KJET 1600 AM Seattle 1982 Vintage T-Shirt

Historically, AM radio hasn't typically been associated with anything cool, but in 1982, KJET 1600 AM decided to change that. Well before alternative music and radio stations dedicated to it were a thing, Seattle's KJET was making it happen and doing it on the AM dial. Billing themselves as a 'modern rock' station, KJET played an eclectic mix of new wave and rock music that otherwise didn't fit into the silos of radio in the early '80s. Despite the station's overwhelming popularity, six years after launching, the station was flipped to an oldies format in preparation for a sale. Needless to say, it was a disaster, but there was no going back, so Seattle would have to wait a few more years until a new FM alternative station launched.