As someone with a diverse and experimental music taste, I have always taken a massive interest to ‘listener-powered’ radio stations that cater to niche audiences and help platform a subversive breadth of artists and genres. They have been integral to shaping what my music taste is today, so I decided to look into what working as programming staff for alternative online radios entails by researching key platforms such as KEXP and NTS radio.

With the internet’s increasing role in how the sharing and access of music works, the requirements needed to get into the world of presenting, programming, and organising are intensely varied from case to case. For example, whilst there are more official job roles that require a level of certified experience at NTS currently, the way it begun indicates how much it is possible to independently corner a market on niche music programming. In an interview with Evening Standard, founder Adeyemi explains how he’s ‘not a naturally techy person’ so taught himself to stream and put-up posters reading ‘independent radio station in London’ to attract DJs and ended up with almost 60 people responding. This indicates how integral an intense passion for music – even if viewed as just a hobby – is and how it can be an important catalyst to larger projects, especially when that passion is funnelled into the desire to bring music sharing back to pure independent creativity, separate from the more lucrative commercial radio industry. Another prominent programming staff member ‘Flo Dill’, who hosts the breakfast show, got her start by volunteering in 2016 when it had a few full-time staff members. She refers to her show as ‘a respite from the “relentless pursuit of beige stuff” in today’s culture’, further showing how useful a passion for platforming inventive and obscurer music can be for garnering a market of likeminded people, and anyone willing to be pushed to expand their taste. Many programming staff members at these stations had also often gained experience from volunteering at other smaller stations, often student-run online stations such as Sean Morrow who volunteered at CiTR 101.9 in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia before becoming a KEXP DJ.

In terms of forming a real product from an idea in the radio world, Jonathan Feist refers to an example involving more conventional radio in his book ‘Project Management for Musicians’ when talking about ‘Gerald Slavet’ who serves as co-CEO/producer of From the Top, which is ‘the fastest growing NPR radio show of all time’ (Feist 2013:42). Forming from a simple epiphany ‘one afternoon in… 1995’, Feist points to the ‘great clarity in their vision’ (Feist 2013:43) as an integral part of their success story, referring to the need for a ‘well-articulated project definition’; a ‘project title’ that creates a memorable impression’ and ‘key objectives’ as the reason for this. The name ‘From the Top’ is ‘catchy’ and conveys ‘something essential about the shows content’ and the objective of providing ‘support… for young musicians dedicated to the pursuit of excellence’ (Feist, 2013:46) is a clear expression of the project’s purpose. We can see this carried over with programming staff of NTS, with Dill viewing her breakfast show as ‘a portal into the broader NTS ecosystem’ by being a less ‘specialist’ and more accessible launch point. In a broader sense, NTS indicates its purpose with a short catchy tagline of ‘don’t assume’ that immediately reveals its goal to treat the listener as intelligent and not ‘spoon feed’ the audience.

These days, getting a job at an established radio like KEXP often requires a bachelor’s degree in a relevant position and some level of experience for around 2/3 years. One way to get more experience that can lead to proper position as programming staff within the company is joining the volunteer team, which is integral to how these stations run due to their independent funding.

• What are the duties and responsibilities of the profession – what does a typical day’s work involve?

For many of the staff at online radios such as KEXP and NTS, their role as programming staff is only one part of their work life, often DJing elsewhere or running other business ventures. For example, KEXP DJ ‘Alex Ruder’ who runs the ‘Pacific Notions’ show is also the founder and curator of an independent record label called ‘Hush Hush Records’.  Alongside this, his KEXP responsibilities have shifted throughout the years, starting out as a DJ assistant before becoming more involved in programming, with more regular on-air shifts. Due to the flexible nature of radio, work hours vary a lot with long overnight shifts for late shows, tight deadlines and the potential scenario when a colleague is absent and needs to be covered for leading to more sudden changes in schedule. At somewhere like NTS especially, it’s likely that a significant chunk of shift-time will be focused on contact and communication with artists, due to the magnitude of musicians they remotely get to curate playlists for their shows. For the shows with a host, a lot of the off-air time will be spent researching information about the programmed music and artists, especially if conducting in-person interviews. Likewise, on KEXP, many of their shows get in live-performances in which the hosts interview the band/musician in-person, which would require research and general musical knowledge. A great benefit of this – especially due to the small-scale independent nature of KEXP – is how it allows for the hosts to build up a sort of relationship with musicians who they can support and push forward through their career. A great example of this is the bond between the band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and KEXP host Cheryl Waters, who hosted live sessions with the band many times as they grew in popularity. This even led to her presenting the main stage at Wide Awake Festival, which the band headlined. Another key responsibility of program staff at these radios would be the archival side of things, ensuring shows are correctly and quickly archived on the websites, with brief descriptions, tracklists, etc.

• What are the main financial and legal issues that impact on this profession?

With these types of radio being primarily listener-supported, they lack a confidently consistent revenue stream of adverts or corporate sponsorship. In order to run, they often need a strong team of volunteers and an audience who is passionate enough to donate. For KEXP, 52% of funding comes from listener donations, with 32% coming from local businesses and merely 11% coming from government sources (KEXP Funding.) . This can make the financial integrity more fragile, however, due to the cult following that niche and more counter-cultural programming often receives, these non-profit stations are able to maintain enough support to stay afloat. KEXP has multiple ways listeners can donate – even being able to donate vehicles – with exclusive benefits. Likewise, NTS has paid subscription services to become an NTS supporter that starts at £3.99 a month but can be increased if the subscriber wishes to pay more. These supporters receive a variety of perks such as ‘enhanced tracklists’ and the ability to ‘submit a show for supporter radio’. 50% of the cost of this goes directly to the resident hosts at NTS, the main people responsible for programming.

