Staff Bios

SkagitRadio.com is a labor of love of three Skagit County radio veterans who wanted to take local sports broadcasting to a higher level.

Kris Drake has been involved with local radio since 1986, first as a stringer of high school football games on KBRC, then as an in-studio engineer or color commentator at KBRC, KLKI and KPUG. Drake also served as a program director for two years at 90.1 KSVR FM (SVC’s community station) in the late 80’s before taking on the evening shift at KBRC. Recently, Drake was the morning show host at KBRC and served as the color commentator for high school football games on KAPS.

Drake discovered the idea to webcast the local high school sports on the Internet in December of 2007, investigated the logistics and costs to start up such a business and in the Summer of 2008, founded SkagitRadio.com. He brought in fellow KSVR alum Wade Tonkin and former KBRCer John Fasso to provide their talents (both on- and off-the-air) to the new local media, and the three set out to serve this community with better (and more) coverage of both boys’ and girls’ high school sports, and other community sporting events, such as sprint car racing in Alger and Deming, than terrestrial radio can provide.

Why? you ask – “Because radio is dead. It’s 2008. The future is going away from radio, especially AM radio. Hardly anyone listens anymore. It doesn’t have the same social importance as it did back when it was a viable media. The Internet is the wave of the future and I intend to make this endeavor the stable, dependable website that local sports fans can click on to hear quality sports announcing bringing the big games to people’s homes. The home computer has become the household component in which people bring information into their homes, their lives. I set out to make SkagitRadio.com (soon to be winNW.com) the place to go to hear not just the big game, but all the games. We have teams of webcasters out covering more than one game a week. Local AM radio powers down at kick-off and at tip-off. People used to complain, among other things about the local AM radio stations when I used to work there, that they couldn’t hear the games. That led me to look into an alternative, and gave me the drive and motivation to start this. Sports fans have suffered enough with bad reception and lousy announcers. Everyone I’ve talked to about what I’ve started is really happy with our results. I have Wade and John to thank for that.” – Kris Drake.

John Fasso is arguably the best and most well-known sportscaster in the history of Skagit County radio, though he would respectfully defer that title to Dennis Wills, whom John grew up listening to, and later had the pleasure of working with. Following his glory days as the tight end for the 1977 Kingbowl I 2A state champion Burlington-Edison Tigers, John attended Wenatchee Valley College on a football scholarship, played 10 years of semi-pro football for the Skagit Valley Raiders, and has 30 years experience in newspaper, radio and television news and sports coverage.

At age 16, John was the youngest sports writer ever employed by the Skagit Valley Herald. He held numerous positions, including program director, news director, and sports director at KBRC radio before it was purchased by its current owners, who eliminated John’s positions and those of many other respected and well-known area broadcasters, replacing them with satellite-fed programming. John also worked as the sports director for KAPS radio, where he was the station’s first ever sports play-by-play announcer after KAPS received FCC approval to broadcast 24 hours a day. Prior to that, KAPS was a daytime only station.

While working at KBRC in the 1980’s John also worked as a news and sports writer for the Skagit Argus, where he later returned as Sports Editor. He has also worked at the former KLKI radio in Anacortes, and at radio stations in Chelan, WA and Minot, ND.

We welcome John back to his hometown of Burlington, WA, and we hope you enjoy his familiar voice providing play-by-play of football, basketball, and wrestling on SkagitRadio.com.

Wade Tonkin is a veteran of the online marketing wars and an accomplished blogger. Wade got his start in radio at KSVR Radio at Skagit Valley College.  He served as station manager for 3 years and was a pioneer in launching student-voiced play-by-play broadcasts.  Wade also served as a board operator and production assistant at KLKI in Anacortes and KBRC in Mount Vernon.

For the last 10 years Wade has been involved in the online marketing industry in a variety of capacities and recently launched his own online marketing management company GTO Management. Wade is also an accomplished blogger and a founder of CAMA – a Christian online marketing industry trade association.

Jay Alexander brings a wealth of play-by-play and color commentary experience to the team since joining us in September of 2009.  Jay served for 13 years as the “Voice of the Borderites” and has provided play-by-play and color commentary for Western Washington University men’s and women’s basketball. Jay has broadcast for all sports at area radio stations KARI, KBRC, KAPS and KPUG. Jay is proud of winning the “Sounds like Kevin Calabro” contest in KJR in 1995. Jay will be responsible for broadcasting and sales in Whatcom County.

Scot Buchanan joins SkagitRadio.com after several years away from the valley, re-uniting in the booth with John for our football webcasts. A University of Washington and B-EHS alum, Scot will also provide excellent play-by-play of boys’ and girls’ basketball.

Fred Lee will make his Internet debut this winter as the color analyst teamed with Scot Buchanan primarily, and with John Fasso on additional basketball games. Lee has been a local AAU basketball coach in Mount Vernon for years and is considered an expert on the game of basketball. He will bring his expertise to webcasts on SkagitRadio.com and we hope his legions of followers will enjoy his commentary. We also hope that he finds new fans in the rest of the world (outside a 6-mile radius of Mount Vernon!) that couldn’t hear his games before. Welcome Fred!

Matt Henggeler joined SkagitRadio.com in the winter of 2009 with spot appearances on basketball commentary. Matt now is heard sharing the booth as Dan Guiliani’s brilliant color analyst on football games in Snohomish County. Matt and Dan will team up this winter for prep hoop games in Snohomish County.

Dan Guiliani joined SkagitRadio.com in the fall of 2009 as part of an effort between SkagitRadio.com and KJR-AM 950, Guiliani’s main employer. Dan interned on the Mitch in the Morning show on KJR, but at night helps fill out the SkagitRadio.com play-by-play roster by grooming his talents on prep football games in Snohomish County.

Dale Sharp is a package deal with Jay Alexander and has been serving as Jay’s color analyst for over 15 years. Both Jay and “Sharpie” are experts of the game of basketball and their experience in broadcasting, blended with their experience as players, make them a great team to listen to while they call the biggest game in Whatcom County week after week.