KAOS (FM)
Encyclopedia
KAOS is a hybrid college-community radio
station licensed to The Evergreen State College
in Olympia, Washington
. It broadcasts in HD Radio
at a power of 1,100 watts
and also streams
live via the Internet
. The station continues to offer free radio broadcasting training to any member of the community.
. The license was granted under his surprise application and broadcasts began January 1, 1973.
The station has been a mainstay in Olympia's local music scene, including a famous early appearance by Nirvana
on April 17, 1987 (their second ever) and a Kurt Cobain
solo acoustic performance on 1990 (both included on the Nirvana box set With the Lights Out
).
, Women's, Hispanic
, alternative news
programs, and independent music. KAOS currently broadcasts many syndicated public affairs programs, such as Amy Goodman
's Democracy Now!
, as well as original, locally produced public affairs shows like Free & Fair and Parallel University. A wide variety of music is played, including world music
, jazz
, blues
, metal music, folk
, experimental music
, garage
, psychedelic
, electronic, surf
, alt country, comedy, indie pop
, prog, free jazz
, indie rock
, bluegrass
, dance, dub, reggae
, hip hop music
, traditional and contemporary Latino music, roots rock, r&b, and more.
s go onto larger fame, such as Victoria Hart Glavin (Victoria Barreca) hip hop journalist and founder of PileDriving Records, Calvin Johnson (founder of K Records
), Bruce Pavitt
(founder of Sub Pop
Records), Chris Scofield (founder of Strange Attractors Audio House Records), Tobi Vail
, Lois Maffeo
, Mark Hosler
(of Negativland
) Arrington de Dionyso (of Old Time Relijun
), Steve Fisk
(producer and musician), Jeff Jacoby
(sound artist & producer of The Traveling Radio Show), and Tom Hood
(founder of Hood's Woods Music).
Community radio
Community radio is a type of radio service, that offers a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting. Community stations can serve geographic communities and communities of interest...
station licensed to The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is an accredited public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. It is located in Olympia, Washington, USA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college...
in Olympia, Washington
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
. It broadcasts in HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
at a power of 1,100 watts
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
and also streams
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
live via the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The station continues to offer free radio broadcasting training to any member of the community.
History
KAOS was founded by Dean Katz of The Evergreen State College. When he traveled to Seattle to apply for the station license, his official papers had the radio station call letters as KESC (for "Evergreen State College.") However, unbeknownst to his adviser and almost everyone else, Katz had other ideas, being a fan of the TV show Get SmartGet Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
. The license was granted under his surprise application and broadcasts began January 1, 1973.
The station has been a mainstay in Olympia's local music scene, including a famous early appearance by Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
on April 17, 1987 (their second ever) and a Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
solo acoustic performance on 1990 (both included on the Nirvana box set With the Lights Out
With the Lights Out
With the Lights Out is a box set, containing three CDs and one DVD, of previously rare or unreleased material, including b-sides, demos, rough rehearsal recordings and live recordings, from the American rock band Nirvana. It was released in November 2004...
).
Programming
KAOS's mission is to present voices that are underrepresented in mainstream media. This includes Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, Women's, Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
, alternative news
News agency (alternative)
An alternative news agency operates in a similar fashion to a commercial news agency, but defines itself as an alternative to commercial or "mainstream" operations. They span the political spectrum, but most frequently are progressive or radical left. Sometimes they combine the services of a news...
programs, and independent music. KAOS currently broadcasts many syndicated public affairs programs, such as Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...
's Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
, as well as original, locally produced public affairs shows like Free & Fair and Parallel University. A wide variety of music is played, including world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, metal music, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, garage
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
, psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
, electronic, surf
Surf music
Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...
, alt country, comedy, indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
, prog, free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
, indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
, bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
, dance, dub, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, hip hop music
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, traditional and contemporary Latino music, roots rock, r&b, and more.
Music policy
KAOS is famous for its independent music policy, devised in KAOS's earlier years. The policy states that at least 80% of the music broadcast must be from sources other than the four major record labels and their subsidiaries.Long-running Programs
There are a number of programs that have been around for well over ten years and are currently still on the air. These are some:- El Mensaje Del Aire - Spanish-language
- Retroactive - Roots rockRoots rockRoots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...
, R&BRhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, SoulSoul musicSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of... - View From the Shore - NativeNative American musicAmerican Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...
- Music from the Underground - PsychedelicPsychedelic musicPsychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
- Parallel University with Kim Dobson - Live call-in discussion
- Excuse All The Blood - MetalHeavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
Former DJs
Over the years, the station has had many former DJDisc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s go onto larger fame, such as Victoria Hart Glavin (Victoria Barreca) hip hop journalist and founder of PileDriving Records, Calvin Johnson (founder of K Records
K Records
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, co-founded, owned, and operated by Calvin Johnson, formerly of the bands Cool Rays, Beat Happening, The Go Team, The Halo Benders and presently in the bands Dub Narcotic Sound System and The Hive Dwellers...
), Bruce Pavitt
Bruce Pavitt
-History:After briefly attending Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois and subsequently transferring to The Evergreen State College in Washington State, Pavitt started a fanzine entitled Subterranean Pop in Olympia, Washington in 1980, about American independent rock bands. Three cassette...
(founder of Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
Records), Chris Scofield (founder of Strange Attractors Audio House Records), Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail is an independent musician, DIY zinester, and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington, noted primarily as the drummer of the defunct punk band Bikini Kill. She formed one of her first bands as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15, later collaborating in several other groups...
, Lois Maffeo
Lois Maffeo
Courtney Love is an American musician and writer who lives in Olympia, Washington. Although never achieving mainstream success, she has been closely involved with and influenced many independent musicians, especially in the 90s Olympia, Seattle and DC based musician.-as Lois Maffeo:albums*The...
, Mark Hosler
Mark Hosler
Mark Hosler is an American musician who is a founding member of the sound art collective Negativland.- Career :Through his public speaking, lectures and extensive interviews, he serves as the primary spokesperson for the group...
(of Negativland
Negativland
Negativland is an experimental music and sound collage band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! song, while their record label is named after another Neu! song...
) Arrington de Dionyso (of Old Time Relijun
Old Time Relijun
Old Time Relijun is a band founded in Olympia, Washington, United States and a longtime member of K Records. Current members are Germaine Baca on drums, Aaron Hartman on upright bass, Ben Hartman on saxophones, and Arrington de Dionyso on electric guitar, vocals and bass clarinet...
), Steve Fisk
Steve Fisk
Steve Fisk is a Washington-based audio engineer, record producer and musician.Fisk joined the instrumental rock band Pell Mell in 1982. With vocalist Shawn Smith, he formed Pigeonhed, which released its first album in 1993....
(producer and musician), Jeff Jacoby
Jeff Jacoby (sound artist)
Jeff Jacoby is a sound and radio artist. His programs and artworks have been heard on NPR, PBS, Pacifica Radio and other venues nationwide.Jacoby was a commissioned artist for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut, and has served on the faculty of Quinnipiac...
(sound artist & producer of The Traveling Radio Show), and Tom Hood
Tom Hood
Tom Hood , was an English humorist and playwright, son of the poet and author Thomas Hood. A prolific author, he was appointed, in 1865, editor of the magazine Fun. He also founded Tom Hood's Comic Annual in 1867....
(founder of Hood's Woods Music).