On the air at KING-FM 98.1, classical music continues to play 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Just like always.

Behind the scenes, though, station staff members are hard at work to transform KING from a commercial venture to a listener-supported station.

Beginning next July, KING-FM will no longer operate on advertising dollars. At that time, the station’s seven-year commercial partnership with Fisher Communications ends. KING decided against renewing the relationship.

In September, KING plans to kick off its first major capital campaign. The station will approach major donors with the goal of raising an initial $2 million. KING is also already in the process of becoming a 501c3 and obtaining a nonprofit radio license from the FCC.

Next year, the station will start appealing to listeners for donations. KING-FM is still developing a target fundraising goal for audience pledges.

According to KING general manager Jennifer Ridewood, the station first started contemplating breaking ties with advertisers last year. Ridewood took a road trip to visit listener-supported classical stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Washington D.C., and North Carolina.

She found that the stations were thriving on donations, even during the recession. While grant funding dipped when the economy took a nosedive, listener support did not.

Classical music stations work with the nonprofit model, Ridewood said, because the typical listener – an affluent individual age 55 or older – is the sort most likely to make a donation. Advertisers, on the other hand, prefer a far younger audience, meaning they’re less likely to want to support a classical station than the listeners themselves.

“We have a great demographic because they are committed to their community and classical music,” Ridewood said.

Ridewood also talked to Seattle NPR stations KUOW and KPLU, both of whom expressed support for the idea. The station managers told Ridewood that Seattleites are eager and willing to support radio they care about.

In April, the KING-FM board voted to become a nonprofit. Since then, in addition to building the future financial structure, the station has launched ventures that Ridewood feels befit the listener-supported model.

At the end of July, KING-FM started the Arts Channel. The station records interviews and conversations with musicians and arts groups and streams them online. KING-FM also began a larger push to record live music. The station plays some of the shows on the air, and puts others on the web site. Both Arts Channel and the live music initiative came about because of listener feedback and requests, Ridewood said.

This is the first time in KING-FM’s lengthy history that the station will attempt to be supported by listeners. The commercial venture dates back to 1947, when Dorothy Bullitt started the KING radio and television broadcasting empire.

Dorothy Bullitt

In 1995, Bullitt’s two daughters donated KING-FM to the nonprofit Beethoven. At that time, KING-FM teamed up with commercial communications company Entercom, allowing the radio giant to sell ads for them.

When that agreement ran out seven years ago, KING paired up with Fisher. Now, KING-FM is venturing out on its own, and creating the next chapter for classical radio in Seattle.