One legal issue that may occur due to the pursuit of obscurity (with ‘around 40% of music played on NTS’ not ‘available’ on Spotify) is finding the clearance to play the songs. A lot of time may have to be spent individually tracking down underground artists from decades ago or just any obscure independent artist and trying to get the broadcast rights for their music as they are much less likely to be signed up to organisations like PRS or MCPS that radio programmers can automatically look to for broadcasting music.

• What would the potential marketing and promotional aspects of this profession look like?

Marketing seems to be relatively limited in a profession like this, likely due to budget. Due to the underground sense of community that these more alternative circles foster, a large amount of their traction is based on a dedicated audience and word of mouth. Likewise, a significant chunk of promotion would be done on the artist side of it, with the programming of artists leading to them sharing it with their fans, likely drawing new listeners to these stations. Programming staff may be involved in more events management as well, with KEXP hosting over 300 events a year like community concerts (https://www.kexp.org/sponsor-kexp/) which can assist in promotion in their own way and ensure there is consistent engagement between the radio and their listeners. These also further provoke the goodwill of humans as the more enriching experiences that are provided, the more likely they are to feel the urge to donate. Furthermore, events like these are more likely to draw in more artists looking for spaces to perform, who could bring in new audiences.

• What are the intellectual and personal challenges presented by the profession and how might these be dealt with? 

Learning to balance the informal and friendly work atmosphere with the pressures that can appear, such as tight deadlines and quick turnarounds, due to the number of factors that go into getting a show on air, can be tricky. Furthermore, this ties into how varied work hours can be, which could affect personal life responsibilities, especially for those with a family. Although, online radio can allow for remote working, which could help with flexibility around maintaining presence within personal life responsibilities. However, the remoteness of the work could lead to a need to frequently travel across locations for meetings or events, especially if involved in the additional event management that these radios put on.  Also, fostering a strong sense of community and sociability among the programming staff can allow space for more flexibility, with DJs being willing to fill in for each other when required due to their close working relationship.

Constantly learning to adapt to artist personalities could also prove to be an intellectual challenge, with many musicians potentially having strong personalities. This could prove to be especially complicated if you were involved in interviewing segments, in which you constantly have to adjust how you question them and how to best bring out interesting and unique information for each guest.

• What career-progression/development opportunities are available within the profession?

The number of connections you form in a job role like this makes career progression opportunities incredibly varied and open. Due to the sense of community that’s built many staff members stay on for long periods of time, such as Cheryl Waters who has been DJing at KEXP since 1994, when it was known as KCMU. (Cheryl Waters DJ Page) The development of technical skills can lead many to pursue more performance-based opportunities, growing a fanbase from radio hosting that can then carry over to DJ gigs and festival slots. A more conventional journalist job could also be the next step, using connections they’ve built within the industry to more closely follow artists and report on it through written articles instead of radio shows. Many use their platform to set up other projects for things their passionate about, such as KEXP DJ Goyri who organizes an annual event called ‘Psyched! Fest’ that ‘brings together art, music and community’. (Goyri DJ Page)

To conclude, the role of programming staff in the world of niche online radio is an exceptionally enriching profession both in terms of the pursuit of upholding meaningful and interesting music and becoming part of a wider music community. Whilst the funding for such projects can be complicated, the sense of camaraderie and potential for industry connections formed through it is very rewarding and opens up many possibilities within the industry. It’s also a role that benefits the culture in general, as it is consistently about discovering and promoting unique and experimental approaches to music that may otherwise struggle to make it within a mainstream dominated world.

Bibliography:

D’Souza, S (2024) An Online Radio Station Where Everything Is Eclectic. Available online: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/03/arts/music/nts-radio-flo-dill.html#:~:text=And%20Swedish%20space%20disco.,music%20to%20timeworn%20dad%20rock.&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20Breakfast%20Show%E2%80%9D%20encapsulates%20the,%2C%20with%20genre-agnostic%20programming. [Accessed 30/12/24]

Feist, Jonathan. (2013) Project Management for Musicians. Hal Leonard Corporation.

Goyri. (n.d.) KEXP DJ’s Page. Available online: https://www.kexp.org/djs/goyri/ [30/12/24]

KEXP (n.d.) Help/FAQ page. Available online: https://www.kexp.org/faq/ [Accessed 30/12/24]

KEXP (n.d.) KEXP Sponsor page. Available online: https://www.kexp.org/sponsor-kexp/ [Accessed 30/12/24]

KEXP (n.d.) Programming Administrative Specialist Job Opportunity. Available online: https://recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/Jobs/Details/2924924 [Accessed 30/12/24]

Loffhagen, E (2024) ‘We ripped up the rule book’ – how NTS radio took over London and the world. Available Online: https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/how-nts-radio-took-over-london-hackney-b1187308.html [Accessed: 30/12/24]

Morrow, S. (n.d.) KEXP DJ’s page. Available online: https://www.kexp.org/djs/sean/ [Accessed 30/12/24]

NTS (n.d.) NTS supporters page. Available online: https://www.nts.live/supporters [Accessed 30/12/24]

Ruder, A. (n.d.) KEXP DJ’s page. Available online: https://www.kexp.org/djs/dj-alex/ [Accessed 30/12/24]

Waters, C. (n.d.) KEXP DJ’s page. Available online: https://www.kexp.org/djs/cheryl-waters/ [Accessed 30/12/24]