included a few pictures of his childhood, including one of him cutting hay. He was in a hot air balloon crash when the balloon almost got caught in power lines. Fortunately, no one was hurt. When the ground crew and nearby kids caught up with him, he and his party were drinking champagne. He had his 15 minutes of fame when he appeared in a CBS movie of the week.

But Pust didn’t want the book to be a memoir of his life.

“There are over 600 names in the book. He took me through the book and explained there are people in the book that didn’t even know their pictures were in there. “People I did not want ever forgotten,” he explained.

Pictures tell the story:

Booze and cigarettes were everywhere back in the fifties so there are several pictures of locals lighting up.

Lakefair celebrations, old downtown Olympia, members of the radio staff, pictures of buildings that still exist but house other businesses now. Pictures of the 1922 earthquake, Mt. St. Helen’s blowing up, Tumwater was it was tiny --  and the crowd of 2000 people who showed up for the first Homemakers Show put on by this little radio station.

Entertaining Stories:

There are also some great stories. A letter from a listener is featured. The story about the sheriff’s deputy whom Pust feels probably saved his life. The deputy saw him walking to work during a blizzard and drove him out to the station on the shoreline of the port peninsula, north of downtown Olympia,

 He met folks who listened to his show and told him about family members that were listeners.

One of my favorites was about the staff member who ordered what he thought was two boxes of granola bars and a whole truckload showed up. The company refused to take them back, so they gave them away.

And there were guests:

Playboy Bunnies arrived at the station one day. Governors, school superintendents, teachers and famous people like Bob Hope and President Truman visited.

When he retired, his biggest radio station competitor threw a going-away party for him. What he nowadays refers to as ‘His Gang’, still meets at Starbucks every week. So, of course, they had their picture taken with their favorite barista.

If you are new to the area or have lived here your whole life, check out this book. I think you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks, Dick, for the memories.

Kathleen Anderson writes this column each week from her home in Olympia.  Contact her at  kathleen@theJOLTnews.com or post your comment below.