Growing up in north central Montana in the mid-70s, I scavenged for any and all music scraps that I could get – befriending older kids and making mix tapes from their huge collections, recording songs off the TV from American Bandstand and Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert and scouring the radio waves for any kind of new music.

Today, I am lucky enough to have KEXP in my backyard, leading the way with broad strokes of new music from all over the world and putting on one of a kind live shows by the best new artists.

I start every day with tea, The Seattle Times and an hour of KEXP, KGBA, or KCRW. With local record stores disappearing daily, it’s more important than ever for DJs that we trust to introduce us to new music.

Rock and roll is dead, long live public radio!

Jeff Ament is the bassist and one of the founding members of the rock band Pearl Jam.

Photo by Karen Loria.