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PORT ANGELES — Long-time KONP radio personality and sportscaster, Scooter Chapman is retiring.

Chapman announced he’s hanging up his microphone after 70 years working at KONP in Port Angeles.

Chapman, a teenager at the time, began his radio career in 1951, when he arrived at the station and took on multiple tasks from sweeping floors to spinning a few disks. As a junior at Roosevelt High School, he started assisting Ralph Gallacci doing play-by-play for the Port Angeles Roughrider football games.  He gained a knowledge of sports by listening to Leo Lassen broadcast Seattle Rainier baseball games.

Chapman graduated high school in 1952 and attended the University of Washington.  He returned to Port Angeles and found time to hang around the station before a two-year stint in the Army as a radio broadcast specialist which paved the way for his journalistic career in communications.

Soon after arriving back in Port Angeles, he began working for the Evening News as a sports editor and at KONP as sports director.  This was in the days when the newspaper and the radio station were owned by the same family. For over 30 years he was sports editor for both KONP and the Port Angeles Evening News.

Chapman would be inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) Hall of Fame, not only for his announcing of games on radio, but also his newspaper and sports officiating careers.  In 2016 he was inducted into the Peninsula College Athletics Hall of Fame.  In September 2017, as a testament to his value to the community, the Port Angeles High School named the press box at the High School’s Civic Field “Scooter Chapman Press Box”.  In 2018 Chapman was inducted into the Port Angeles Roughriders Athletics Hall of Fame.

Chapman might be the most prolific volunteer of local refereeing, umpiring, reporting, and broadcasting with more than two thousand games officiated not to mention local parades, Salmon Derby and countless emceeing and announcing at various fundraisers and events. Scooter is known as the “Golden Voice” of Port Angeles.

To celebrate the week, Scooter will be on the 8:30 am Morning Scramble each morning. He will also join the 1 pm “Todd Ortloff Show” for a full segment on Wednesday and Thursday, February 2 and 3.  The show on Thursday the 3rd will be devoted to Scooter taking calls from listeners.

The community is encouraged to share thoughts and memories with Scooter by mail or electronically by visiting our website at www.myclallamcounty.com

Cards and memories may also be dropped off in person at the radio station anytime during the week. The address of KONP is 721 E First Street, Suite 101 in Port Angeles.