LOCAL MUSIC HERO

Hangin’ in the Back Yard With KROQ’s Zeke

By Caren Spitler

I was doing college radio at KXUR, which is the USC station, and I peed on the music director’s desk, and I got fired from the station. I didn’t understand why we had to follow a playlist doing college radio. Ya know? Anyway I wound up interning at KROQ, and I brought Blind Melon to Kevin Wetherly the program director and I told him he should listen to "No Rain" ‘cause I thought it was going to be a big hit. After like two months he got back to me up and said, "The song bored me." I said "What?! It bored you?

Now Kevin is like the betting man, anytime someone disagrees with him, he just wants to make a bet. So basically, little old me sittin’ on the phone with my head down all day made a bet with Big Boss that if "No Rain" went top five in the alternative charts, I would get to program KROQ for a day. Which meant I could turn the station off, when you’re the PD you can do whatever you want on the radio station, I could get on the air and just, you know, yodel. If I lost, though, I had to detail his three Porsches he’d won in this competion called "The Air Competition" where each week they fax you airs. Airs are like another way of doing record promotions. Record companies send money to put their songs on the air list. Now, what it is, the air list, is each week there are four or five songs on there – this is right when the songs are coming out – and you have to guess either "No Chart," "Top 40," or "Top 25," "Top 10" or Number 1. You get so many points for your guesses, like if you guess Number 1 and it goes to Number 1 you get like huge points. This is done with all the programmers across the country. They play because the top prizes are, like, Land Rovers, Porsches and Mercedes. Even second place is, like, fifteen grand.

Yeah! (laughs) So, anyway, Kevin – who, by the way, was the most amazing boss on planet Earth. I’ve never worked for anybody that I admired more. Lots of people from the outside hear a lot of different things about KROQ, and I’m telling you right now there couldn’t be a more straight, honest, real person leading that station. Whatever your problem with KROQ is, it’s never gonna be that they’re crooked, ya know? Kevin is a great guy—anyway, the deal was I had to detail the three Porsches which he had, obviously a symbolic gesture ‘cause he’d won this competition three years in a row. The guys got, like, sick ears! I mean, he’s competing against 110 other programmers, three years in a row knowing exactly what the songs are gonna be.

So, after Blind Melon, obviously, did fairly well I was able to get an internship, not just answering phones but working in the music department. Then, the girl I was interning for, D’Arcy Fulner, left to go to VH1. During that time, this guy Matt Smith and I were sort of "acting music directors" until they found a permanent music director. Which was great, ‘cause I learned how to program music, and do all that stuff. I was in the music meetings, just basically doing the music director’s job while they found someone for the job, which I was definitely not ready for at that time.

That was like, six years ago. I was 21, 22. I mean, I was greeeen, ya know? (laughs) During this time I was making demos trying to get a local show on the air. I didn’t want to be a DJ, ‘cause DJs at most radio stations are sort of like just anchor people. They get up there and tell you what’s up. But the real people behind the scenes that were actually making the puppet’s arms move are the people in the music department. They’re the people who get all the records, and they decide what’s gonna get played. And I’m thinking, "I want to be one of those guys. I don’t need to be on the air, I want to be a guy who says, ‘this is what the country’s gonna hear.’ " (laughs)

KROQ didn’t have a local show, and that was a show I wanted to DJ ‘cause I’m into local music, so I kept doing demos. Each month I’d bring Kevin a demo, and it took like six, eight months. He would say, "Well, that’s not good. That’s gotta change, and that’s gotta change." It was just constant adjusting until one day he says, "OK, let’s put you on the air." By then I’d been hired in the music department anyway, I was Music Coordinator, so I had, like, the best of both worlds. I was on the air and I was in the Music Department.

That’s how I came to KROQ. Being in the right place at the right time, and not being an idiot. I guess that’s the summation of all that. (Laughs)

Well, tonight my show is on. I talk to so many people during the week and they’ll say, "You gotta check this out, you gotta check this out," and it’s really quite overwhelming, ‘cause it’s too much stuff to listen to. But today is usually the day I have to listen to all of it, ‘cause I’ve gotta track for my show tonight. And then I usually have an interview. I’ll bring in a band at about six o’clock and we’ll record an interview, and Ed, my producer, edits the interview down to, like, three minutes. Then I go in and I just record the show. Not much, it’s pretty easy.

I have no idea until I get there. We have a big wall at KROQ with [the schedule of] all of my local music. The other thing about it is since it’s only once a week, I try to play a lot of songs a lot. "Cause it really takes a long time to get through to people. There’s not many people who listen to the show every time, I mean there are those people, but there’s a lot of people who just hear the local show one night, they don’t know it’s on, when it’s on. So, I try to play songs as much as possible until I get to the point where I don’t want to hear the song any more. I realize, I get sick of songs that I think are great before the average listener does. Also, I want songs to make an impact and maybe have an actual chance of getting through regular rotation. Like the "Blinker the Star" album I played for almost a year and a half."

