KJR Sports Radio’s Dick Fain wears many hats

Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day for Dick Fain. In addition to juggling hours being the family man with his wife and two kids, he also has his day job at KJR Sports Radio in Seattle, a second job as the television play-play- voice of the Seattle Storm WNBA team, a high school basketball coach and a dad who looks after his son Dixon on the basketball court and the golf course.

The 52-year-old Fain has always been a sports kind of guy. He graduated from Mount Rainier High School before heading to the University of Washington. If you have ever listened to him on the radio he bleeds Purple and Gold. In fact, on his afternoon show with his partner Dave “Softy” Mahler, they both bleed Purple and Gold.

Fain got his start at KJR Sports Radio way back in 1997 as a behind the scenes producer. He got his first taste of being on the air in 1999 being an update guy and doing what he loved with his alma mater as a pre and post game show for Husky games.  He then started doing Saturday shows in 2000 and his career was on its way.

“I knew I always wanted do radio, I got some breaks early,” said Fain. “Wall I ever wanted to be when I grew up was be a radio host and play-by-play broadcaster.”

Fain got a co-hosting job during the week in 2011 and then in 2017 moved the afternoons with his current co-host The Soft One and they have been ruling the afternoon airwaves ever since.

If you have ever listened to their show you can see why people tune in. Their banter is great and they bring in their producers to join in the conversation as well. They rarely take phone calls but do take texts to add into the show. But Fain said that is just the way that the radio and television sports talk shows have gone in that direction these days.

“The shows have moved from the direction of taking phone calls to the hosts talking – and bringing in the producers to add to the shows too,” he said. “The producers have an open mic now and that has added to the show. It has just become the evolution of the way the talk shows have gone.”

Fain’s other gig could not have gone any better with the Seattle Storm. It all started back in 2000 as a sideline reporter and he did an occasional play-by -play announcing job. In 2008 he became the full time play-by-play announcer. He traveled for five seasons as the radio announcer and did the occasional television game. But all that changed as the team slowly went away from radio and transitioned to television.

The Seattle Storm has four WNBA Championships and Fain has been around for all of them. This season the young Storm team is struggling but Fain says there is hope down the road as the young team gains more experience.

Off court and away from the radio airwaves, Fain has coached basketball and his son Dixon for years. He has watched Dixon grow as a sharpshooter on the court at Mount Rainier High School and becoming one of the top junior golfers in the state.

Fain coached at Mount Rainier for 15 years before stepping away in 2012 to work with Dixon as a youth player. He is back on the Mount Rainier bench as Dixon enters his junior year. And on the golf course, Fain tries to get as much time with Dixon as possible watching him develop into a solid player.

Fain enjoyed sports as a kid but wishes he had taken up golf earlier and played more. But he said playing with Dixon and watching him has been a treat.

“I regret not taking up golf earlier,” he said. “After watching Dixon and what he is doing at an early age has been great. We put plastic clubs in his hands and he went to work with the clubs at age 2. It was cool to watch. We signed him up for The First Tee at age 6 and he made his first par at age 6. And we even got the video of him making that par. Pretty cool”

Fain’s 14-year-old daughter Aubrey is another well-rounded athlete in swimming, water polo, basketball and even plays the piano.

Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to do it all. But he manages to squeeze it all in. And that’s the way Dick Fain likes it.