If not for radio, punk and new wave would never have spread across the country the way it did. Thanks to groundbreaking DJs from the 1970s like Rodney Bingenheimer at Los Angeles station KROQ and Vin Scelsa at New York's WNEW, bands were able to reach an audience their crappy tour vans may never have taken them to.
Musicians valued the power of the FM dial. The Phil Spector-produced track "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" paid tribute to the artists The Ramones grew up listening to, shouting out DJs like Murray the K and Alan Freed. Elvis Costello's "Radio Radio" started out as a loving tribute to the medium -- his father was a vocalist for a radio dance band -- but the song became more biting as he came up against commercial stations, hence lyrics like "but they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason." Even the dour Ian Curtis of Joy Division implored listeners to "dance dance dance dance dance to the radio."Thankfully, some stations do have the power of choice, and KEXP is celebrating these airwave-breakers all week long -- from Monday, August 14th through Friday, August 18th. We're kicking things off with odes to the dial from the musicians themselves; scroll down through this Video Roundup and listen along all week as we salute some great stations.
KEXP is celebrating National Radio Day all week long both online and on the air; click here to see all our coverage on the KEXP Blog.
As part of KEXP's National Radio Week coverage, on the KEXP Blog we will be spotlighting some of the stories and personal testimonials given by a variety of radio luminaries in interviews done with KEXP DJs John Richards, Kevin Cole, and Morning Show producer Owen Murphy. These interviews articulat…
As part of KEXP's National Radio Week coverage, on the KEXP Blog we will be spotlighting some of the stories and personal testimonials given by a variety of radio luminaries in interviews done with KEXP DJs John Richards, Kevin Cole, and Morning Show producer Owen Murphy. These interviews articulat…
Starting on Monday, August 14th, KEXP will celebrate National Radio Week, featuring a variety of special programming dedicated to beloved radio stations largely no longer on the dial. National Radio Day, officially celebrated on August 20th, will be stretched to an entire week to give over the KEXP…
It won't just be the record-breaking temps that make this weekend the hottest of the year so far. Besides the start of KEXP's own Concerts at the Mural series this Friday, down in Happy Valley, Oregon, our friends at Pickathon are at it again. It's always hard to say that "this year" is the best ye…