Photo by Jenny Jimenez
John Richards is the Morning Show Host and (for now) The Associate Program Director.
John has been starting the day for thousands of "morning faithful" most of his adult life at the station, starting as a volunteer when the station was known as KCMU and eventually becoming the full time host and producer of The Morning Show. The show has been responsible for breaking acts like The Lumineers, The National, M83 and many others as well as being the on-air leader in fundraising over the years on KEXP. He also heads up a number of theme shows and causes on the air reminding his listeners "you are not alone".
His responsibilities off air including managing the on-air sound through his DJ management of over 40 DJs. He's hired and developed a lot of the on air talent on KEXP as well as helped created a number of specialty shows. John is also responsible for a lot of the creative themes and ideas at KEXP including the all day breakdowns of albums, Six Degrees days, the Music Heals series and countless other on-the-fly themes and music sets.
Off the air John DJ's and hosts events, works on music supervision for movies, television and businesses and has a number of projects in the works. His most important work is raising two boys and being married to his wife Amy.
john@kexp.org
