Dori Monson

Personal life and early career

Monson, who is of Icelandic heritage, was raised in Ballard, a Scandinavian ethnic enclave in Seattle. He graduated from Ballard High School. As a student at the University of Washington he was the play-by-play announcer for Husky football on campus broadcaster KCMU-FM. He began his professional broadcasting career as a producer at KING-TV and sports reporter at KING-AM, then moved to KIRO as part of the Pat Cashman Show.

Monson is married with three daughters and lives in Lake Forest Park, Washington, where he coaches girls' youth basketball. He currently coaches the girls basketball team at Shorecrest High School, of which their 2015-16 team won the WIAA 2A state championship. He has variously described himself as "right-leaning," "center right," and "libertarian", and said he voted for Bob Barr in the 2008 presidential election.

Current work

In 1995 Monson was given his own show on KIRO in the noon to 3:00 p.m. time slot, replacing Dave Ross who moved to the preceding 9:00 a.m. to noon morning slot. The Dori Monson Show is heard from noon to 3:00pm PDT on KIRO-FM and is primarily a politically oriented talk radio program. As of winter 2008, his show was the highest rated talk radio program in the Seattle-Tacoma market. In 2008 Monson was nominated for Radio & Records News/Talk/Sports Local Personality Of The Year, ultimately losing to Bill Handel of KFI-AM (Los Angeles).

The dominant political orientation of his program began as roughly middle-of-the-road throughout the 1990s. He often sided with then President Bill Clinton against the conservative Republicans running Congress, particularly during the impeachment hearings following the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He said he voted for Al Gore in the year 2000 presidential election. However, his show turned decidedly conservative around the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001, frequently attacking local Democratic politicians such as former King County Executive Ron Sims, enthusiastically supporting the Iraq invasion, and decrying global warming as a hoax perpetuated by "evil cultists." He also once asked Washington State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz if he was a communist.

Among the regular features on The Dori Monson Show is a weekly "one on one against the nuns" segment where Monson tests his football acumen against two nuns, Sisters Kath Silverthorn and Cele Gorman of the Archdiocese of Seattle, each making predictions for the next Sunday's NFL games. "I wanted to find the absolute most incongruous people we'd normally never associate with football analysis," Monson explained. "I thought that would be either Sherpas or nuns and it'd probably be easier to find nuns." Another feature is the annual "Dori Awards" where listeners are invited to vote on the most annoying local and national personalities of the past year. Past national Dori winners include Sarah Palin, Al Gore, Rosie O'Donnell, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, Michael Jackson, Trent Lott, and George W. Bush. Past local winners include former Seattle SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett, former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, Congressman Jim McDermott, Ron Sims, conservative initiative and referendum sponsor Tim Eyman, and Dori Monson himself.

Since 2002 Monson has hosted Hawk Talk, a day-of-game broadcast carried on the Seahawks Radio Network, a network of 46 radio stations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia, that airs games of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. Monson also anchors the pre-game, post-game and halftime shows during Seahawks broadcasts, when he is joined by Sam Adkins, Paul Moyer, and Dave Wyman.

Controversy

Monson is sometimes known for intemperate & inflammatory rhetoric. In 2011, Monson described Occupy Seattle protesters as “filthy rats” and suggested Seattle Central Community College should call in “exterminators” to get rid of the demonstrators.

In 1998, Monson did an impersonation of a United States Senate chaplain giving an anti-Bill Clinton prayer during the impeachment proceedings. The chaplain, Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, called into Monson's show and demanded an apology. Monson, who actually voted for Clinton in 1992 and 1996, refused to apologize.

Monson has also been criticized for his climate denial views and for giving a platform for Ted Nugent's "birther" conspiracies.