Eclectic Music Station KEXP 90.3/91.7 FM to Be Honored by Washington State Senate

Eclectic Music Station KEXP 90.3/91.7 FM to Be Honored by Washington State Senate

SEATTLE, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- KEXP 90.3/91.7FM, the eclectic non-commercial music station, will receive honors from the Washington State Senate on Monday, March 21, 2005.

Washington State Senators Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, and Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, are sponsoring a resolution outlining KEXP's contributions to the people of Washington.

The Senate Resolution acknowledges KEXP 90.3/91.7 in its mission to enrich lives with a unique, expansive and deep combination of music programming with knowledgeable hosts that hand-pick music from its collection of approximately 500,000 titles; that KEXP provides unparalleled and unmatched variety of music programs and became the first station in the world to offer uncompressed CD-quality audio on the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Receiving this honor from the State Senate is simply thrilling," says KEXP Executive Director Tom Mara. "I'm glad our staff, volunteers and donors will witness this honor on Monday. After twenty years of connecting artists to their first audiences, broadcasting music based on its merit regardless of commercial success, supporting the local artist and upholding the role of the music DJ, this honor does wonders to inspire us for another twenty years."

"Seattle has a world-renowned reputation as a trendsetter in both music and technology -- and KEXP plays a huge role in that scene," said Senate Republican Leader Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, who's favorite KEXP personality is John Richards, host of "John in the Morning," heard Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

"As far as I'm concerned KEXP is the best," says Senator Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle. "For once I have Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Green Party constituents who agree with me on something. KEXP brings us all together."

The reading of the resolution on the Senate floor is scheduled to take place at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, March 21.

About KEXP Public Radio

KEXP Radio is an influential, innovative non-commercial music radio station based in Seattle, supported by its membership of contributing listeners. KEXP programs a wide and deep mix of music spanning multiple genres, including alternative rock, electronic, hip-hop, roots, country, world, blues and in-depth specialty programs. Listeners enjoy this non-commercial service at 90.3FM in Seattle and 91.7FM in Tacoma and Olympia, and throughout the world at KEXP.ORG.

KEXP has reached numerous milestones in the past year, including its best yearly listener ratings and most successful membership drives. In the spring of 2004 KEXP.ORG was ranked number six among all audio streaming services on Arbitron's internet broadcasting service and, furthermore, was ranked first among all streaming AM and FM radio stations currently webcasting. Also, KEXP won the Webby for Best Radio Station website in 2004 and in the winter of 2005 won the PLUG Independent Music Award for best Non-Commercial Radio Station.

KEXP has a mission to enrich people's lives culturally by providing a wide and deep array of music, and technologically by exploring, developing and applying relevant technology to deepen or extend music experiences. Past first-ever technology services include KEXP's 14-Day online streaming archive where listeners can listen to any portion of the past fourteen days of programming, its online real time playlist where listeners can discover what is being played, and its 1.4 megabits per second uncompressed audio stream. All of these projects were developed in partnership with the world-class computing and networking experts at the University of Washington.

The station is governed by the Friends of KEXP, a non-profit organization operating the station on behalf of the University of Washington, which holds the FCC license. Experience Music Project provides generous financial support and the University of Washington computing and communications group provides KEXP with streaming services, technical support, development of new streaming applications and other technical developments.

Contact: Courtney Miller, +1-206-520-5813, for KEXP Public Radio

Source: KEXP Public Radio

CONTACT: Courtney Miller, +1-206-520-5813, for KEXP Public Radio

Web site: http://www.kexp.org/

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