buzzfeed most iconic aim away messages of all time

“Remember, Josh, you are not alone,” Richards said it’s the radio station’s oft-repeated tagline.Īnd that’s all before 8 a.m. “I lean on KEXP a lot each year,” he said in his note before requesting “ People” by David Bazan. He’s hoping he won’t pass his issues onto his baby girl. “I felt so alone and it left me wondering how I could ever be a good parent.”Īnother listener, Josh, is also a new parent who recently started therapy to deal with conflicts with friends and family members. “I felt nothing except much anxiety,” DJ Richards said, as he read her note on air. A social worker, Victoria had a traumatic birth and felt guilt and shame because although she eventually got help from a therapist and found joy in motherhood, at first she couldn’t find love for her baby. On a recent Music Heals day, a listener, Victoria, dedicated the song “ The Mother” by Brandi Carlile to everyone who struggles with postpartum depression.

And then you tune into other stations, there’s nothing - nothing! - no mention of our mental health, no mention of our physical health.” “When a pandemic happens, you can get on the air and say, oh my god, you guys this is nuts. “We weren’t changing what we did, we actually just doubled down on it,” Richards said. Their DJs received over 135,000 texts from listeners in 2021. However, because KEXP was already focused on mental health, DJs felt ready to talk about the challenges people were facing. She left the station nearly $10 million in her will in 2018.) About 65% of the operating budget comes from individual contributions, which is the largest source of revenue for KEXP by a significant margin, Schueler said.ĭuring the tumultuous year that was 2020, including the pandemic followed by the murder of George Floyd and the resulting resurgence in support for social justice movement Black Lives Matter, the station scrutinized its own internal practices even more than it had in the past and switched up programming to be more inclusive. (Its biggest one-time donation was from a listener, Suzanne, who chose to be identified only by her first name. The rest are from all over the world.ĭonations make up the lion’s share of the radio station budget. When people talk about radio dying, that’s what died.”Īlthough it varies, KEXP has about 300,000 listeners who stream or listen to the broadcast every week, and about half of the streaming listeners are from the Puget Sound area, followed by the next biggest audience, New York. “There’s no way they can even program like we do, let alone talk like we do,” Richards said. That type of authenticity isn’t possible at most radio stations, which are largely owned by corporations, Richards said. “Hearing stories from listeners about what they were going through, hearing from DJs about what their experience was and really being real and human and authentic on the radio inspired a lot of people to continue to support KEXP and more people to support it for the first time,” Schueler said. Listener donations hit $7.8 million in 2021, up 16% from the $6.7 million donated in 2020. Others are trying to get help for children with mental illness.Īs the stories come in, Richards plays songs like “ Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, “ Stay Alive” by José González, “I am OK” by Lea Porcelain, “We are Fine” by Sharon Van Etten, and “This Year” by the Mountain Goats.Īlthough the station has been doing mental health–specific programming for years, not only was there an increase in listeners and donations after the start of the pandemic, but the number of hours that people were spending listening to the radio station also increased dramatically, said Dashel Schueler, KEXP’s marketing and communications director.

They’re the adult survivors of child abuse. People share that they’re trying to stay sober. Others are specifically geared toward addiction, grief, and coping with cancer. This one is for people grappling with their mental health. It’s a Music Heals day, one of three to four such days the nonprofit radio station KEXP hosts every year as part of its programming that addresses these and other serious issues head on. Hundreds of messages flood in via text, email, and social media. They are darker than the day - deeply personal, emotional, and gut-wrenching accounts of their struggles with depression, anxiety, grief, and more. On a crisp, sunny day in Seattle, DJ John Richards is fielding music requests from listeners and also sharing their stories on air.

Buzzfeed most iconic aim away messages of all time