Hello all,

As you know, we are in the midst of hard economic times. It is with difficulty that I write to inform you that the recession has required KEXP to reduce staffing in order to maintain economically stability.

Earlier today, we conducted a lay-off including primarily folks who have been supporting our NYC project: Kevin Helfrick, Fred Rains, Tyson Lynn and Jacob Bennett.

Kevin was working part-time as our primary board operator. Fred, Tyson and Jacob were spending a one or two days a week helping with Mo-Glo and Wake Up. Michele Khazak will continue to work on WNYE and KEXP production.

Let me immediately say that each and every one of these individuals has done a /stellar/ job lifting our NYC broadcasts off the ground and creating some of the most innovative music programming in the country's largest city. The reasons for these reductions are purely economical. The economy simply has not been cooperative enough to sustain the current level of operations in NYC.

I encourage you to reach out to Kevin, Fred, Tyson and Jacob and offer your support. I've directed our HR staff to take steps to support them as much as possible in their transitions.

At this time, we have no plans to perform further layoffs. I believe the changes we have made will keep KEXP sustainable into next year and will position us to continue to make progress in regards to our mission. However, as we operate in this down-turned economy, we must remain agile. I will continue to communicate with you if we face compelling reasons to make further cuts.

In addition, I have directed our leaders to reduce non-staffing expense as much as possible. (I very much appreciate efforts people have already been making to stretch dollars and reduce cash expense these past few months. That has helped quite a bit.) From office supplies to equipment to remote broadcasts to travel, we have done a detailed job scouring our operating budget and identifying ways to reduce expense while upholding our core services.

I very much appreciate the time, energy, and creativity you contribute to our organization. Your fierce support of our mission is enabling us to continue being such a significant part of people's lives.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel very free to swing by.

As usual, a pleasure working with you all.

-Tom

Update: A little background: KEXP moved some operations to NYC, partnering with that city's WNYE, in February of last year, at which time divisive morning show host John Richards began splitting his time between Seattle and NYC. Since then, some have speculated that Richards wasn't too happy either there or here.

Update: A correction: the laid-off staff were working on the station's NYC operations but were based out of Seattle. The post has been amended above.

(The recorded "Borderline" trumps the live videos of it, but Warner Bros. doesn't allow its artists' recordings on YouTube, so this clip will have to suffice.)

Segal's gist:

Obviously, there are limits to all these parallels, but there is one more worth noting: rap has inspired its share of fear and now, liberals and moderates are asking the same question about conservative talk radio that conservatives have long asked about rap: How dangerous is it?

Westhoff's gist:

[T]hough FOX News and Southern rap both have anti-intellectual appeal, there's more to the story than that. Rather than simply pandering to the red-state masses, they have tapped into powerful populist sensibilities in areas that didn't previously have a national voice.

6:00pm - Lusine: Live at KEXP
7:00pm - Interview with Sean Horton
(Sean will be spinning some tracks by non-local artists playing at this year's festival, specifically/most likely: Nosaj Thing, Daedelus, Tim Exile, Alter Ego)
8:00pm - Pezzner: Live at KEXP

Ill Cosby
The Naturebot
White Rainbow
Splinters
Foscil & Specs One
PotatoFinger
Scientific American
Sleepy Eyes of Death
Truckasauras
The Sight Below
Andrew Luck vs. Dosadi
Caro
214
m.0
Lou-Lou
Relcad
Bethurum
Jonathan Negley
Vincent Parker
KJ Sawka
YACHT
Let's Go Outside
Justin Byrnes

The gentle music men of Grand Archives have a sophomore album out today, called Keep in Mind Frankenstein. They take to the airwaves today at 3pm on KEXP and to the Capitol Hill Sonic Boom today at 7pm to play some songs from the new record. (More on this album next week, but for now know that upon initial listens it seems a little more somber and spare than their debut but not as much so as their demo EP; a few spins through and it all sounds fine but no one song is especially sticking with me.)

