What is your name and DJ name?
My name is Elle LaGuardia, and my DJ name is DJ L Boogie Woogie.
What is the name of your show? When is it on?
My show is Moonday Medleys: The Moon at Six, formerly known as The Moon at Noon.
Please describe your show. What is its format?
Usually what I tend to do is pick a theme, and that usually kind of gets the whole flow of the show going. I will pick anything from a color to a fruit to a subject, and I tend to flow my show around that. What I like about picking a subject is that it helps me kind of get a flow, but get comfortable using different genres.
What drew you to participate in KMRD?
I was having a difficult transition in life and I needed an outlet. Being a radio DJ here and volunteering for our radio station was something I had thought about for a few years, and it was actually a really difficult time in my life that drew me to come here and take on a new hobby. I am so grateful to have this medium in my life and I truly enjoy it, and I cherish it. I’m grateful to have KMRD and it helped me through a difficult time in my life. And I would recommend it to anybody who is having a hard time.
What is the appeal of doing a radio show? How does it fit into the rest of your life?
One of my favorite things about being a radio DJ is introducing myself to so many new songs. That is so fun for me – in the past two years, almost, as a DJ, I have introduced myself to hundreds of new songs that I would have never heard if I wasn’t taking time to research my shows. Just researching a show and putting it together forces you to sit down and explore music, which is pretty amazing. And I wouldn’t be doing so if I wasn’t a DJ.
What difference has being a DJ made in your life?
For me, it’s actually an art form. It’s a medium for me, it’s my artistic outlet, and it may not be visual but it allows me to express myself in another way, which I absolutely love. Moonday Medleys is my schedule. I look forward to sitting down and creating my show on Sunday, and I wake up on Mondays and I get excited. I may not be sitting down with a canvas, but I am creating a canvas, and I’m sharing it with the community, which is pretty awesome.
It’s really nice to be able to have a voice in the community as well. Being able to express something that you’re feeling. For example, doing my suicide awareness show was super important to me. It felt really great to have a way to share that with my community, of something that I was feeling and I wanted to share, that I thought might help one listener. And that felt really huge to have the opportunity to do that.
What are your hopes for your show?
My hopes are to continue to have something to look forward to, week to week. It’s truly something that’s in my agenda that I look forward to, when there’s so many things in my agenda that I do not look forward to. My hopes are just to keep me uplifted as a DJ and to keep me excited and to keep me open-minded and continuing to discover new music. And being able to share my discoveries with all the listeners – I mean, that’s what excites me. It’s like at least one song a show I find gold – and I’m like, “Oh my god, I need everybody to hear this song!” So my hope is that when I put on that golden song, I hope everyone’s listening. Being able to take my personal time to discover really beautiful music, and then being able to share it with the listeners.
What are your hopes for the station?
I want us to live on forever and ever, of course!
My hope for the station is that we continue to receive the donations to be able to stay afloat, without struggle.
To continue to be this beautiful KMRD community that we are. To continue our gatherings, and our fundraisers, and our amazing little family parties. It does feel like a family. The Christmas parties are so amazing, and they make me feel included. I hope to see it continue. I hope to never see an end. It’s really a beautiful amazing special unique thing, that KMRD offers to our community. And community’s really important. So to have something like this, I just never want to see it die. It’s really special to be part of something so unique. In order to continue being part of it, I want to see the success of the station and we rely on our supporters for that. So I just hope to continue our support, and I hope our support grows.