Yeah, so the songs that I think are really good, I try to play a lot. The songs that I think have a chance of going on to bigger and better things, I definitely try to play for a long time. Like I think the 22 Jacks’ song, eventually, may actually get added into regular rotation. That may happen, that may not happen, but I’m continue to play that song until I see that that is definitely not going to happen.

The first major thing is, do they have a following? ‘Cause if they have a following, it doesn’t matter what I think about them. If I like them, that’s great, but if I don’t like them, that doesn’t matter. If they have a following, then people in L.A. want to hear them on the Local Show. So I play ‘em.

Other stuff, ya know, I’ll listen to it, and decide if it will appeal to KROQ listeners. That’s another category, if I think, "wow, people listening to KROQ will really like this!" Again, that may fall within my tastes, it might not. I may not like something, but I’ll think the KROQ listeners will like it. I mean, I’m not a real big fan of ska music, but I’ll play a lot of ska bands that are big, like the Hippos.

Then the other thing, if I just love something, then I’m gonna play it.

Well, my tastes are so varied. I listen to everything from folk, to electronic, to rock. I love everything. Now, obviously, I can’t go overboard playin’ a bunch of folk music, but really, I think good music is good music. I even played Ugly Duckling, which is a Long Beach hip-hop crew, ‘cause I thought I could get away with it. I wanted to play the Black Eyed Peas, but at the time they were being played on, like, Power 106 and the Beat, and I just couldn’t. Ya know, some records I’ll really love, it’s a local group, but it kind of belongs to another radio station.

Every Wednesday at midnight, which is technically Thursday morning. Just think "Wednesday after Love Line."

Well, I used to have an intern, and that really helped. Because, my mail is kind of backed up back there. So, in the future, hopefully I’ll get an intern. (laughs) I don’t know, though. I like the way the show’s going now. A lot of people have written me or sent me emails saying the show should be longer, but really, to play seven records a week, without diluting…I think it’s a quality show. I think it’s a show that, even though it varies and sometimes I’ll play a lot of signed bands--‘cause that doesn’t mean they don’t need help--and sometimes I’ll play a lot of unsigned groups, I think the quality is still there. You don’t feel like you’re listening to some backyard college radio show. I think it’s a listenable show, and I like it just being a half-hour. So, I’m just real happy with how it is right now.

I’m gonna say Bluebird. Then there’s another band, they don’t have a lot of songs, their name is Toro.

I’d played them on my show, but I’d never seen them, and they were AMAZING. A couple members were in the Sugar Cubes, which was a band on Geffin. They’re a great band.

Who else? Hmmm. I love Ugly Duckling, you should definitely go see them. They’re a great hip-hop band, and I mean that in the truest sense of the word. It’s super- fun. It’s just a fun vibe, not like so much of what’s going on in hip-hop today. Which is why I like the Black Eyed Peas. The other stuff I can’t get into, "cause I can’t relate. And anyway, after "The Chronic," how ya gonna top that? I mean, that was, like, the White Album of hip-hop, ya know? (laughs)

Who else am I listening to? Ya know, I’ve got some stuff here I picked out for my show tonight. (He leaves the room and returns with an arm load of goodies) Look, I bought this old Nick Drake album, only cost me fifteen bucks! He’s just the greatest thing in the world.

No, I don’t. (laughs) But I would never actually play that. That’s just something I’m gonna hold and cherish, ya know? OK, here, Elgin Park, they are unbelievable! They’re actually from San Diego, but they play here a lot. I put ‘em on the show just because they play here so often, it’s like they’re from here. A couple of the guys used to be in a band called the Gray Boy All Stars which is, like, a huge hippie touring band. They play the best jazzy pop music you’ve ever heard. They’re unbelievable. The guys in the band, each individual, just can’t be touched musicianship-wise. It’s rare that you see a band and you’re just completely blown away. I’m no musician, OK, but when you can just hear…

(Laughs) Yes, but, I would hardly call that musicianship. I was a yellow rapper-screamer. I wasn’t even a singer. (Laughs) The rest of the guys in that band were talented. I was the untalented one.

I also like Azalan Underground, because I like what they’re doing. I mean, when somebody’s really impassioned about what they do, it really comes across. When you see them live, you know these guys are for real, they’re not kidding around. They also wrote this great lyric, which goes we didn’t cross the border/the border crossed us.

Yeah. And I’ll always be a huge fan of Gary Jules just because I think he’s the second coming of Nick Drake. He’s around at Largo sometimes, you should check him out. I think that’s all I’m listening to, right now.

I think the main thing is just to concentrate on the music. It’s so easy to get bogged down by all the periphery stuff going on in Los Angeles, because the music business is here. But, if your motivations are right, that is, you love music and you’re gonna make music because you love it not because you just think it’s a cool thing to do, you’re gonna be OK. Also, you need to record a CD of three or four songs so when you play shows you have something to sell. Especially with the web nowadays, it’s so easy to put it up on MP3, and run your mailing list, and all that. But don’t worry so much about the shows. I f you’re playing great music the shows will just sort of fall in line.

For the record, many of my friends and I have been motivated to check out bands that we’ve heard on your show.