KPLU 88.5 FM

Love the music, enjoy NPR and the local hosts. Can be difficult to receive clearly in some areas, and is the only station worth listening to in WA.
Didn’t like the campaign for more taxes. Jazz & politics don’t mix.

My friends and coworkers have been listening & supporting this station for decades. We have become dishearten listeners the past few years, as we can’t help but over hear Nora Jones being played multiple times, during the day. Don’t misunderstand our plight, as we think she is awesome but not when she is played, over and over. We have shared our thoughts on many levels directly to the station and even with the the Hosts. There is usually a slight temporary change then it reverts back. We have even compared notes and if you go to almost any Store, Restaurant, Drs. Office, Airport you will hear Nora there too! Albeit not on KPKU but some Muzak channel. Again, she is awesome but there are so many other wonderful artists out there to choose from.
Our plight has become a well voiced topic. We have shared in conversations that when we are in our offices, cars and homes, KPLU is being turned off when Nora is being played. We have even discontinued listening to KPLU and then later decide to listen to it again. Hoping but alas we discover more gentrified programming. Our office matching program has been re-​allocated to support alternate choices. There are so many other options out there!
This plight is also true for ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me’ Program in general and on KPLU/​NPR. This show is played on several stations on Saturdays and Sundays. KPLU has decided to copy them and now plays it twice per weekend as well. They even decided to play it Sunday morning by shortening one of the best KPLU Programs which was with Ruby Brown. It ‘was’ the best Seattle Sunday morning Program hands down. In the past you could go to any one of your favorite breakfast or coffee haunts and hear Ruby’s show. Today’s ‘Sunday Side Up’ played 5 KPLU/​NPR plugs & 3 Commercials with a Bouncy Loud Host in the first 23 minuets!!! The days of enjoying lazy, easy, mellow Jazz on Sundays Mornings are gone. As the newer gentrified programs (Wait, Wait/​Sunday Side Up) are no longer Sunday Morning enjoyable. It’s just another average radio listening day. Businesses and Seattleites know that and they have many alternative choices to choose from. This is too bad for KPLU.
We all use to love and believe that KPLU was listener supported and driven. These past few years have shown us just how Commercially driven they really are. The saying goes that ‘your actions reflect who you truly are’. Such is the case for KPLU.
Why the changes? Insiders claim financial business tactics and pre-​set obligatory commitments. If you ask the station they say it’s what the listeners want. It’s up to you, do you want to hear ‘Over Played Gentrified Programming’ or just want to listen to a less commercially driven station? The choice is yours but the trending plight of KPLU is defiantly gentrified.

I like KPLU. I have listened to it for years. They play jazz. Sometimes they play good jazz. But the jazz they have they play over, and over, and over. For 6 months i have heard them play the same Grant Green song over, and over and over. (but not any other music from that artist). They play Barbara Striesand (i hope i misspelled her name) and Babs ain’t jazz. I pretty much agree with the velveeta comment. Their main competition, KWJZ plays a much greater variety of jazz (a commercial station). The impression I have got is the DJ’s are given a playlist from the program director. A pretty boring list of music to be played over and over and over. Every now and then a jazzy gem gets past the dj’s, but I am sure its an accident and not something meant to happen. The all blues show is good, and not in a rut. But for day to day jazz, check out KWJZ (yeah, lots of commercials) and give KPLU a try. But its pretty boring.

KPLU is the Velveeta of Jazz stations. Yes, they do play some fine jazz — perhaps about 16% of their total music broadcast. The rest is a mixture of soft and fuzzy easy listening, bad jazz and non jazz. They also have a penchant for playing the same selections over and over. These are mostly sweet and stupid songs with all edges sanded smooth. I believe they feel their listeners don’t pay much attention, have a high turnover or are stoned. The tragedy of this is that there is so much really great jazz recorded and they won’t play it. They aren’t a smooth jazz station, but they aren’t really a good jazz station either. It’s a sort of anti-​intellectual broadcast with not much in the way of public affairs, although they regularly beat their breast, proclaiming themselves a great jazz station with great public affairs programs. They are neither.

KPLU is one of the best jazz stations in the world. Abe Beeson is a fine human being with amazing taste, and deep musical knowledge.
Mix in an excellent signal that cleanly reaches both Seattle and the Eastside, with translators all over the state.
Top it off with the key NPR staples, including Fresh Air during prime time, and you have the best NPR station in Washington, bar none.

I was really disappointed when I arrived in Seattle to find that NPR (94.9) did not carry one of my favorite programs, Piano Jazz. Little did I know until a co-​worker informed me, that there was the awesomeness that is KPLU. And one afternoon, I heard the unique voice of the Piano Jazz host and there was happiness once again in my Sunday afternoon routine. I love having a station I can tune into nearly any time and have jazz playing.
I also love All Blues with John Kessler and would probably buy almost every track played on there if I had the cash.

When I’m working and don’t want to be distracted by songs I can sing along to — and trust me, you don’t want to be distracted by my singing either — I often tune in to KPLU Jazz. I like that they’re not stuck in a particular jazz genre and play a variety of styles. They also have NPR offerings, and news between music blocks, but my favorite way to listen is the streaming jazz online.