Station Archive

Long before he flew four missions on the space shuttle, Steve Robinson was the first DJ of a now-vanished Davis commercial radio station, KYLO, in the late 1970s. Decades later, he’s a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis, and director of its Center for Space Flight Research — and he will soon return to local radio as occasional fill-in host for Rod Moseanko, host of the station’s Silver Nine Volt Heart. (The photo shows Steve, left, and Rod in the KDRT studio May 11.)

Today on Davisville we enjoy a serious conversation about space flight, plus hear Steve’s memories of KYLO — including what happened when he told listeners he was running out of records to play  — and learn what brought him to KDRT. After he returned Davis in 2012, Robinson said, “I was looking for some good radio,” and found it with Rod’s show. “I thought, ‘this kind of radio is still alive. It was very exciting to me.’ ”

Heads up. Before you listen, please note that the last 10 minutes or so of the broadcast we had some technical diffulties.

Alex Roth is an institution in Davis and Northern California. It's been a few years since I've heard him sing live, and boy, have I missed it. In this hour Alex plays a few tunes he has recently written. During the past few years he has spent a lot of time on many of the oceans of the world. He does this as he works for International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP).

On today's show Alex talks a bit about his work and creating new music, but mostly he sings his tunes. I was blown away by his guitar work, his voice, the lyrics, and of course the music. He's a very talented musician, but even more his joy as a human being shines through in this broadcast. I was lucky to catch him for his short stay in Davis.