From what we’ve heard, the show follows in the tradition of the fantastic DJ sets Cowie used to spin around town before moving to Chicago to work for Drag City and then to Los Angeles, where he spins as part of the Small Town Talk DJ trio with another ex-Seattle citizen, former Stranger contributor Jed Maheu and Chad Brown. Which means Turquoise Wisdom features an epicurean, internationally diverse mix keenly picked from the psychedelic diaspora/mother lode. Or, in Cowie’s words: “Loner/stoner, bootcuts, shreddy kruegers, critter jams, brain basil’d breaks and various other demonstrations of universal sound.” Whatever you want to call it, this is some deep, sweet brain food.

ht: @dronecrit via Twitter

"What's going on with the KEXP DJ changes, why isn't anyone talking about it? There's nothing on the KEXP website or blog, nothing in Line Out--it's very frustrating to see such a lack of transparency around lineup changes when they're always talking about being listener-powered (and yes, I've been a member for years)," he said. "I know that Larry Rose had his show moved from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday night, which is crazy because he has one of the best and most popular shows on the station. Can you get something going on Slog/Line-Out about this so we can at least find out what's going on?"

So I forwarded the e-mail to the folks at KEXP and asked them about the recent shuffle. As Associate Program Director John Richards explains, they're not trying to hide anything at all, they're just updating their programming, as many radio stations often do. Read on for Richards' run down of the new schedule:

You're right, we recently updated our programming schedule and added a few DJs to the roster as well. As you know Larry Mizell Jr is our new hip hop show taking over for B Mellow who did a great job over the last many years and will be missed. Can't think of a better host to replace him then Larry. We also were able to add DJ Sharlese, Tim Betterley, DJ Alex and DJ Shani to our line up. Stevie Zoom is doing Saturday and Sundays from 12-3. Michele Myers has moved from Friday nights to Saturday 3-6 and Quilty moved to Sunday 3-6pm. We made our 9pm-1am shifts even stronger by moving DJ El Toro, Troy and Chilly out of the overnights and into these shifts. Riz moves over to Mondays and Larry Rose joins them on the Tuesday shift. Jack Walters left Saturday afternoons to focus on his job in production at KEXP.

In regards to the question of Larry's move, we couldn't be more excited. One of the benefits is that he now has a 4 hour show (as opposed to 3 on the weekend) and joins some of the best djs on the dial (Riz, Kurt, Troy and Chilly) at that slot. He does a great show and the vibe totally fits evenings on KEXP. Quilty has been on the air, like Larry, for over a decade and will continue to do her strong show on Sunday afternoons. Its never easy to have any of our DJs move to a new slot as we all get used to DJs at certain times but we also hope people will join others who use the streaming archive to hear whatever show whenever they want to hear them (all shows are available at any time). As for announcing the changes, we made sure the DJs were announcing on air whenever they were able, and will do our best to update our website as well, as we know many people tune in at different times and miss those.

Oh, and Larry will continue to get shifts outside his current shift, in fact you can tune in to hear him fill in on Sat 8/15 and Sun 8/16 from noon to 3pm both days.

John Richards
Associate PD

You can stream KEXP online at KEXP.org. And, as Richards mentions, archives of all the shows are also available, if you miss your favorite DJ.

Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter has got nothing.

Beginning August 24th, KBCS will begin to add more news programming to their daily broadcast. These changes will offer up more voices on the national level, adding Public Radio International's The Takeaway. The expanded news additions will also include syndicated programs like the Sound of Young America, as well as locally-produced and Pacific Northwest community-oriented programming, including Listen Up Northwest.

To accommodate these additions, some shows will have to be slimmed down or cut entirely. Peter Graff, Program Director at KBCS, was unavailable for questions on the reductions and subtractions from the schedule. These changes were made by the Bellevue College and the Board of Trustees. Technically, KBCS is not owned by the community, but they still operate with help from volunteers, public support and donations. You can read more about the changes on the program changes Frequently Asked Questions.

