Microtone

Not really capable of any fancy social media posting or DJing right now. Will be Shortraving anyway in about 20 minutes, Friday 5-6PM Pacific on

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

Haven’t had much time to plan playlists lately, so today’s show is going to be whatever it’s going to be.

On air at noon this Tuesday 5/19 💃🏻

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

This brown tabby kitten is named RADicchIO whose name contains this most beautiful word, RADIO 📻🎶

Rad’io is not my cat. Actually, none of the animals I’ve posted on this IG are owned by me, except for the very first two dogs you’ll see in the very first post on my Instagram page (they passed away in 2020 ❤️‍🩹).

In my off-screen and not-KALX volunteer life, I also foster animals, mostly cats through the . I’ve been doing this since December 2020, which is shortly after I started this account. In case anyone was wondering, this explains why I have different animals just about every post…

The second slide/video here is Squash, who was a KALX colleague favorite and had inadvertently performed a live enactment of one of our promos 😸 (sound on for naturally occurring background noise, the KALX “Owls” legal ID).

Though I was originally scheduled for a show tomorrow 5/12, I realized my latest batch of fosters need extra attention. So dear is covering for me! I am quite pleased about that. I’ll be at home caring for my current fosters, and also driving around running errands on these kittens’ behalf while tuned in to —

DAHLIA on KALX
Tuesday 5/12 9:30 AM-NOON
📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

at run by and

G’morning ☀️

It’s radio time again, Tuesday 4/28, from 9:30 AM to noon.

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

THANK YOU EVERYONE who supported KALX during our spring fundraiser last week!! I was more of a DJ sidekick to and behind-the-scenes support this year, which is exactly where I wanted to be. Delighted to hear so much enthusiasm for our radio community from DJs and donors alike!

We’re back to our regularly scheduled freeform, commercial-free programming. I’ll be on this Tuesday morning April 14th at 9:30 AM, blissing out with tunes until noon. 🥰

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

I didn’t announce my last radio show which happened on Friday 4.3.2026 at midnight. To be honest, I went in with almost no preparation, just an obligation to deliver as promised — a late night show to keep freeform radio diehards company.

The last time I did a non-specialty late night show was May 2nd, 2019, 0100~0330. Wow. What a different time and place that was…

A DJ trainee sat in with me for the first hour. It was a fun way to demonstrate how you do NOT need to have a playlist fully pre-planned to do a good show. But you do need to know the library and something about music, and you should have some favorite songs to fall back on in a pinch. This night, I gave myself 10 minutes to grab the first things that came to mind from the 1990s from my personal collection. Everything else I cobbled together from the KALX library 20 minutes before my show.

What I love about live radio is its spontaneity, the traces of human manipulation at analog controls. In my second hour, after my trainee left, I blended a couple things into my program that even surprised me: SF electronic vinyl from Bento Box that blended perfectly in pitch with a CD of Batak from North Sumatra. The beats were slightly off… but one thing Michael taught me about psychedelic DJing is that if you ride two (or more) seemingly disparate tracks together long enough, as long as they’re in the same key, it’s probably going to work out, maybe even better than expected…

Just as Michael listened to nearly every one of my radio shows in those ten years we were together, it really felt like he was there with me in spirit that night 💙🩵🩶.

When you have radio, you are never truly alone. 📻 📡🌌

This, and all KALX radio shows available to replay for up to two weeks after broadcast on KALX.Berkeley.edu/archives. Direct link to show and playlist in my bio. ⬆️

Send a message to learn more

Oh yeah I’m on air again this morning, 9:30 AM to noon California time!

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

Prepping for my turn on Take Five, the weekly Jazz specialty show on , airing Monday 3/23 at 5 PM Pacific Time. It’s going to be a most mellifluous hour of JAZZ HARP 🪉🥰🎶 and I’m wondering how to pick just ONE track each from Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, because there’s so many amazing harpists I want to include in that short hour.

Drop names of your favorite jazz harpists ⬇️ and please tune in tomorrow —

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

My last post for now is a shoutout to Lost Padre Records in Santa Fe, which had the best selection and fairest prices of any place that and I explored that long, busy day. Lots of air and space and color in this well curated record store. 🌈🎶😎

So, anytime I enter a new-to-me record store, I scan a quick overview of the layout, then wander straight to the back or a side corner to find the international/world music section. There was nothing for me under Asian records, but I think I snagged all 3 records in their slim African section - Nigeria, Zanzibar, and South Africa, and I can’t remember if the Jamaican record I bought came from there or a separate reggae section. All of it was priced quite fair and of clean quality.

After international music, I look for local fare, especially if I’m just visiting a city. I feel like any legit record store worth their square footage MUST have a local showcase area. Lost Padre has a tray of local experimental tapes and local metal records 🤘🎸. Made a note to flag some artists and labels for future research!

Lastly, if I only have time to hit three sections of a record store, I check out new arrivals. I definitely picked up some sweet stuff here… and also at the other record stores I hit on this trip.

Will play some of this record haul and much more on tomorrow’s radio show. I’m moving back to A.M. hours for a couple shifts in March! Catch me tomorrow morning, Tuesday 3/10, 9:30 AM to noon Pacific Time on

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

ucberkeley and

If you ever find yourself in Santa Fe, New Mexico, you might be able to spot at least in a couple places - on a window at the corner of Galisteo and W San Francisco in Old Town, and outside a La Montanita Food Co-op, where it appears that the coolest people shop 👀