Thread: KEXP is keeping me from going postal

I could have easily lost my mind and chucked a couple of printers out the window today...

were it not for KEXP streaming. Best shit ever.

Check out Good Vibrations on Saturday morning. Best reggae show out there, bar none.


edit: whoops. Sorry, Brian. It's Positive Vibrations.

It's definitley a good station, they play a great daytime mix. For some reason they always seem to match the mood of the day in general. Positive Vibrations is really good, but I get pretty bored with some of their evening shows like the roadhouse one and the world music one.

I also find it pretty hard to listen to their semi-annual fund drives after I read that some of their DJ's make around $80k a year.

Originally Posted by scoober

I also find it pretty hard to listen to their semi-annual fund drives after I read that some of their DJ's make around $80k a year.

You know, after listening to Positive Vibrations while cooking ( I record it using Radiolover), I say, that's OK. Somebody real smart is running the show at this station, operating under a different biz model, and it seems to be working, 'cause the quality is damn good. Listening to Kid Hops is like listening to a pro dee jay showing me the latest and best, and I like that. If he wants to make some money, cool. I sense he works hard for it. I send them money once a year.

Link? I have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds good.

http://www.kexp.org/programming/djpa...56=39039.375-2

Today's show was very good.

Originally Posted by scoober

I also find it pretty hard to listen to their semi-annual fund drives after I read that some of their DJ's make around $80k a year.

One DJ makes alot of money, but, supposedly, he does tons of off air work and has been offered big money from commerical stations. My wife sends them a check once a year.

Well, I just think that's too much for a publically funded radio station. I'd send a check if I could make sure it is going to their record archives and broadcast power and not his salary. (I can't even remember if it's Richards or Cole at this point.) Until then, I rest assured that the rest of the country will cough up the cash needed.

Originally Posted by scoober

I'd send a check if I could make sure it is going to their record archives and broadcast power and not his salary.

I'm sure you can make a restricted gift.

I don't think it's too much. If the DJs are that good, and could be making way more $ at a private station, well, both sides have to make certain concessions.

Personally, I think we should all donate some $ to buy biggins an updated slang dictionary. "Going postal" is so 1997.

Originally Posted by Steven S. Dallas

I think we should all donate some $ to biggins

Hey, there's people doing just that all over this board. I'm another bougie skier with no money, buy me some new f'k'n shit maggots!

I'll ask about a restricted gift during the next drive. "Please restrict this to only apply to the salaries of Kid Hops, Cheryl Waters, and Quilty 3000." I'll be curious as to the response I'll get.

The whole competition of salaries thing in relation to the general crappiness of radio is exactly what gets me so grumpy about this subject. So they do a really good job at KEXP and need to pay competitively to keep them around, but that means that bigger commercial stations are probably paying more? It pains me to know that some of the losers on the commercial air make that much. But welcome to the real world, eh?

Saturday morning Positive Vibrations is great, but Sunday morning 10am-12pm is just as good if not better. Blues/soul/R&B rock. Great station, best streaming radio starion imo.

Can someone clarify why a public radio DJ should be paid less than a private radio DJ? Seems to me that the quality of radio on KEXP and public radio stations that carry NPR is far, far above any commercial radio station.

If you are that good at your job then you can demand a high salary.

KEXP/KCMU has an interesting history, has some interesting financial problems and may be over paying their staff, but I for one am glad that when I pull into Seattle I don't have to listen to butt-rock, Christian talk radio or boy band crap that pervades the airwaves of America.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=25737

PS- It's John Richards and he supposedly is paid $120,000 a year.

KEXP rools it, love that station. same with KALX (the UC Berkeley station)...viva college radio stations!

Originally Posted by char

Can someone clarify why a public radio DJ should be paid less than a private radio DJ?

I don't think any DJ should be paid that much.

But, I also don't think listener supported stations should be paying DJs that much. They get on the air every 6 months and make you feel bad for not ponying up any cash to support their (his) exorbitant salary. If commercial stations want to waste their advertising dollars paying a crappy DJ his inflated salary, that's fine with me.

My grumpiness aside, John Richards is saving my morning especially after playing an acoustic in-studio version of Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps and Citizen Cope - Bullet and a Target. (The one from the ski flicks last year.)

