Longtime Local Lewis County Radio Personality Retiring (KELA Radio, Centralia, WA)

( CENTRALIA ) –  It’s KELA radio’s 75^th anniversary this year.  A longtime station employee, Steve Richert, has been working on the local airwaves since the station was marking it’s 33^rd anniversary.  Now, the local product – a WF West grad – is retiring. Richert began his career at KELA in 1971.   He’s done nearly every job in the station since and worked his way up to Operations Manager.  Richert has been in the business long enough to see the industry’s transition away from records and tape which were replaced with computers and digital audio.  Steve also has had to deal with repeated floods at the station. Three of them left the station severely damaged.  Steve leaves KELA after 42 years, which is impressive since the broadcast industry average for radio is just seven years.