The KDHX History Project: Rene Spencer Saller
A Summary of the KDHX Show Suffragette City
When did Suffragette City 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? Former music director Tony Renner recruited me, or encouraged me to apply. I'm pretty sure this was in 1999, but my memory is hazy now. For some reason, even though I had been friends with many DJs over the years and had even lived with one for about a year in the early ‘90s, it never occurred to me that I would ever want to do a radio show myself. I'm self-conscious about my speech impediment, a lazy ess, and so I always assumed that I did not have a voice for radio. (It's not like I'm Slavoj Zizek or anything; anyway, I'm sure typing about it like this in a public forum is definitely going to help me get over it.) Tony probably thought of me because I had been involved in various capacities in the local music scene for several years (Jet Lag contributor starting at age 15, employee of three different record stores, erstwhile singer-songwriter, haphazard freelance music writer). I was so scared at first, and I think I may have co-hosted with Tony the first time or two, but mostly I was on my own. The early tapes are painful; I listened to them once, as a chastening exercise, and buried them in a box. My voice is shaking, and I sound like a total moron. But the music is good! I always had that going for me, at least.
If you had to give a shorthand definition of what Suffragette City was about, what would you tell folks? I was originally supposed to do a show of women's music, because, as I recall, the programming board had determined that there weren't enough women doing shows and not enough women represented overall. I guess Tony thought I'd be good. But right away I sort of bristled at the limitations of doing a show of "women's music." I mean, I *could* do a playlist of all women artists, but why would a song with a female singer fit the criteria but not a song with, say, a female drummer and an all-male rest-of-the-band? Or a female composer and a tenor? Anyway, the concept may have bugged me from the start, but I chose the show name myself, as a kind of complicated private joke about what "womyn's" music even means. In case it's not clear, I consider myself a feminist, but I don't see why I shouldn't play the Handsome Family (female lyricist/male singer-composer) or Yo La Tengo (female drummer who doesn't always sing). I don't remember how I wormed out of the original concept, though I'm sure Sherri Danger doing Dangerous Curves helped. So after that the concept of the show was pretty much Music René Loves and Finds Somehow Relevant. I had bands on fairly often, but I didn't do a lot of interviewing; I mostly just liked the live performances. People thought this was weird because I obviously did a lot of interviewing as a music writer (I was RFT music editor part of the time I had the show), but I still felt self-conscious about my speaking voice up to the very end, and I preferred to do little more than back announce, the bare minimum of talking. I liked having a 10-to-midnight show because I figured people were looking for music to keep them company, not a lot of the blah-blah-blah. It was hard to describe the playlist, beyond the stuff I loved and felt like hearing, but the angriest call I ever got, the only time I can say a listener actually screamed profanities at me, was after I played Beethoven's Grosse Fuge for string quartet. Nobody ever screamed at me for playing Black Flag, but late Beethoven was too much!
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? I always had the 10-to-midnight slot. Over the years, various people suggested I move to a daytime slot, but I didn't want to. I have always been more of a nocturnal person, and I also didn't like the extra FCC scrutiny. I think I was Monday nights for years, and then at some point I was Tuesday nights.
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? Suffragette City used to air before the Super Fun Happy Hour, and I always loved chatting with those guys, especially Tim Mize, who was a sweetheart and a darling. Tim and his co-hosts always came plenty early to make sure they were prepped for their show; they might have been playing punk rock, but they were extremely punctual and responsible on the air. In the early days, I found it reassuring that Tim tended to come so early because if I had some mysterious technical mishap with the board, he would be so nice and reassuring while he was helping me. I would try to lead into the SFHH to the best of my abilities; we didn't have what I'd call similar tastes in punk rock, but there was surely some overlap. When my show was moved to Tuesday nights, I was followed by James, who did a jam-band, Dead-inspired show that was quite popular. James was one of the most committed volunteer DJs I ever knew; he came in early, too, and pored over his show materials with his assistants. He was vision impaired and did not drive; he used a loupe in addition to his glasses to read the fine print on CD sleeves. Our tastes may have overlapped a bit but not too much; I respected him immensely for his dedication. He seemed to have a real sense of vocation.