You know, with the 10% discount at Sonic Boom Records and the Second Ascent my KEXP membership pays for itself rather quickly.

Anything above poverty level wages at a non-profit will ruffle feathers, but I’d rather see an organization put their money into staff instead of fundraising consultants or other unseen expenses.

Just doesn't make any sense to me.

How are successful businesses run? By smart people who make a huge paycheck.

How are successful non-profits supposed to be run? By smart people who get paid way less than their counterparts. Sounds like a recipe for failure to me.

EDIT: Using the live performances sections right now... Carrissa's Weird - Die ...great song.

Originally Posted by char

Just doesn't make any sense to me.

How are successful businesses run? By smart people who make a huge paycheck.

How are successful non-profits supposed to be run? By smart people who get paid way less than their counterparts. Sounds like a recipe for failure to me.

EDIT: Using the live performances sections right now... Carrissa's Weird - Die ...great song.

Successful non-profits are run by smart people who are doing it for the love of the cause... not to profit. (Hence "non-profit.) Making a comfortably liveable wage is completely reasonable, but even around Seattle $120k/year is much more than comfortable.

I'll put it in as simple English as possible: I think $120k is too much for someone who merely chooses what record to play over the air to be paid. Particularly someone who chooses those records to be played on a supposedly non-profit station. char, if you disagree, cool, but you are not changing my mind.



Greydon... the benefit of discounts is a good point. Duly noted.

Originally Posted by scoober

Successful non-profits are run by smart people who are doing it for the love of the cause... not to profit. (Hence "non-profit.)

You're kind of contradicting yourself here, because KEXP is successful, some of us are saying, because some individuals within "profit" from the experience. They create a quality experience, we contribute. C'mon, I'll bet a lot of national figures on NPR, like Terry Gross, aren't living in poverty, but could be making much more at CNN.

What bugs me are "non-profits" that fly under the radar for years, like our local performing arts center, SPAC, or even some of the large charities, and are finally exposed at being poorly run organizations that are paying handsome salaries to incompetents and even family members to do nothing. This radio station isn't one of them.

To add some fuel to Scoober's fire - the DJ is not usually the person who chooses the music, that is the music director's job. Even in free-format radio there are editorial decisions made regarding what can and cannot be played and when.

That said, what is the correct salary for someone who makes a couple phone calls a day and reads some newspapers & websites? This is my friend's "job," yet he makes at leasy $600k per annum. Hedge Fund managing isn't exactly hard work.

Originally Posted by Tippster

To add some fuel to Scoober's fire - the DJ is not usually the person who chooses the music, that is the music director's job. Even in free-format radio there are editorial decisions made regarding what can and cannot be played and when.

Tipp, I would bet you a case of fine Belgium beer that Kid Hops picks all of his music, and is only restricted by dirty words, some of which sneak through somehow, probably because of the heavy Jamaican accents.
You can really hear the relative quality of his show when he takes one of his periodic leaves, and is replaced by someone else. That's when I miss him.

For what it's worth, according to KEXP, the DJ's pick their own music and play what they want, when they want within loose guidelines: "We only require a DJ to mix both new and old stuff in a show and ask for at least one local song an hour."

you can email the DJ directly and most of the time they shoot you an email back and play your request. I won White Stripes tix from Cherly waters....she's kind of hot for a cougar

I have been giving money to Kexp/ Kcmu for the last 10yrs and will continue to do so because I love the format. My 8yr old listens to this station every night going to bed and can rattle off the 6-9 pm programming for every night of the week. (his personal fav- Shake the Shack, Fridays). Yeah the 3 weeks each year the fund raising goes on are annoying but FAR less annoying than the 24 minutes each hour of commercials on regular radio stations or listening to that same annoying song replayed 4 times daily.

People can quibble over whether or not those choosing to work for non-profits should be penalized by less compensation- many of those in in nonprofit management are well paid to run the various institutions. Bottom line is that while the DJ in question is paid well, he's also been pretty instrumental (top fund raising DJ by far) in the KEXP expansion. While there is a program director, the DJ's do pick their own sets and have nuances as to what types of music they prefer. The expansion of the live sets played has been incredible, the website has tons of archived music, and the meaningless banter/drivel in kept to a minimum. And I don't mind paying for that.