I'm gonna come clean. I made that snarky remark about Calypso. And I'll tell you why, not because I hate calypso music (I love me some Lord Kitchener) but because I was trying to make a point: The people currently bitching about KEXP's lack of electronic music are only doing it to serve their purpose. It's not like they want KEXP to go free form, they only want KEXP to play more electronic music. A bit self-seving don't you think?

So my point about calypso was to show a genre of music that was/is completely ignored as if it doesn't even exist. I could have used metal as an example as well.

Then came Paul's article on the genius of WFMU. Very well done. I am a huge fan of the WFMU format, but ya know what makes that station so fucking awesome? The DJs ability to transcend playlists and genres. I think Paul's article really showed that.

OK, back to the matter at hand. Calypso music. It's awesome. It's the pre-curser to Jamaican reggae and comes from some forgotten time. It mixes jazz, folk, beat and island rhythms beautifully. It's like those crazy Komodo dragon lizards that only developed on isolated islands in Indonesia.

That said, thanks for having a good sense of humor and the kick-ass article by Paul.

-Jeff

as for calypso, i didn't know anything about it until my quality time with google, so thanks for the mention, since that cricket calypso mix is a really nice listen i likely never would have discovered otherwise.

Anyway...

Jeff, thank you (publicly this time) for being mega-gracious about the snark remark. Out of everything that's come out of this piece in the last couple of days, the thing that thrills me the most is that Donte made a post about calypso music.

Which kind of feeds into the whole point of my article. I honestly feel there's room in the Seattle market for a station that, as Jeff puts it, transcends the idea of playlists and genre restrictions altogether. The whole KEXP/Jaspan thing got me thinking about freeform, just as a counter-option to KEXP, but I think it's entirely possible for the two to co-exist. Maybe KEXP would be the really big fish and KORK would be the really small guppy, but -- well, playing the role of underdog can definitely have its upside.

Final note: Last weekend I happened to watch the 1978 movie FM, a wretched and lumbering movie about a "freeform" station in LA, "Q-SKY," whose idea of "freeform" meant playing REO Speedwagon, having Martin Mull pillow-talk through a mic, and hijacking the sound board at a rival station's Linda Ronstadt concert so Q-SKY could broadcast it over the air.

Knowing the KORK article was coming up, FM made me very, very depressed, frightened temporarily that, in the slim chance KORK really did get off the ground, a nightmare scenario would unveil itself in which all the DJs played "More Than a Feeling" twice every hour and at some point we'd have to hire Alex Karras.

After seeing your kind responses, I'm breathing a little bit easier that my point got across. Thanks very much for calming my nerves.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you at the 'Shoot.

there are few moments in music-related history that are as rich with direct ties to the socio-political history of globalization and modernization in the post WWI & WWII eras.

and yes, I am totally serious.