Roy Olmstead (1886-1966) was the "King of the Puget Sound Bootleggers" in the 1920s.  Olmstead became involved with illegal alcohol distribution while he was a lieutenant with the Seattle Police Department.  His discovery and subsequent dismissal from the force resulted in his becoming a full-time bootlegger, importing prime Canadian whiskey by boat.  In 1924, he married Elise Campbell, a vivacious young English woman he met in Vancouver, Canada. Olmstead bought a beautiful mansion, which they called the "snow-white palace," at 3757 Ridgeway Place in the Mount Baker neighborhood overlooking Lake Washington. The Olmsteads with young engineer Alfred Hubbard, founded Seattle's most powerful radio station, KFQX in the spare bedroom of their home.  Elise Olmstead ran the station and read nightly bedtime stories for children over the air.  However, prohibition agents speculated Olmstead was using the station's broadcasts of children's bedtime stories to send coded messages to his rumrunning boats.

In September 1924, Hubbard became an informant in exchange for a job as a prohibition agent. On November 17, 1924, agents raided the Olmstead home, shutting down the radio station and arresting the couple and 15 guests.

Olmstead was sentenced to the McNeil  Island Penitentiary, and KFQX was leased to Birt Fisher, who operated it  from 1925 to 1926, first as KCTL and then as KOMO.  At the end of 1926, Olmstead sold the station to Vincent Kraft, and it became known as KXA in 1927.  Meanwhile, Birt Fisher joined with the owners of the Fisher Flouring Mills (no relation) to form a new station, and took the KOMO call sign with him. He was the manager of KOMO from 1927 to 1946.   (MOHAI photo)