radio

KEXP Music Explorer is a fan-created community site for listeners of the Seattle-based radio station
Members can tag and rate songs and get charts rankings in order of song plays of what albums your favourite DJ is spinning tracks from.

A Card-Carrying Member, Two Years Running

vanmega: “there was a time during the winter of 2003/2004 where I logged a lot of hours with WOXY. Back in my night owl phase I used hangout alone in my basement while working on my laptop, listening to WOXY. Yeah, It sounds a bit bleak but it was, in fact, joyful as hell for me. It was exciting, I remember being exposed to what felt like an endless stream of new bands and new sounds (you have to remember this was before "indie rock" as common the ipods which everyone now listens to the stuff on). Time has since passed, and a lot of these bands are now staples on The OC. But that's ok.”

I logged similar hours listening to WOXY after an article about the station in SPIN Magazine. After a hiatus from listening to online radio, I heard about KEXP through Joey deVilla, and have been listening ever since. I'm surprised that VanMega's editor hasn't mentioned KEXP recently, because it's the logical place for now-former WOXY listeners to go. A note for those who are used to WOXY's continuous indie format, though: KEXP's daytime schedule is heavy on the type of WOXY favourites, but in the evenings KEXP broadcasts specialty shows, my favourite evenings being Wednesdays and Thursdays, with DJ Riz. (I'm tempted to resurrect my "DJ Riz Drinking Game" list, since he has a lot of catch-phrases, like "Riz here" and "in the background soon to be in the foreground".) Right now, I'm listening "Swinging Doors", that features country music. Good, tear-in-your-beer country, not the stuff you hear on commercial radio.

So worry not, fellow-former listeners of Cincinnati's breath of fresh air, since KEXP is not only "member-supported"—I'm a card-carrying member, two years running, though really the station gets most of its funding through a large grant from the Experience Music Project—but plays great music with no commercials, save a few 'supported-by' announcements here and there.

The website, with a weblog (which updates too frequently for me to keep up with, so I just look at the pictures of in-studio performances), podcasts featuring local i.e. Seattle bands and more 'out-there' music, and live playlists. The one thing it doesn't have, at least not yet, is the ability to have a song that plays on KEXP, when I'm listening, appear on my Last.fm playlist. That would be pretty cool, though I'd probably want a way to let people looking at my playlist to know where I heard the song.

Radio Bandcouver's MySpace site
Featuring playlists on the site's weblog.
Portland State University's radio station, KPSU
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Weblog for the new Twin Cities, Minnesota radio station 89.3
They will play music similar to KEXP and WOXY, two favorites of mine.
Country singer fires fan club director after finding out she organized an astroturfing campaign to get her song on the radio
Add this to the long list of reasons why mainstream radio sucks, and I sneer at anyone who positively refers to their SUV, but you gotta give the singer credit for doing the right thing.