kdrtradio's blog

Chris Mussen devoted the 600th episode of his program A Constant Grin to previously unknown musicians performing eight farther-afield songs, each with "600" in their name. Six hundred strokes, 600 miles, $600 short on rent ... you get the idea. It's a lot of fun.

"600 shows," he says. "It's pretty crazy, even for me, and I made all of them."

Chris includes his ruminations on 15 years of indie rock broadcasting free of charge.

On this edition of Timeout Radio, explore how a 5,300-acre university came to exist in the little farm town that was Davisville, Calif. Davis was designated as a University of California campus in 1959 and is now the largest campus in the UC system. Find out how its mascot Gunrock got his name and why the campus has red London double-deck buses. UC Davis Chancellor Gary May tells us about his path to engineering, his humongous comic book collection, and his favorite Star Trek character.

Then visit London, where Big Ben's clock is still adjusted with an old penny, and where half the London Underground is actually above the ground.

Host Nick Saloman says he has received some feedback for this new show, Implosion. “I’ve had an email saying that, you know, they like it, but it’s a bit obscure. But then, you know, you don’t want to hear the same old stuff all the time, do you?”

We certainly don’t! KDRT exists partly so that we don’t have to hear the same old stuff. And we're not alone.

“We’re going to start, as is my want, with an instrumental," he says at the top of this week's program. "This is by the Syd Dale Orchestra. They did a lot of stuff for TV, and soundtrack stuff in the ‘60s, and Syd Dale was bandleader from York. This is a bit of a stormer for a TV show called The Hell Raisers, which came out in 1966 on the Decca record label.”

To continue this escapade, listen to this week’s Implosion.

Meraki Radio turns 5 years old this month. This KDRT program, hosted by Alison B, airs each Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., with repeats broadcast on Fridays at 8 a.m. Or you can listen online! Meraki (may-rah-kee) refers to doing something with soul, creativity, or love, and recent episodes display the variety of subjects Meraki Radio typically presents -- check 'em out, or go deeper into the vaults:

• Death rituals

• Gun violence in the context of suicide

• Men's health, focusing on prostate cancer, part 1 and part 2

• Debra McCarthy, on living with HIV since 1986

• Kate returns, and we talk gardening and crafting

• The Women Infants Children supplemental nutrition program, a discussion with professionals and participants

Some music shows just dive right into the music, like Tree Kilpatrick's Roots, Shoots and Leaves. After a few words at the start this week, he serves songs straight up to the bottom of the hour.

Turn it on and try it out, from 6 to 8 p.m. every Tuesday. He offers music old and new, known and unknown, plus ... well, this comes from his KDRT bio:

"I have been enjoying music since I can remember, as my mom used to sing me and my brother to sleep each night. I really got into recorded music around 9 or 10 and have been listening to all kinds of it every since those early radio days with Quiet Riot and Kenny Loggins. I think songs can do all kinds of things. Make you think, make you dance, make you cry, and make you happy. I'm just hoping that with music people can connect to something bigger than themselves, as I do on every show."

The Folk Brothers this week presents its first new episode with Bill Wagman since the death of his co-host, Peter Schiffman, on May 26. Peter’s influence is in the studio.

“I was out of the country when I got the news of Peter’s passing,” Bill says near the start of the hour, “but before I had left, Peter had an idea for some programming during the fundraiser week [this week], and one of Peter’s ideas was to play some music from local Davis musicians.”

So Bill begins this show with a set of local songs, starting with Dave Nachmanoff’s “Descartes in Amsterdam.” “Peter not only played the music, but he was involved with many of the [musicians], and promoted them, and became very good friends with many of them. Dave Nachmanoff was one of them.”

At the end of the show, Bill expresses the loss that many of us continue to feel.

The Davis Music Fest begins in less than a week. Tune into this week's Divine Intervention for a sampling of this year's bands and artists.

KDRT will be broadcasting live from two of the fest's events, Friday 6/16 night @sudwerkbrew and Saturday 6/17 @armadillomusic

Summer doesn't officially start for another couple of weeks, but we live in Davis. We've always started our warm season early, so this week Sounds So Sweet celebrates summer. Join host Wayne Hagan for a show featuring summertime and Victoria Spivey, whom the Blues Foundation describes as "a belle of the blues with a head for business and a visceral gift as a songwriter."

This week on Celtic Songlines we find NorCal's Golden Bough (pictured -- remember them from all their shows at the Palms?), Alasdair Fraser with Tony McManus and Natalie Haas, Capercaillie, Denmark's Myrkur, Lorkin O'Reilly, Kevin Crawford, from Northern Ireland the band Connla, the extraordinary fingerstyle guitar of Duck Baker, Paddy Tutty, trad band Open the Door for Three, Paddy Reynolds and friends, and Planxty.

You have lots of ways to listen to this great set of music, hosted by Dave Reynolds:

• If you live in Davis within reach of our signal, tune in live on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to noon at KDRT 95.7FM, with replays Monday 8-9 p.m. and Saturday 6-7 p.m.
• Or stream at kdrt.org
• Or subscribe to the Celtic Songlines podcast on Apple podcasts!

Eye on Sports returns today!

Cody Westergaard and Chuck Garcia resume their sports program today, June 2, after 3 years away. They began Eye on Sports in 2019, then put it on hiatus in March 2020. On Fridays at 4, they'll cover local sports in the first part of each show, and national sports in the second.

We're really glad they're back in the lineup. Tune in for some great discussion and information about sports, in Davis and beyond.