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? I liked the nice ones who asked me questions. I didn't like the pervs. Every once in a while someone would call because they were mad about something I wrote in my RFT column. There were also a few callers who clearly wanted free phone sex, and I didn't want to encourage them. Especially not if they just liked me for my speech impediment, lolsob.
Who were some of the core bands or acts that featured on Suffragette City? For example, if you were making an old-fashioned mixtape of the bands that you regularly played, who might be found on it? ...Geraldine Fibbers, Edith Piaf, Tammy Wynette, Destroyer, Peaches, the Faces, the Rolling Stones, Missy Elliott, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Sarah Vaughan, Puerto Muerto, the Star Death, Chocolate Genius, Nina Simone, Gustav Mahler, Ute Lemper, Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, Tim Garrigan, Dagmar Krause, the Handsome Family, Love Tractor, Neil Young, Chuck Berry, Leadbelly, George Jones, the Meat Puppets.....
Oh, and I had a fantastic theme song, a cover of the Bowie song "Suffragette City" (which isn't among my favorite Bowie songs, as it happens), by Lower Midrange Dual Assault, a one-off supergroup consisting of the super-talented Marcia Pandolfi, Karen Ried (of Bunnygrunt), and Jill Posey (then of Sexicolor). Later I had an alternative version by Tokyo Explode!, another one-off just for the theme song, that ensemble being an alter-ego of Puerto Muerto, if memory serves. Anyway, both covers were fantastic, and I felt proud that some of my favorite local and regional musicians wanted to help out.
All shows begin and all end. What led to your show ending? Simply moving on? Just a sense of fatigue with it? Other? I think I resigned in the fall of 2008. I was extremely ill with Crohn's disease and complications, and I kept needing to find people to fill in for me. Then I started thinking about it, and I thought maybe it wasn't fair to hold on to this time slot for dear life. I knew there were any number of people waiting in the wings to do a radio show, people whose lifelong dream it was to have a radio show, and when I looked at it that way, it felt wrong not to quit. So I did. I just wish I had known when I did my last show that it would be my last show. Unfortunately, I was dealing with high fevers back then, and I don't think I was forming memories. I remember when I told Nico, who was then the station manager, that I needed to quit because of my illness, he was very nice and understanding about it. He said I should reapply when I felt better, and I said maybe I would, but I never did. And he left, as did most of the other people I knew from the early days. I should also add that the old location, on Magnolia, was much more convenient to me. I like to drive as little as possible.
What's the best thing about broadcasting on terrestrial radio? What made for a good show: great flow, listener feedback, live sets....? It just seemed magic to me. I grew up listening to radio, another alienated weirdo having parasocial relationships with the voices of strangers, never having any idea what they looked like beyond what I imagined. (The Internet destroyed any lingering mystery or mystique, I think.) For me a good radio show was when I was in the zone, which involved making the perfect segues between the perfect songs. Like making a mix tape live. I enjoyed listener feedback, but I don't know how often it helped in the moment, aside from encouraging me to pursue certain avenues for perversity's sake. For instance, if Beethoven string quartets enrage you, you must stick around for the Berg marathon!
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? For the past decade-plus, I have focused mostly on classical and chamber music. I write program notes for the Dallas Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony, among other organizations, and also work as a program-book editor. I blog irregularly at renespencersaller.com, where some of my recent work is archived.
Anything else you'd like to add about your overall KDHX experience? I hope KDHX survives the current administration. I want it to be a community radio station again. I want it to resemble the place it was when Bob Reuter was alive. I want it to honor his memory and ensure that there will always be a place at KDHX for freaks, misfits, sidewalk wanderers. I dislike the corporate buzzwords, the lack of transparency, the disrespectful treatment of longtime volunteers and community members. Even though I greatly respect many of the DJs who still have shows (longtime friends and colleagues Steve Pick, Roy Kasten, Doug Morgan, John Wendland, boBee Sweet, etc.), I do not feel the same sense of pride in the station that I once did, and that makes me sad. At the same time, I haven't been involved directly for years, so I probably don't have any standing anymore.