Wasmer was a former United Wireless Telegraph Company radiotelegraph operator, who had opened the Excelsior Motorcycle and Bicycle Co. in 1911, and also sold radio equipment.

[6] KHQ was the second Seattle station licensed following the formal establishment of a broadcasting service category on December 1, 1921, by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the regulators of radio at this time.

[7] The first Seattle station licensed under these new regulations was KFC on December 8, 1921, which was operated jointly by the Northern Radio and Electric Company and the Post-Intelligencer newspaper.

[6] In March, KHQ suspended operations for nearly two weeks, returning with a 50-watt transmitter that replaced the original 10-watt set,[8] which had been sold to the Economy Market so it could establish station KZC.

[10] In January 1925, KHQ began broadcasting from a studio located at the Bush & Lane Piano Company store on Third Avenue,[11] and the station also moved to 1100 kHz.

[12] In May 1925 it was announced that KHQ was temporarily going off the air in order to give Bush & Lane time to "make extensive alterations in the studio", in addition to a major facility upgrade.

[18][19] Announcer Frank "Spark Plug" Buhlert told listeners that "The first 500 persons who send telegrams or phone in that they have heard the program will receive a souvenir bag of ore from the world's largest lead mine, the Bunker Hill & Sullivan, at Kellogg, Idaho.

[24] KHQ changed its transmitting frequency a number of times in the mid-twenties, until November 11, 1928, when, under the provisions of a major reallocation resulting from the Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, it was reassigned to 590 kHz[25] which it and its successors have used ever since.