KDHX History Project: Jeffrey "Kopper" Kopp
Here's the Story of The Wayback Machine
When did The Wayback Machine originally air on KDHX? And what was the genesis of the show? Were you a regular sub, or did you wait for a slot to open or other? I first went on the air in November 1995. I had submitted a program proposal for the show about a year before, not long after my wife and I moved back to St. Louis after living in Lawrence, KS, and Kansas City for several years. A friend of mine, Craig Rastorfer, had a similarly themed show on KKFI in KC called Country Jesus & Hillbilly Blues (a line from the ZZ Top song "Heard it on the X"). He played a lot of wild rock'n'roll, psychobilly, country punk, that sorta stuff. I took it a step further by incorporating old, greasy R&B, surf/instrumental, primitive '60s punk, weird exotica/strip-tease type music, '50s juvenile delinquent rockabilly, etc. I had sort of discovered how fantastic a lot of that old music was, especially '60s garage trash, from the old Norton Records and Crypt Records catalogs. It was obviously "punk" but from a different era, one that was pretty much unknown to most people into punk and alternative music, and once I got into it, I just HAD to get this stuff on the radio. And not only that, but there was a new "scene" of garage-punk bands sprouting up all over the country at the same time, playing punked-up versions of this wild & primitive rock'n'roll. They were basically combining the sound of that early, primitive rock'n'roll with the punk music of the late '70s, so it was being recreated in a way that had a ton more raw energy, and I wanted to incorporate all of that into the show that would show the linkage between the wild stuff of these bygone eras with the present music being created and flying under the radar of the corporate rock "alternative/grunge" world. You think Nirvana and Jane's Addiction are good? Wait'll you hear THIS! Bands like the Mummies, Supercharger, New Bomb Turks, the Humpers, Oblivians, Phantom Surfers, Trashwomen, Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf, etc. I was determined to expose this great stuff to the St. Louis radio audience.
If you had to give a shorthand definition of what The Wayback Machine was about, what would you tell folks? The old tagline of the show was "The Past, Present, and Future of Garage, Punk, and Primitive Rock'n'Roll," and I think that nails it.
Shows can be locked into one time slot or can bounce around the calendar a bit. What was the history of your show time? In what slots did it air? And did that affect your life in any way, ala: did you miss a ton of live shows due to the slot, or did you wake up tired, or did you have to juggle anything in your life (like jobs) to accommodate the program?
Saturday mornings, 3–6am (Nov. 1995 – Dec. 1996)
Monday nights (Tuesday mornings), midnight 'til 2:00 (Dec. 1996 – June 1997)
Saturday nights (Sunday mornings), midnight 'til 3:00 (July 1997 – Feb. 2003)
Tuesday evenings 10 pm–midnight (Feb. 2003 – Jan. 2004)
Monday evenings 8–10 pm (Jan. 2004 thru 2006)
Saturday night at midnight was my favorite time slot to do, but it did cause me to either completely miss seeing bands, going to parties, events, etc. (or leaving them early to do the show), and also made it more difficult to schedule out-of-town road trips and the like. I also preferred doing the show after 10 pm for the "safe haven" from the FCC and not having to screen the music I played so closely for foul language.
One of the fun things about hosting at KDHX, at least in my mind, was the overlap between shows. Who did you follow and who followed you over the years? Was there a natural flow between shows on either side of yours? Did you enjoy the banter with your neighbor hosts, or was it a simple trade-off of the mic? Early on, I followed a reggae show. Can't remember the name now. The host was a woman and she was really nice. It was followed by a jazz show. Wasn't really much chemistry between my show and either of those. The best overlap would've been when there was this young couple that did a mod show after mine on Saturday nights, and Jeff Hess's show Psych-Out! followed mine for a while, too (I think that was when I was on Monday nights?) and then later when Jason Rerun's Scene of the Crime followed me on either Tuesday or Monday nights... I'm a bit fuzzy on those years.
Did you enjoy those "weekly callers?" Those diehard listeners (that also double as callers) could be awesome or (occasionally) awful in my experience. Where did your listeners fall on that spectrum? Definitely enjoyed any sort of interaction I had with the audience. Got lots of calls from that old lady (Jean) who would talk your ear off about whatever was on her mind. She'd also complain about certain songs or the language if she thought they were nasty, haha. After a few years of her antics, I'd get really tired of her calls and try to keep them as short as possible. But besides her there were other callers who would compliment the show or certain songs, make requests, and so on. Not as many as some other shows, though, due to the obscurity of most of the music I played. The best experience I had was meeting a guy who called me a lot named Bob Thurmond. He'd call every weekend and chat about cars and punk rock. We became good friends and then later collaborated on the rebirth of Head in a Milk Bottle 'zine. He would also later host a B-movie podcast on my podcast network, GaragePunk Pirate Radio.
Who were some of the core bands or acts that featured on The Wayback Machine? For example, if you were making an old-fashioned mixtape of the bands that you regularly played, who might be found on it? The Sonics, The Mummies, The Bomboras, Billy Childish's various bands (The Milkshakes, Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Headcoats, etc.), New Bomb Turks, The Trashmen, Dick Dale, Link Wray, Pagans, Weirdos, Man or Astro-Man, Oblivians, Ramones, Stooges, MC5, Shadows of Knight, Troggs, Seeds, Vince Taylor, Chuck Berry, Hasil Adkins, The Dirtbombs, Black Lips, etc.
All shows begin and all end. What led to your show ending? Simply moving on? Just a sense of fatigue with it? Other? I was really knee-deep in running my new podcast network that I mentioned earlier. Launched that in late 2005 on GaragePunk.com and it got pretty big and time consuming there for a few years (especially combined with the message board forums that I was also running on that site). Found it harder to concentrate on all that and the weekly radio show, which I always put a ton of thought and pre-planning into (I would "lay out" playlists of episodes weeks — sometimes months — in advance). Gina and I had also had our first boy in the summer of 2003 and being a dad became more of a priority. Just too much on my plate. Something had to give.
What's the best thing about broadcasting on terrestrial radio? What made for a good show: great flow, listener feedback, live sets....? The best thing is sitting there in the studio and putting a weird, wild record on, sitting back, and thinking, "Man, this shit is going out on the airwaves to hundreds of listeners right now." That was just a great feeling. Being "live" on the airwaves and playing music that you know a good majority of the public has never heard before. Quite a rush. And yeah, live sets were cool, too. Kinda forgot about those. Having a band come in and perform live on the show was great, too, not only for the show but so that they could get some exposure from it.
Is there anything musical that you're currently up to and that folks could find online? Essentially, links. You have any to share for current projects? No, not really. I keep weighing the idea of starting another podcast, and I still might, if I can find the time. ;)
Anything else you'd like to add about your overall KDHX experience? It was always a joy to be a part of the station. I attended one of the very first meetings at the building on Magnolia when it was still being torn up and remodeled for the station, which was at that time (winter break, 1988/'89) broadcasting from a shack somewhere. I was excited about the potential for the station after having DJ’ed at a tiny station in West St. Louis County during high school and after college (KYMC). I graduated from CMSU (UCM) with a degree in Broadcasting & Film, and also went to Broadcast Center, so I was especially excited about it for that reason, too. It was also fun serving on the Program Committee for a year and helping to get my friends, Jeff Hess and Jason Rerun, shows on the station.
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