Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Ms. Midday Hilary Chambers changes stations
Local alt-rock jock returns to 91X from unsure footing at FM 94/9
Who’s changing stations? This girl. Alt-rock jock Hilary Chambers returns to 91X, where she first hit San Diego’s radio airwaves.
Is it another case of DJ musical chairs or a key player jumping off of a sinking ship?
Hilary Chambers, who only uses her first name on the air, spent the past eight years at FM 94/9. She has decided to return to 91X, a station she joined in 1997.
“My contract was up [at 94/9], and I decided I wanted to work again for Garett [Michaels, director of programming for SDLocal, which oversees 91X],” says Chambers. “He’s one of the best bosses I ever had.”
Video:
"Flake" by Jack Johnson
Chambers knew Johnson was onto something...
She declined to venture a guess as to whether 94/9 would drop music for sports when the FM station starts carrying Padres broadcasts next March.
Chambers will retain her midday time slot at 91X.
“Plus I get to be music director,” she says. “I look at it as a positive career move.”
Chambers first showed her music-picking ability during her original stint at 91X, when she helped launch a career.
“Jack Johnson’s cousin was one of my best friends growing up. Jack used to give her demos to give to me. He got on this three-song CD sampler that was given away in Surfer magazine. I think it had ‘Flake’ and ‘Bubble Toes’ on it. It didn’t sound like anything else being played on 91X, but it sounded like the lifestyle of 91X. I thought it could be a hit. So I always would bring it up at music meetings. Finally, the program director let me play it on my show. The phones went crazy.”
Johnson’s phone response that day led to 91X adding Jack Johnson, which in turn triggered rock stations across the country to add him, which launched his career.
Chambers got a platinum record plaque from Johnson. He used to thank her onstage when he played San Diego. “He’s so big now. We haven’t kept in touch.”
So, what about the poppy state of modern alternative radio?
“Part of me wonders if a lot of artists like Imagine Dragons and 21 Pilots go pop so they can cross-over [to Top 40]. Yeah, there is a lot of pop now, but everything ebbs and flows. Hopefully there will be another Queens of the Stone Age that shows up and takes over.”
Chambers landed her first radio gig at hard-rock station KNAC in Long Beach while still attending UC Irvine. “I started as an intern and eventually got to host the specialty show called Punk 60. I got to interview NOFX, Pennywise, Good Riddance...” A station sale in 1995 killed KNAC, which went Spanish.
“It was a huge deal when we went off air. Lars and James from Metallica flew down to be with us. I think the last song was ‘Fade to Black.’ I was kneeling down crying. Everyone was crying. I remember Lars asking me, “Hey, you gonna be okay?’ I thought my radio career was over.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Ms. Midday Hilary Chambers changes stations
Local alt-rock jock returns to 91X from unsure footing at FM 94/9
Ms. Midday Hilary Chambers changes stations
Local alt-rock jock returns to 91X from unsure footing at FM 94/9
Who’s changing stations? This girl. Alt-rock jock Hilary Chambers returns to 91X, where she first hit San Diego’s radio airwaves.
Is it another case of DJ musical chairs or a key player jumping off of a sinking ship?
Hilary Chambers, who only uses her first name on the air, spent the past eight years at FM 94/9. She has decided to return to 91X, a station she joined in 1997.
“My contract was up [at 94/9], and I decided I wanted to work again for Garett [Michaels, director of programming for SDLocal, which oversees 91X],” says Chambers. “He’s one of the best bosses I ever had.”
Video:
"Flake" by Jack Johnson
Chambers knew Johnson was onto something...
She declined to venture a guess as to whether 94/9 would drop music for sports when the FM station starts carrying Padres broadcasts next March.
Chambers will retain her midday time slot at 91X.
“Plus I get to be music director,” she says. “I look at it as a positive career move.”
Chambers first showed her music-picking ability during her original stint at 91X, when she helped launch a career.
“Jack Johnson’s cousin was one of my best friends growing up. Jack used to give her demos to give to me. He got on this three-song CD sampler that was given away in Surfer magazine. I think it had ‘Flake’ and ‘Bubble Toes’ on it. It didn’t sound like anything else being played on 91X, but it sounded like the lifestyle of 91X. I thought it could be a hit. So I always would bring it up at music meetings. Finally, the program director let me play it on my show. The phones went crazy.”
Johnson’s phone response that day led to 91X adding Jack Johnson, which in turn triggered rock stations across the country to add him, which launched his career.
Chambers got a platinum record plaque from Johnson. He used to thank her onstage when he played San Diego. “He’s so big now. We haven’t kept in touch.”
So, what about the poppy state of modern alternative radio?
“Part of me wonders if a lot of artists like Imagine Dragons and 21 Pilots go pop so they can cross-over [to Top 40]. Yeah, there is a lot of pop now, but everything ebbs and flows. Hopefully there will be another Queens of the Stone Age that shows up and takes over.”
Chambers landed her first radio gig at hard-rock station KNAC in Long Beach while still attending UC Irvine. “I started as an intern and eventually got to host the specialty show called Punk 60. I got to interview NOFX, Pennywise, Good Riddance...” A station sale in 1995 killed KNAC, which went Spanish.
“It was a huge deal when we went off air. Lars and James from Metallica flew down to be with us. I think the last song was ‘Fade to Black.’ I was kneeling down crying. Everyone was crying. I remember Lars asking me, “Hey, you gonna be okay?’ I thought my radio career was over.”
Comments