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10 Questions with ... Kevin Cole
June 13, 2022
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1. What got you interested in the radio business?
Music. My interest in radio has always been driven by my love for music and specifically, radio stations that believe in the power of music to build community and bring people together.
2. What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?
As a pre-teen I was glued to the radio listening to the Top 40 radio stations in Minneapolis/St. Paul, WDGY and KDWB. This was the golden era of AM radio where you would hear an incredible mix of exciting new music--the new Bob Dylan single, alongside the Beatles, the Kinks, and all the great Motown 45s!
3. How long have you been at KEXP?
I’ve been at KEXP for 23 years. Post Rev 105 I moved to Seattle in 1998 to be a part of Amazon.com and the team that launched Amazon music. I missed radio, so after about a year, started volunteering at KCMU (which became KEXP) doing a weekly show on Sundays. In 2003 I moved over to KEXP fulltime as Senior Director of Programming/Chief Content Office until September of 2020. Currently I host the afternoon Drive Time show and am our Senior Programming Advisor working with a great team including Chris Kellogg (Chief Programming Officer), John Richards (Director of Programming On-Air/Morning Show host), Cheryl Waters (Midday host/Live Performances Manager), Larry Mizell, Jr. (Director of Editorial/Afternoon Show host), Don Yates (Music Director—best ears in the business), Dusty Henry (Digital Content Manager), and Tilly Rodina (Director of Community Engagement). If anyone needs contact info for any of the team, hit me up.
4. KEXP is celebrating 50 years on the air in 2022. What do you have planned to celebrate?
So much! We’ll be celebrating all year long with special on-air, online, and in-person programming! Each week we’re doing a “deep dive” into one of our 50 years of existence. We kick off these yearly spotlights every Wednesday with our daytime DJs creating special on-air programming focusing on the year we’re celebrating. We support this with digital features we distribute via our website and social media. It’s been a ton of fun, and really rewarding as a DJ, too, dusting off some of the forgotten favorites and discovering new music that was overlooked at the time. The music discovery journey never ends! Pretty much everything we’re doing this year will be tied into our anniversary. And, in August we’ll have a major event celebrating our birthday. Stay tuned for more details!
5. The station’s mission statement is “to enrich your life by championing music and discovery.” What sources do you use to discover music?
The quest to discover new music is never ending, and we hope to leave no stone unturned in this quest. One of the ways we process and discover new music is via contacts and partners within the music industry ecosystem--from labels, promoters, managers, artists, publications, record stores, etc. We all do this to varying degrees. I think of this as a reactive approach to music discovery as we’re reacting to (listening and reviewing) music sent to us. We are also very proactive, and go out and seek music, from places like Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, YouTube, and social media posts, also by proactively researching scenes around the world, and talking to friends, coworkers, etc. Our listeners, fellow music lovers, are always turning us on to new music, too. Cultivating and maintaining a curious mindset is key to discovering new music—to be opened to actively finding new music you love and then being comfortable playing it on the air when no one else is yet.
6. I know you personally travel the world for music conferences. Tell us about some music you discovered there, that would not have been recognized here in the states had you not?
There’s nothing like experiencing new music firsthand, in person. Our remote broadcasts, along with personal trips I’ve taken, have been deeply enriching experiences for me, in terms of musical discovery, relationship building, and personal transformation. Some of the international artists we’ve played a role in bringing to a significantly wider audience include Of Monsters and Men, Altın Gün, Gus Gus, IDLES, Bomba Estereo, Café Tacvba, Sóley, Songhoy Blues, Ibeyi, DakhaBrakha, Stromae, Los Bitchos, Aurora, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Dø, The Tallest Man on Earth, Tinariwen, Fémina, Mdou Moctar, Ólafur Arnalds, Eydís Evensen, and Vök. Each of these artists/bands have done in-studio sessions at KEXP that have each gotten over 2 million views!
This past May I went on my first post pandemic international trip, to Denmark for the SPOT festival, a showcase festival for new and emerging artists. It was fantastic! I had the opportunity to host four live sessions from artists that I’d recommend checking out, from the sultry R&B of Jeuru, the life affirming Afrobeat of J.J. Paulo, the dreamy transcendent showgaze of Rigmor, and the emotional pop, soft grunge of Brimheim. Check them out, and someone please sign Brimheim to a US deal-she’s amazing and her music needs to be heard!
Two rocking bands from Wales I’ve fallen in love with recently are James and the Cold Gun, who recently signed to Loosegroove records here in Seattle, and the Vega Bodegas—they need a US deal!
7. If it were it up to you, what would you change in our "system" to give bands a better shot at being discovered?
The Non-Comm music stations are doing excellent work bringing new music and artists into the lives of our listeners. We’re the ones on the front end of music discovery in radio—yet there’s so many more great artists and bands out there, so one thing I’d like to see in our “system” is even more openness to new music--openness to play unsigned bands and artists because you love them, and openness to embrace diversity, equity, and representation in our programming. In a polarized world, we have an opportunity, a platform, to bring people together via a shared love of music. Let’s do it and make the world a better place!
8. What are some of your biggest challenges programming a Non-Comm station?
On a personal level, time. Time is one of our most valuable resources—and there is more great music than time to listen to (and program) it, and more awesome creative ideas than we have time to execute on. So, time management and prioritization are always on-going challenges. Sound familiar?!
Broadly speaking, I think the big challenges we face as Non-Comm radio stations are the things we don’t know—the future! We all need to be flexible and open to change. We’ve all experienced this when we moved into the digital era. We need to lead, be creative, take risks, and innovate. Not just in our programming and content creation, but also with our distribution. As the way people experience music changes, we must also change—and in this regard, we can’t follow, but need to be on the forefront of those changes. Our survival depends on it.
Also, it is critical that we embrace and champion diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We cannot fully realize our missions until everyone is accepted and celebrated for who they really are; where people everywhere see themselves reflected in our organizations and the music we champion.
9. If you were to leave the radio business today and you could choose any other occupation, what would it be?
Olympic marathon runner. And, since that isn’t going to happen, disco artist! I’d probably suck, but I’d attempt to become the Giorgio Moroder of the 2020’s.
10. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ...
Organic white silver needle tea!
Bonus Questions
Last non-industry job:
Man, I might need to go back to high school, college for that one—working at a health food store during summer break!
First record ever purchased:
I’m a record collector, and for someone who has been collecting all my life, and has over 100,000 records, it’s kind of embarrassing that I can’t remember the first record I bought! I remember the first ones I had though, which I still love--the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Axis: Bold As Love,” Bob Dylan’s “Blonde On Blonde,” and The Who’s “The Who Sell Out.” I was 10 years old, and these records saved me.
First concert:
I was obsessed with music growing up, and from 6th grade through Jr. High school played in bands, went and saw bands that played the teen center, and went to a few concerts my mom took me to, but the first really big show I went to on my own, that I somehow was able to pay for the ticket with my own money, was The Who on the Who’s Next tour. I had my first pair of Adidas at the time, which was a BIG deal, and somehow lost one of them in the pit. It was worth it though.
Favorite band of all-time:
This question used to set off an anxiety attack and make me break out in a panicky sweat like the guy in the drug smuggling custom’s scene from the movie Midnight Express. There are too many amazing artists, how can you pick just one? After years of therapy, I now understand I can whole-heartedly love a lot of artists and at the same time have a favorite. My favorite artist of all time is Prince.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time away from work?
Running, skiing, anything physical. And, of course, listening to music.
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