COMMUNITY
Programmer of the Month | Kaja Brown, KRDP Community Radio
“I host a syndicated specialty show on Saturday nights called HipRawk Nation where I spotlight a lot of Electronic and Dance music along with other genres. Over the past couple of years I’ve become a huge fan of Denver-based DJ/producer ILLENIUM as well as Dutch DJ/producer Martin Garrix, and South African DJ/producer Black Coffee.”
MD of the Month | Twyla Twang, KZUM Lincoln, NE
I maintain a very ‘hands-off’ approach to what our DJ’s play. We’re all volunteers, all very knowledgeable within our niches, with independent spirits. We just play music we love, determined by our tastes with no outside influences. My mantra is “let the music speak for itself.”
Industry Interview with Eric Martinez, Secretly Group
“I was fortunate enough to attend a Yeah Yeah Yeahs session in LA about a month ago. Utterly surreal because it was essentially a private Yeah Yeah Yeahs show for me and a handful of techs and DJs. Afterward, I told Karen O that I used to record music videos on MTV2 with my VCR in high school. She just said “whoa” and laughed. I nearly melted.”
MD of the Month | Estelle Grignon, CHOQ Montreal
“I’ve been a musical director at CHOQ since June 2021, but my involvement at the station dates back to early 2016, when I started my show Ma tasse de thé (literally “My Cup of Tea”) about British music. I ended up doing over 100 episodes before taking a job as a Summer reporter for the station in 2019, and came back once the MD job opened.”
MD of the Month | Gavin Trutzenbach, Rowan Radio, Glassboro, NJ
“I think Mastodon’s October 2021 double album “Hushed and Grim” is a phenomenal record. It’s definitely my favorite album released in the past year and it was the album that made me love Mastodon. It’s got an amazing modern progressive metal sound, with tracks ranging from thrashy hard-hitting bangers, to near-bluesy guitar solos, to slower more emotional tracks that you can scream your feelings away to.”
Industry Interview with Richard Rosenblatt, VizzTone label group
Since VizzTone is a small company, we all wear a lot of hats, and I’ve shared many roles with Bob and Amy. Over the years I’ve been a musician, recording engineer, producer, radio promoter, publicist, talent scout, accountant, and office manager. The truth is I enjoy all of it, I just wish there were enough hours in the day keep me from going crazy doing it.”
MD of the Month | Nichole Marie, KRBX Radio Boise
“As a non-profit, non-comm radio station I cannot tell our DJs what to play–which is great! Free form media is so important right now. What I can do is make new music easily accessible by putting songs into a folder on our cart player. I also put new vinyl and CDs in the Control Room for them to use on their shows if they want.”
MD of the Month | Eric Funk, KRKQ “Mountain Chill” Telluride, CO
“My brother and I co-founded KRKQ in 2011. We built the station from its construction permit stage, including, quite literally, climbing the tower and building a custom DJ-Assist system ourselves. We are both full-time RF Engineers and we had worked in college radio in the past. So, KRKQ enabled us to combine our engineering skills with our love of radio and independent music to create something unique, Mountain Chill.”
Industry Interview with Maddie Schwappach, The Syndicate
“I actually went to school for mechanical engineering and was doing college radio while I was in college (shout out Radio K!) and have been working in the industry since! In college, I had a few internships doing venue marketing and backend stuff for KCMP in St. Paul, then worked on air there for a while after graduating. Last year I moved to New York and began work at The Syndicate doing college and non-comm promo.’