Yeah, that’s why I mentioned listener supported radio/community run. As a separate statement.
Honestly, it’s the listener supported/community run radio stations that are the best.
I only mentioned NPR because that’s just something the average North American can relate to. Also KEXP is affiliated with NPR. So it felt relevant to mention.
And NPR handles the music licensing for the station. You can see them mentioned in multiple NPR annual reports as a member station, going as far back as 2001 when the affiliation started. Then as recently as 2011, after that NPR stopped reporting the NPR stations. Also there’s a managed list on Wikipedia of all affiliated stations. Prior to 2001 though it had no affiliation with NPR.