KEXP executive director to retire after building the Seattle radio station into a global music institution

During his 31 years as director of KEXP, Tom Mara grew a volunteer-run college radio station into a global music institution that he believes reaches 2 million people a week. Mara will retire as the station’s executive director on June 30, 2022 as the organization turns 50. He is known for helping KEXP grow while focusing on finding artists who deserve to be heard and connecting them with music lovers.

Mara says he has been pondering the question of “should there be another chapter for me” for the past few years – he is 57 and has worked in public broadcasting his entire career. Mara isn’t sure what his next chapter will be, but he says now is the perfect time to leave KEXP.

“This is a great time to pass the baton because we’re in really good shape,” says Mara. He helps find his successor.

Megan Jasper, CEO of Sub Pop Records and a member of the KEXP board of directors, says donations to KEXP are at an all-time high. The organization has an annual budget of approximately $ 12 million. And Riz Rollins, a longtime KEXP DJ, says his staff and program are as diverse and inclusive as they have ever been.

When Mara started volunteering at the station in 1987, it was still the University of Washington’s KCMU station, which only had a range of 15 miles. But in 2000, Mara says, he received from the late Paul Allen a grant of $ 250,000 per year (then the organization’s operating budget) for 10 years and a $ 1 per month lease for a new facility in South Lake Union. The next year, KCMU became KEXP and the organization grew by leaps and bounds under Mara’s leadership.

In 2016, KEXP moved to its new home in the Seattle Center, a common room with a record store, coffee shop and rooms where visitors could watch live sessions. Mara says he cried at the opening event for the room. It was one of his most memorable moments while serving as CEO. KEXP’s new home was an important step towards Mara’s goal of connecting music lovers with artists who deserve to be heard.

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As KEXP grew, Jasper says, Mara remained committed to the artists whose music filled the station’s programming. In its early days, KEXP was an important platform for grunge bands like Nirvana. KEXP later broadcast music by sub pop signed artists like The Head and the Heart and Fleet Foxes when none of them had heard of.

Jasper says KEXP is unique in the way it stands up for artists it believes in, even if the artists don’t see commercial success. This makes the artists feel connected to KEXP.

“KEXP is the kind of station that understands the advancement of artists and the development of artists,” she says. “The station is ultimately requested by artists. And that’s unusual. “

Outside of his role on KEXP, Mara is an advocate of the Seattle music scene, says Jasper. She says Mara was instrumental in developing a paid internship program to help people get started in the music business and a high school career day in the music business that attended stars like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

She also says that Mara’s leadership at the start of the pandemic – the DJs quickly getting what they needed to work from home to avoid any interruption to programming – helped her get on with the during an isolating time To feel connected to the world.

And she and Rollins say they admire how Mara has mastered race reckoning as of 2020. Rollins says Mara recognized the diversity issues in the station’s staff and in its programming.

“KEXP didn’t always serve the whole community,” says Rollins. The program was varied, but “steeped in rock” and was not aimed at all the different residents of the Seattle area.

Rollins says that while Mara did not cite the changes that have been made to the station since then, he encouraged her – something he says is a mark of “exceptional leadership.”

The on-air staffing shifts have since changed to accommodate airtime for a more diverse group of DJs, especially during the daytime. Rollins, for example, who has hosted night shows for years, plays jazz, African music and alternative hip-hop during the day.

“Especially after the changes last year, I am as proud of KEXP as ever,” says Rollins.

Mara says the future of KEXP is global. The station has built connections with local music scenes from Reykjavik to Mexico City over the past few years in an effort to find the best artists from around the world.

But even with this expansion, Mara says, the organization will stick to its mission of enriching life by advocating for music and discovery, and keeping all of their music curated by their 45 DJs – something he says is rare on radio stations is.

“It has been an honor to serve the KEXP community for the past three decades,” he said in a statement announcing his retirement. “I am also eternally grateful to the musicians who inspire and heal us – they are the connective tissue between our communities.”

Jade Yamazaki Stewart:
jstewart@seattletimes.com; Jade Yamazaki Stewart is an intern with the Seattle Times. You can reach him at jstewart@seattletimes.com or on Instagram at @jade_vs_food.

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/music/kexp-executive-director-to-retire-after-building-the-radio-station-into-a-global-institution/