DANCE 89.5 (KNHC), known as C89.5 until 2026, is a member-supported dance and electronic music station in Seattle, owned by Seattle Public Schools and run from Nathan Hale High School, where professional staff mentor student broadcasters. On the air since 1971.
DANCE 89.5 FM (KNHC) is a dance and electronic music radio station in Seattle, Washington, known as C89.5 until a 2026 rebrand. It is a member-supported Class C1 high school station owned by Seattle Public Schools, broadcasting from studios at Nathan Hale High School in the Meadowbrook neighborhood near Northgate. The station calls itself a self-supporting service of the KNHC Public Radio Association and draws more than 90 percent of its operating revenue from listener donations and local business support.
The station began in 1969 as a very low-power AM student project at Nathan Hale High School and made its first FM broadcast on January 25, 1971, which makes it one of the longest-running dance music stations in the world. Its programming mixes current dance music, Rhythmic Top 40 remixes and emerging artists with live DJ mixes, specialty shows and public affairs programming, and it is one of a handful of stations monitored by Nielsen BDS for Billboard's weekly Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. It also produces Café Chill, a weekly program carried by public radio stations across the country, and student podcasts such as Coping 101.
DANCE 89.5 reaches more than 150,000 weekly listeners across the Puget Sound region and streams around the clock worldwide through its website and app, with a two-week on-demand archive. It hosts live events and works with local artists, businesses and nonprofits throughout the Seattle area.
Professional staff run the station with help from the more than 100 students a semester enrolled in Nathan Hale's Electronic Media courses and Digital Media Pathway, who host live air shifts, produce audio and podcasts, write for social media and work community events. Staff roles include general management, programming and music direction, on-air hosting, operations, underwriting and sponsorship sales, membership, engineering, traffic, promotions and marketing, and broadcast teaching.
