KQNT's first license, with the randomly assigned call letters KHQ, was issued to Louis Wasmer in Seattle on February 28, 1922. KHQ broadcast on the 360 meter (833 kHz) "entertainment" wavelength. Wasmer was a former United Wireless Telegraph Company radiotelegraph operator, who had opened the Excelsior Motorcycle and Bicycle Co. in 1911, and also sold radio equipment. Following two weeks of transmitter adjustment, the station made its debut broadcast on February 28, 1922. Its initial schedule was phonograph music presented every evening between 7 and 8:30.