What is your name and DJ name?
My name is Marissa Aurora and my DJ name is DJ Mariscos.
What is the name of your show and when is it on?
The name of my show is ¿Qué Onda? and it’s on Sundays from 6 to 7pm.
Please describe your show. What is its format?
My show strives to be a mix of interviews and collaborative musical playlists with people from around the world. So it’s a bilingual show – I try to do most of the interviews in Spanish – and then collaborate with the person I’m interviewing on a musical playlist for the other half of the show. That what it strives to be, but sometimes it just kind of is music, and vinyl from the radio library, and whatever feels good!
What drew you to participate in KMRD?
One is that it’s actually just a really amazing radio station, like I really love listening to it, and all the different things that people do with their slot, and just seeing what a creative outlet it is for so many different people. I had never really experienced community radio before, and just listening to it and knowing what it was about made me really want to be a part of it.
What is the appeal of doing a radio show? How does it fit into the rest of your life?
The appeal of doing a radio show for me I think has a few different layers to it. For the interviews, it’s a really fun way to get to know people, both people I already know – I’ve interviewed some really good friends and learned more about them – and also strangers running different organizations and doing different things with their lives. It’s been a cool way to get kind of intimate with people through interviews. And then the music – it’s a great reason to seek out and discover new music. And it is a really fun creative outlet in a way I’ve never been creative before. So it fits into my life in that way, that throughout the week I’m either talking to people or listening to music and thinking about how I’m going to fit it into my little show on Sundays. Being in the studio is just so fun, and it ends up being one of my favorite parts of the week.
What difference has being a DJ made in your life?
I think people have a misconception that I’m cooler than I am when they find out I’m a radio DJ! It’s a funny thing that I never thought I would be, and I feel like every time people find out they think it’s really cool, and I’m not used to being thought of in that way – so it’s really funny to me!
It’s just like a fun opportunity to take an hour and move into a different kind of headspace – ok this is DJ time, this is DJ Mariscos. Almost like escapism, in a really positive way.
What are your hopes for your show?
My hopes for my show are to demonstrate to listeners the different ways that people are living their lives around the world, and kind of offer a glimpse into normal people’s lives, on a level that we don’t always get to connect with strangers. And to also expose people to different types of music from the Americas that don’t get played on the Top 40, or aren’t popular artists around here. I’ve discovered a lot of new artists throughout Latin America that have been fun to share with folks here. I love getting a call when I’m in the studio and playing new music that I just discovered and having people excited about it, and getting to pass that along – it’s like a little present to the community, which is fun.
What are your hopes for the station?
My hopes for the station are to have a stable physical location, and to continue being this multigenerational hub that brings people from disparate cultures – like subcultures – together. Like people that normally wouldn’t hang out together or be involved in the same kind of project – I feel like anybody with any kind of beliefs that are involved in a wide range of different activities can be involved in the station, and I think it’s a really cool way to bring people together in the community that normally wouldn’t be partaking in the same activity. And so for that to continue to grow.