The KDHX History Project: Kip Loui
A Story About the Birth of The Back Country
From roughly 2000-2002, I was the original host of The Back Country on KDHX, which now airs Saturday afternoons. Back in the day, I had a burgeoning interest in country music — still do — and after producing a couple of hour long specials for the station on Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, I submitted a proposal for a two-hour weekly show to explore my honky tonk fancies, which was approved. Back then, The Back Country aired 8 am-10 am Tuesday mornings, which meant I got to wake up on-air with my listeners. Much coffee was involved and inarticulate babble. I'd like to think I made up for that with enthusiasm.
The old Magnolia building was quasi-dilapidated and hilarious and magical. In the year 2000, KDHX was a floating circus held together with twine, creativity and the collective energy of oddballs and eccentrics, true music lovers who often doubled as musicians in bands. I was one of those. Once a week, I got to inflict the KDHX listenership with "my version of traditional country music, old and new", which was my tagline. My goal was to make the music fresh and engaging.
I crammed a lot into those two years on the air. My country music collection expanded exponentially as I added new discoveries to my playlist. I always had help in the DJ room, thank god... someone to answer the phones and field requests or answer questions about this or that obscure singer while I manned the CD players and back announced the previous songs. One of my happiest memories of the show is when my then recently retired father Wayne Loui came and helped me out for a few months. He was a classical music and jazz fan and knew virtually nothing about country music, which he cared little for and knew even less about. But he came in every Tuesday morning with me for awhile and talked to the callers, one of whom requested, according to my father, "something by Jonathan Cash... do you have anything by him that you could play, Kip?" I told dad the artist in question was more commonly known as Johnny. And yes, I had something we could spin.
Perhaps my most memorable show was also the saddest: I was the DJ live on the air on Sep 11, 2001 when the planes hit the towers. We didn't have a news feed back then, so my information about the horrific events that morning came from anxious callers, who filled me in every five minutes or so. I started relaying their calls, informing the listeners as best I could about the attacks as they occurred in real time. Eventually, I become overwhelmed....it was too much to bear. I told my listeners to turn on their tv's, and then I grabbed the nearest CD — I think it was a bluegrass album — pressed play, and let it spin for 30 minutes uninterrupted. I went out in the lobby, watched the news footage on the station's crappy black & white TV, and wept.
Really though, I have overwhelmingly positive and happy memories of my stint at KDHX, and I looked forward to my show every week. Life got in the way, though. I had to give up The Back Country when I got a new job, one that frowned upon me coming in two hours late every Tuesday morning. A volunteer who used to answer the phones for me, the lovely and talented Jeff Corbin, now hosts The Back Country and has done so for nearly 20 years. He does a bang up job every Saturday playing “his idea of classic country, old and new.”