Early Morning DJs

Being a 6AM rotation DJ can be really rough. I did one of these shifts for a whole summer if you can believe it and I know how difficult it can be to drag yourself out of bed at 5:30AM to go play some CDs over the air. Well, here are a few suggestions I have for making this shift a little more enjoyable.

First off, keep in mind that you are the first DJ in that day, and so you are literally commencing the KXUA broadcast. A good way to start off any broadcast day is by playing the Star Spangled Banner. Lucky for us, YouTube has almost as many different videos of the Star Spangled Banner as it does people playing the Super Mario Bros. theme on the xylophone. Here are a couple of my favorites.







Also, something you should always be aware of is that probably every 30 minutes, some ones alarm clock is clicking on to KXUA. This gives you the opportunity to get their morning started right. I find this is a good time to play something in rotation that charted in our loud rock charts, such as Dekapitator or Darkest Hour. But really, anything loud, fast, and disturbing will work too. You can never go wrong with the track "Dracula Mountain" from Lightning Bolt's Wonderful Rainbow. It always gets me ready to face the day.

Finally, during your third hour, try something really long and weird. Then you can go get some coffee and a croissant from RZs. It's the perfect time to pull from KXUAs extensive collection Jandek CDs, preferably the track "The Electric End" from Lost Cause. However, there are many other CDs that are perfect for this time, such something from 4 CD Brian Eno album a couple years back.

Hopefully these suggestions will help you make your morning show a little more enjoyable. You should always take keep in mind that you are giving people a much needed alternative to the Morning Zoos radio shows with their wacky line ups of fart and boob jokes. Show people that we can be funny and weird with out being stupid.