FILE: KEXP DJ Cheryl Waters conducts the first live broadcast at the groundbreaking of KEXP’s home at Seattle Center on Jan. 28, 2015, in Seattle.
Suzi Pratt/Getty ImagesAfter purchasing KREV 92.7, a Bay Area hip-hop radio station, for $3.75 million, Seattle-based nonprofit KEXP is set to begin broadcasting out of the Bay Area within a few months.
KEXP, which is affiliated with the University of Washington, hosts a variety of rock and electronic programming. The station is most famous for its live broadcasts, which have featured artists such as Grimes, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Mitski, Alabama Shakes and Odesza. KEXP’s YouTube channel draws over a million viewers per week.
In an email sent out to KEXP donors, CEO Ethan Raup announced the radio station purchased KREV 92.7 FM and all of its assets in a bankruptcy auction in October. A KEXP spokesperson told SFGATE that the radio station will likely begin broadcasting in the Bay in the next month or two, pending the resolution of a few lingering technical issues.
KEXP will supplant KREV 92.7, which broadcasted dance music before rebranding as a hip-hop station in 2023. Past iterations of 92.7 include jazz-only station KJAZ, rock station KXJO and LGBTQ-oriented KNGY.
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Raup told donors that San Francisco’s KEXP programming will be largely the same as in Seattle, adding that KEXP’s San Francisco station will launch a show highlighting Bay Area artists.
“We’ll also be doing our best to build relationships and connections with the local music scene that will help us define the evolution of the Bay Area station,” he wrote.
