KEXP has been amazing for so long, I think a lot of us who donated to them actually thought they were a totally independent thing and overlooked the fact we have been donating to an arm of the US regime. It appears that their programming is indeed mostly unrelated to the slop of the US government controlled radio, but it would probably be a good idea for KEXP to delete the US government radio logo (National Public Radio = NPR) from their stuff and refuse any future threats or attempts to influence their programming, because I can’t see much upside for them going forward, especially with NPR itself being defunded anyway. NPR is known for pro war, pro genocide news reporting and mediocre middlebrow music, it has never had much funding or editorial independence behind it, and generally lacks the perception of quality associated with other state media in countries with more dedicated funding for culture, public affairs and arts, like say BBC or CBC. True, if you’re an older millennial or a gen xer or boomer, you may remember All Songs Considered used to be an important show on NPR with regard to indie music, but even that show has waned in recent years after the retirement of its hosts. KEXP meanwhile have a deep and vibrant coverage of independent music and no need for clinging to NPR’s ragged coattails. Their KEXP sessions has grown to match NPR’s own overrated “Tiny Desk” both in terms of the quality of guests and the studio sound quality (while far exceeding Tiny Desk in the moody studio lighting and unobtrusive, effective camera work) and if you compare KEXP’s legendary range of podcasts, shows and interviews, it goes far beyond anything NPR has to offer. KEXP, shocking for US media, has even had episodes sympathetic to Palestinian culture and resistance, which suggests that they have no editorial affiliation to the pro-Israel, Pentagon-censored NPR. There was one time they did an episode promoting regime change in Iran, though, which leaves plenty of questions over their degree of actual editorial independence.
