Month: March 2020

What is your name and DJ name?

My DJ name and my name in Madrid is Arroyo Dan. I’m thinking about “Zoltan” once it gets warm.

What is the name of your show? When is it on?

The name of my show is the Fifth Circuit. What the Fifth Circuit means – it has nothing to do with the judicial court in New Mexico, nothing. The Fifth Circuit is the first post-terrestrial circuit in the human nervous system. This has been activated in 1960, and no matter what the governments say, you cannot deactivate the brain. [Saturdays 1-3pm.]

Please describe your show. What is its format?

This show is primary for old hippies, and I mean the real deal. I’m talking like ‘67, ’68, ‘69, ‘70, right? And that’s not to say that there isn’t any more, but that’s what the focus is on. The focus is basically on the mystery of life. The wonder of being, of being aware of being aware, and all that goes with that. I’m also into the whole origins of the human species on this planet. And that’s basically what’s going down.

What drew you to participate in KMRD?

Here’s the deal: first off, I think this a fantastic thing that we have going on here in Madrid. My two cents is that I get a chance express my soul, and my heart, and I don’t have a whole lot of time, and neither does anyone else. I’m sort of standing on the runway waiting for takeoff. 

What is the appeal of doing a radio show? 

The feedback I get from my friends – not just my friends, but every demographic in Madrid, somebody has come up to me and said, “Dude, way cool, don’t stop, keep going, we need to hear this.” I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me after the show – people I don’t know – and had said that, and so I’m trying to bring that to y’all. 

What difference has being a DJ made in your life?

Oh man – what difference has it made for me? Well, I’m sort of in a hard space in my life right now, and I’m not going to into the drama of it, but the dharma of it is that it allows me to be me. And to talk to the tribe. And I get phone calls – people are responding to this. And so I’m going to keep cranking as long as I can. 

What the show has done for me, it’s raised my head and it’s raised my heart. Now where do you go to get that? It’s changed my life insofar as I get a positive recognition for my movie, for who I am, for what I’m about. And it’s all about expressing ourselves while we’re still here. This is the only real art form that I have, and so I’m trying to make the best out of it and it’s done nothing but raise me up. Thank y’all. 

What are your hopes for your show?

My hopes for my show is that I can get my act better together and tighter together. My computer tripping is like dinosaur. 

What are your hopes for the station?

I hope that people realize how cool this is, and how much of a drag it would be not to have all of these incredibly eclectic shows that we have going on here. I just think it’s totally cool, I mean people are digging on it, they’re driving listening to it, they’re tuning in, they’re telling their friends, and you hear stuff that you don’t hear anywhere else in this part of the universe. 

Arroyo Dan passed away on September 13, 2020. On September 26th, which would have been his birthday, we presented a show in his honor during his Saturday time slot. The recording of the show is below: the first hour includes excerpts from an interview conducted with Dan by Andrew Wice, and the second hour includes voicemail messages from some of Dan’s friends, neighbors, and loved ones. Both hours are full of music that Dan loved, as heard on his show every week.

What is your name and DJ name?

Will.

What is the name of your show and when is it on?

Cycles, on Saturdays 3-5.

Please describe your show. What is its format?

It varies week to week, depending on what I’m feeling like. It’s a freeform show: I play a lot of R&B and electronic music, and disco, recently, and some other things when I feel like it. Recently I’ve been doing all-vinyl shows, which has been fun, and practicing my mixing skills.

What drew you to participate in KMRD?

I’ve been involved with community radio for a while, and I helped build the transmitter a few years ago, and so I wanted to have a weekly show to keep up with my DJ skills. 

In general, I’m a believer that communitiy media is an important thing for our social and civic lives, as people in communities and in the country and in the world. The last ten years have been kind of a scary time for journalism, and also for media in general and consolidation of media, and I think we’re seeing increasing levels of misinformation and a lack of ability on the part of most people in the public to discern what are credible sources for information, and what are not. I think that community media is important to allow people to explore important issues that affect themselves and their communities, and that’s why I think it’s so important to have those kinds of services, really everywhere. That’s why I think a station like KMRD’s important. 

What is the appeal of doing a radio show? How does it fit into the rest of your life?

I think the appeal for me is partly that it’s a nice time to have a weekly music practice, where you’ve dedicated a couple hours to listening and thinking about music every week, which I think is really nice. The second part is that it’s fun to play music that you like for other people, and so the radio is a good way to do that. It’s great to talk to people about stuff you’ve played, or stuff they’ve played, and so you get kind of two things: a personal time to engage with music, and a way to talk to other people about it too.

I spend a lot of my time working on radio stuff, in general, and so the radio show is like a fun thing that I get to do and it’s like the whole point of making sure all the audio and IT systems work in a radio station – so it’s nice that I get to do the radio show and enjoy the fun part of radio every week. I mean, it’s all fun, but you know. It’s important, I think, that I get to do that because sometimes the other things I’m doing are troubleshooting equipment and stuff.

What difference has being a DJ made in your life?

I think it has helped me connect with other people who like similar kinds of music that I like. And you know, I wouldn’t have necessarily made those connections if they hadn’t listened to the show and said something to me. That’s been a fun thing – that I might not have had that opportunity without the radio show. 

What are your hopes for your show?

I hope that I can continue to find new directions to go in. I kind of feel like the shows that I do are totally based around what I’m interested in at the time, and that tends to change over time, so I just hope that that continues to happen and I get to find new music that I like and share it with people. 

What are your hopes for the station?

I hope the station is able to continue to thrive and to build on the success that has already occurred, with how much involvement from volunteers in the community there is, and how connected to things it is in town and the wider listening area. I hope that the station and all the volunteers that make it run can have the space and the support necessary so that they can focus on the things that are important, like connecting the community and being a resource.