Dori Monson

Monson, who is of Icelandic heritage, was raised in Ballard, a Scandinavian ethnic enclave in Seattle. He graduated from Ballard High School.[3] 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.[4]

Monson is married with three daughters and lives in Lake Forest Park, Washington.[3] He has variously described himself as "right-leaning", "center right", and "libertarian", and said he voted for Bob Barr in the 2008 presidential election.[1]

In 1995 Monson was given his own show on KIRO in the noon to 3:00 pm time slot, replacing Dave Ross who moved to the preceding 9:00 am to noon morning slot.[5] The Dori Monson Show (also referred to as "The Big Show") is heard from noon to 3:00 pm PST 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).[6]

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.[7] However, his show turned decidedly conservative around the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001, enthusiastically supporting the Iraq invasion and accusing global warming activists of being "phony, global warming cultists".[8] He also once asked Washington State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz if he was a communist.[1]

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."[9]

Since 2002 Monson has hosted Hawk Talk, a day-of-game broadcast carried on the Seahawks Radio Network,[10] 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.

On October 8, 2020, Monson posted a tweet during the 2020 Washington State gubernatorial debate mocking governor Jay Inslee's inconsistency in relying on science for restrictive covid policies but allowing Washingtonians to change their sex designation on birth certificates without also requiring scientific proof.

As a result, he was suspended from his job at KIRO and also suspended indefinitely by the Seahawks and Bonneville Seattle from hosting the Seahawks' pregame and postgame radio shows. Monson has been part of the Seahawks’ game-day coverage since 2002 and has hosted a Friday segment on 97.3 FM with coach Pete Carroll.[11]

He was reinstated to his show at Bonneville KIRO 97.3 on October 26, 2020.[12]