Please let us all pause for a moment to cheer the Big Gay Wedding of the brilliant and beloved Seattle icon Riz Rollins (of KEXP and so much more) and the handsome and delightful Robert Green, who will be homo-nuptualized in that big gay church on Broadway in a ceremony happening just about…now. (Their marriage, of course, is not legal in Washington State, which makes it even so much better.)

Hooray love! Congratulations Riz and Robert!

UPDATE: KEXP now has someone reading emails to the station about Michael Jackson. At least that's something. How about you play some songs, KEXP?

UPDATE 2: Ah! Ben Gibbard's cover of "Thriller." Nicely played.

AHEM!: I stand corrected. Someone at KEXP points me to this afternoon's playlist. Kevin Cole been scattering in MJ songs (and a wild variety of covers) all afternoon.

We wish both programmers and their biorhythms the best.

ht: Kurt B. Reighley

Photo from Alex Ruder’s MySpace by Herman Moore.

Von Spain's excellent new album, Lady Lazarus, can be obtained at Dissonant Plane, Scatological Liberation Front Records, and other outlets.

Check the press release after the cut.

I'll air a selection or two from the Source set along with work by Jani Christou who recorded a piece for Source that never appeared in the magazine. Also in the mix: Lissom, field recordings by Seattle sound artist Doug Haire, and a duo percussion set by Chris Cogburn and Jeffrey Allport.

Catch the on-line stream or tune in to KBCS 91.3 FM from 10 pm to midnight.

I first wrote about my kinky relationship with KUBE 93 two years ago, and now I must do it again.

In case you don't know, KUBE 93 is "Seattle's #1 hit music station!," playing mostly hiphop and R&B, and typically focusing on about a dozen and a half songs, which are played over and over and over. And over and over and over. This is the point of KUBE.

My previous post dealt with how KUBE's brazen repetitiveness was oddly soothing (familiarity doesn't always breed contempt) and fostered a sense of community (it’s nice to know that so many others are being stalked by the same songs I am). But today I want to focus on the repetition not of songs but of a sound.

Specifically, that staggered snare pattern that appears in literally 98 percent of the songs currently in rotation on KUBE.

God knows who used this tappity-tap beat first, but I first noticed it on the Clipse's "Mr. Me Too", then had it shoved down my throat—with pleasure—by Lil Wayne's "A Milli."

Then I started hearing it everywhere, thanks entirely to KUBE, which still can't play enough of Jamie Foxx's "Blame It" or the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" or T.I.'s "Whatever You Like."

My favorite recent uses of The Ubiquitous Tap come from Soulja Boy Tell Em's "Turn My Swag On" (which has that dreamy drifting-beat thing that I'm hoping becomes the next ever-present trend (see T.I. track above) and lets the usual snare-tap explode like firecrackers) and the New Boys' "You're a Jerk", which is the most staggered-snare-soaked song to yet come down the pike. (Added bonus: This track provided me with my first experience of hearing a new KUBE standard being born. Specifically, I heard the song for the first time (on KUBE) a Wednesday evening while driving to Piecora's. 45 minutes later, I drove home from Piecora's and KUBE was already playing it again.)

Thank you, KUBE (and if any of Line Out's hiphop know-it-alls knows the "first" use of this damn snarey beat, let me know....)

Along with the complete remastered recording of In C, (which, I should add, not only features Riley, but includes Stuart Dempster and Jon Hassell), piano pieces by Sofia Gubaidulina, Marilyn Lerner, and Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Reich rub shoulders with electronic music by Larry Polansky and Dutch composer Frits Weiland

Also in the mix: More field recordings by Isabel Clouter ("sonic ephemera" from Japan) and a lovely piece by Edison Denisov made with the fabled ANS synthesizer (depicted above from a great page about optical synthesis).

Also, if you want to get ready for electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick, who performs live this coming check out last week's show from my co-host, Jonathan.

Catch the on-line stream or tune in to KBCS 91.3 FM from 10 pm to midnight.