In Praise of John in the Morning

This man is John Richards, and he changed my life.

I’m not exaggerating, either. John is better known as John in the Morning, the morning show on KEXP, quite possibly the best radio station in existence. When I was a freshman in college, I had the privilege of living with some fantastic people. One of them (his name is Ben) was from Seattle and listened to this station regularly. He quickly discovered that you could stream it online, and I later discovered that it was one of the many stations listed in iTunes. I was hooked and have been listening ever since.

What is the brilliance of KEXP, you may ask? Well, first and foremost, they play awesome music on a regular basis. There are no commercials, because the station is entirely listener-supported – which means you have to endure pledge drives twice a year (just give them some money and switch over to WOXY for the week… that’s what I do), but it also means that they are a lot more invested in community-building. Part of their mission is to play local music at the top of every hour, an easily obtainable feat in the Northwest. They’ve also created a fantastic blog which is a great way to keep up on music news and events as well as hear some new tunes and see some music videos you’d probably miss otherwise. And then there are all the awesome live performances they have all the time. Oh, and let’s not forget the podcasts! Song of the Day is my favorite.

John has changed my life for the better by introducing me to some great music and restoring my faith in the possibilities of radio. Every day when I get to work I turn on KEXP first thing and usually have it on until after lunch.

Even better, KEXP launched a collaboration with Radio New York this year. Every morning from 6am-12pm, you can turn on 91.5FM and hear KEXP-planned programming just for New York at first, and then John in the Morning later. There are no commercials, and they make the same commitment to play local music in NYC as they do back West. Throw in a dash of NPR or BBC news briefs and local weather and music news and you’re set. I have been waking up to the radio for months, something I’d given up years ago and never thought I’d do again.

Like I said, restoring my faith in the radio. Give it a try.

These two photos, by the way, are from the MGMT and Ting Tings Pool Party on July 27th. John was DJing between sets and announced one of the bands. The whole time I was kind of like, “He looks really familiar. And he’s a Dj. I wonder…” Yep, John in the Morning.

On a completely different topic, tomorrow I will be at Liberty State Park all day for the All Points West Festival. I get to see Radiohead and God knows how many other bands. Unfortunately, they don’t allow “professional cameras” and I don’t have a photo pass. So I’m just going to enjoy myself and try not to get sunburned.