Ten years of hosting and programming radio for taste-maker station KCRW 89.9 FM in Los Angeles was my beloved boot-camp and the foundation of my music education. Here you can find 10 years of radio shows ready to stream and inspire.

Radio

Thomas here...

Radio is a first love of mine. While growing up in Boston I remember the family listening to ‘Morning Pro Musica’ on WGBH and getting schooled on great classical music by host Robert J. Lurtsema. His voice became like an additional member of the family. In grade school I found classic rock thanks to WCOZ, then WBCN, and later WAAF, and have bumper stickers on my bedroom door to prove it. The 1980s got more interesting with the arrival of WFNX “Rock the Boat radio”, which catered to slightly more contemporary pop music.

I became obsessed with U2 after hearing the 'October' album, with The The after hearing 'Soul Mining', with Talk Talk after hearing 'The Colour of Spring', with Wire after hearing 'The Ideal Copy', with The Fallafter hearing 'This Nation's Saving Grace' and on and on it went.

I never did a radio show in college, but did find the Emerson College station WERS, which had me turned onto Jamaican dancehall and early Belgian techno. College and Community radio is a particularly exciting creature, especially considering the wasteland that Clear Channel has left in it’s wake. I’ve always loved radio, and feel especially lucky to be on both the giving and receiving side of it.

After moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, I discovered KCRW 89.9 FM and had the good fortune to become a host and radio programmer there for 10 years: March 1998-March 2008. I also did a short stint during the internet radio boom at Spike Radio (R.I.P.), and also hosted shows for Delta Airlines.

I hope you enjoy the radio shows that we’ve uploaded here. They were produced with a lot of love and inspriation and I hope they spread that good energy around.

KCRW 89.9 FM: THE GREAT ESCAPE (March 2007-March 2008)

This is a show I produced for KCRW 89.9 FM from March of 2007 to March of 2008. It’s a high-concept sort of thing. I chose a different film every week, sample dialogue from the movie that helps tell the story and then strung together a narrative imaginary soundtrack with songs that reflected the themes of the film. Hope you enjoy them.

KCRW 89.9 FM: SWINGSHIFT (March 1998-March 2007)

From March of 1998 through March of 2007, I hosted Swingshift a late-night radio show for KCRW 89.9 FM that covered a free-form exploration of all the music that I love. It represents almost a decade of music crushes from hip hop to electro, African funk and salsa to soulful jazz, pop, country and rock n’roll.

DELTA AIRLINES (ongoing)

SPIKE RADIO: Watusi