When KCMU succumbed to a "partnership" between the University of Washington, its broadcast license holder, and the EXPerience Music Project, the station lost its historic identity in the process.

Timed like a bad joke, the on-air hosts told loyal listeners on Sunday, April 1st, 2001, that as of Monday morning, the station would be KEXP. In response to listener inquiries, the station staff quickly denied that the "EXP" in the new call sign was any sort of advertisement for Seattle's EXPerience Music Project, which also goes by the initials EMP. The "EXP" in the station ID stands for "experimental," states the official explanation, a decision by the management to reflect the station's commitment to new technology. KCMU has been a leader of Internet broadcasts in recent years, developing a worldwide following by streaming its programming live in four different formats from its Web site, thanks to substantial grants from EMP-linked sources.

Listeners have likened the public explanation to a skimpy "fig leaf", and public awareness is growing that the "official" explanation has left out several connections that are crucial in discerning the truth about KCMU's "partnership" from the flak PR and outright disinformation which circulates in cyberspace. Housed in a flashy new building designed by noted architect Frank Gehry, and strategically set at the base of Seattle's Space Needle, the EMP is a project of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Much less publicly known than his former colleague Bill Gates, Allen is only slightly less rich: his vast fortune is based on Microsoft stock. Unlike Gates though, Allen took early retirement due to illness, and has set to using his fortune to place his imprint on Seattle's culture, the Pacific Northwest, and the entertainment economy. His companies control the Seattle Seahawks NFL football franchise, the Portland Trailblazers NBA team, radio stations in Portland, office buildings and properties in Seattle and Portland , and many other ventures. Like the EMP music history museum.

With a strategic partnership now firmly in place, EMP influenced KCMU to abandon its rich history of almost thirty years to become KEXP, a transparent plug for the EXPerience Music Project. The changes at the station included moving away from the University of Washington campus to more spacious studios near EMP, an increase in the station’s signal strength from 400 watts to over 700 watts, access to EMP's music library, and, most obvious to the loyal listener base, abandoning the KCMU call sign.

Lost in the switch to the new name is a priceless trove of station identifications, recorded over the years by musicians, artists, public figures, and station staff. As a non-commercial station, advertisements were never broadcast, so the only "advertisements" to be heard in amongst the flow of outstanding eclectic music were quirky station identifications, all of which are now consigned to music history (although station officials claim the spots will be "resurrected" by miracles of technology). Poet Stephen Jesse Bernstein, musician Jeff Buckley and William Burroughs (who are all participating in the Great Gig in the Sky), and Michael Dukakis (the 1988 presidential candidate for the Democrats), amongst hundreds of other people, recorded irreplaceable and individual plugs for KCMU over the station's near-three decade history. This archive was partly why KCMU was called "the greatest station on earth."

Now that the KCMU call sign has been eliminated in the "partnership", this cultural legacy has been consigned to the "dustbin of history." This decision may suit EMP's owners just fine; after all, it is a music history museum.

Perhaps Citizen Allen will create an exhibit on KCMU and the history of the college radio station. Perhaps he will resurrect KCMU's music archives for the visitors who pay the more than US$20 admission fee to enter the gaudy, modern music museum.