KCRW Veteran DJ, Tom Schnabel, Part II

This is the second of a two-part interview with well-known Los Angeles radio DJ Tom Schnabel of Santa Monica College-based public station, KCRW-FM.  Schnabel is best known for his tenure as the station’s very first Music Director from 1979-1991 and as the first host of the radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic.

In Part I of this series, we learned about Tom’s unconventional path into the music industry-one which inevitably led him to public radio.  In Part II, we’ll hear more about Tom’s penchant for picking and playing the best in world music artists, and his own brand of advice for musicians looking to stand out on the radio airwaves.

SW: Tell me about the team of people who work with you at KCRW.

TS: It takes all different kinds of people to make a radio station and it’s good that people are different in what they think, and their taste. I mean, Nic [Harcourt] and Chris [Douridas] have such keen ears for new bands, I don’t think I have their golden ears. I think I have ears for other kinds of music, you know, but in terms of new bands, I think the great things about Nic, Chris and Raul-they’re playing bands that never would have had a chance before-never would have had a chance at a record contract you know, records used to cost a lot of money!

People like Nic and Chris and Anne Litt, they don’t care, [they'll play it.]  I mean, if they have something that’s good, it’s so much easier for [bands] to get on the radio than before, and KCRW has an incredible audience, it has like a perfect audience-people buy records, people are very passionate about music, and people are very professional at KCRW, I mean, it’s a really great organization.

SW: So how is a band going to get heard?

TS: They make a CD. Hopefully they put a label on the CD and make it look halfway decent and don’t just write with a sharpie on it and send it in-although some people do actually do that, you know.  And God knows, at KCRW, it’ll probably get heard.

At KCRW we get loads of unsolicited stuff and we actually go through it and listen to it.  So in that respect, it’s better for bands than ever before.

SW: What changes have you noticed on the radio in terms of what’s being played these days on the air?

TS: The radio industry has become much worse; it’s become much more controlled.  Clear Channel taking over the commercial stations, bad stuff.  [A few years ago] the Dixie Chicks protested the war in Iraq, and look what happened to them; it’s like Hollywood blacklisting from the early 1950s you know. And that’s because there are very conservative business organizations that run Clear Channel, so in a sense it’s gotten worse, and in a sense it’s gotten better.  It’s gotten worse in the sense that the community stations are all very tightly controlled and yet a lot of people are listening to KCRW to try to find out what’s happening and what’s new.  Also a lot of the talk radio stations- KPCC, a very popular talk station used to have music. Not any more.  KUSC used to have a free-form segment on every day.  Not any more.  Now, it’s very tightly play-listed classical music.

So they’re not really DJs, they’ll come in and do their voice-over for five days of shows; it’s also cheaper for management.  Management hires them part-time, does not pay them benefits, pays them less-whatever.  They come in, they do all their voice-over, they say, “That was so and so, doing symphony number D for the last hour.”

SW: How does KCRW’s broadcast style differ?

TS: Being a DJ at KCRW means you’re watching your time, thinking what’s next, you’re on your toes.  It’s the difference between someone giving you a packaged meal out of the freezer and you’re [being] cooking a four-course meal-you have to pay attention, you can’t just take a nap.  So there certainly is a gestalt at being a DJ, you know, and it kind of harkens back to the old days of DJs, especially where people were playing 45s, and singles and songs that only lasted 3 minutes or less.  Plus, you have to be reading copy; you have to be putting cards in the announcements and stuff.

I remember when I was 17 the original KPCC in Miracle Mile [district] and we saw one of our hero DJs, Rick Holmes and he was doing his thing, doing ads, putting in the carts, reading copy, and he was like a maniac, doing this, doing that, and it’s like wow!  So it’s better than ever because they don’t have the intermediary wall of the record company.  Record companies are still doing great things, don’t get me wrong-plus, think about it, in the old days, bands had, what-a cassette?  People want CDs.  Well, now anybody can go in and set up a few microphones and a recording machine and come out with something that’s listenable if they do the drums right-and people like Nic Harcourt will listen to it.  It’s better for bands overall than it used to be.

Pages: 1 2

Author's biography:

Esther Reyes is a three-time Emmy award-winning Television Director, Producer and Writer. She has traveled extensively producing and directing documentaries, unscripted dramas and reality television programs in more than 30 countries around the globe. Esther has produced for many major networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, VH1, USA, the WB and FX. She is an avid music-lover and a former college radio DJ who can boogie with the best of ‘em.