Host Feature: Donnie Dee

Donnie Dee is from San Antonio, Texas. He started DJing in 1992 and began professionally doing this in 2005. Throughout his career he has won many awards including the DMC’s and the Red Bull Thr3style. In his spare time, he enjoys practicing DJing, listening to music, sneakers, and traveling.

His first experience with Jazz was with his family. Jazz music was always on and around his mom’s and grandmother’s house alongside R&B of the late 60’s to the early 90’s. His mom, grandmother, and aunt helped shape his music taste to this day. Donnie believes listening to Jazz music opened his mind to many different kinds of music.

Donnie has always been big into college radio. He started listening to KRTU in 2002 or 2003. He was invited to be on a hip-hop show that was airing in 2005 and was invited back the next week. Darby and Rob G. ran a show called Labkids radio on Sunday night. He joined this show as well. The music director at the time, Matt Fleager, offered Donnie a Saturday night time slot from 9-10pm. This is when Donnie created Super Soul Saturday, a show “geared towards more soul driven music”. 

At first, Donnie played acts like the Gorillaz, Flying Lotus, and Lo-fi instrumentals, but then Matt Fleager suggested he lean into “more of what Hip-Hop music was sampled from.” Then Scuba Steve, the co-host, joined a month later and the show took off. The show is strictly focused on Soul, Neo Soul, and classic R&B, though sometimes a hip-hop cut may be thrown into the mix. Donnie mainly talks about the artists, the samples or local events during his show. The last 20 minutes of every show is usually modern soul along the lines of Erykah, Badu, Madlib, and Thundercat. Donnie has shared a sample of these last 20 minutes here. The two co-hosts along with JJ Lopez created a quarterly Soul Live event called the Super Soul Shakedown. They play cuts they would play on air in person and many artists are brought down for that event. Hopefully they can start these events up again soon!

“I think KRTU's future is in good hands and there is no sign of them stopping. Hopefully I can hang in there with them for as long as I can. The community embraces them because they embrace the community.” - Donnie Dee

Host Feature: Jorge Canavati

Jorge Canavati is the principal at J. Canavati & Co. LLC, an agent for Logistics Plus Inc., which provides worldwide logistics with global offices. Jorge has over 35 year of experience in writing, international trade, multimodal transportation, air cargo, and energy logistics. He is currently on the board of various international trade organizations and is the Chair elect for Global Chamber San Antonio 2021. Jorge was also recently appointed by Mayor Nirenberg to the Airport System Development Committee.

Jorge has been married for 37 years to Daisy Miriam. They have two adult children, Jorge Mauricio and Gabriela Sofia, a daughter-in-law, Michelle Gonzales, and “a lovely granddaughter, Penelope Michelle”. When he is not spending time with his family or working he enjoys cooking (live fire and BBQ), reading, and hosting his radio show, “Jazz de México”. Jorge has loved music since he was a child. For him, “music is a most important thread in the fabric of life”. When Jorge moved to San Antonio in 2005, he was hooked on KRTU and its programming. He became a KRTU member and his engagement grew from then on.

“Jazz de México” is the jazz program he hosts on KRTU 91.7 FM. It broadcasts Sunday nights from 7:00-9:00pm CST. It is the only Mexican jazz program in the world. Jorge started listening to jazz when he worked as a recording engineer in the late 70s. He “truly dove deep into the art form once he started working at KRTU in 2010”. He had the idea to create “Jazz de México” in 2010, he shared this idea with Ron Nirenberg, General Manager at the time, and “the rest is history”. “Jazz de México” has grown since and now is 2 hours of music with podcast elements. They have one of the largest collections of Mexico jazz, and “this remark comes from people in the jazz world, in Mexico”. Jorge likes to choose the music and its order based on “inspiration, crazy ideas, stories, special events, milestones, special dates or holidays in Mexico, and fly by the seat of his pants ideas”.  “Jazz de México” is an exhibition of all genres and subgenres that fall under the umbrella of jazz. 

“If you really think about it,  “Jazz de Mexico” is a microcosm of KRTU jazz & Indie overnight. Listen closely. One weekly two hour program represents the same music that  KRTU jazz & Indie overnight play 24/7/365 but from one country: Mexico. Dig it.” 

 - Jorge Canavati

Live & Local - August 2021

August 5th and 7th - Patricia Restrepo, Slowed & Throwed
There is perhaps no greater embodiment of Texas music than the late great Robert Earl Davis Jr. - DJ Screw. Nearly all Texas music fans are at least casually aware of his style and legacy, but Patricia Restrepo has co-curated an immersive chopped and screwed experience for the citizens of San Antonio. Enjoy this exhibit of multimedia art, relics, and memories at Art Pace - and enjoy this interview as we explore DJ Screw's impact on Texas music and art.

August 12th and 14th - Michael Sarafin
There have been many singer/songwriters who have been (self)described as prolific - but not many who have released two EP's in a six month period to back it up! Michael Sarafin draws inspiration from a myriad of different thoughts, feelings, and ideas to create his unique brand of Texas music, including literary works. Join us as we listen to his latest work and discover what he considers to be the greatest piece of art of all time!

August 19th and 21st - DJ Donnie Dee
The word DJ has come to mean many things in the modern music landscape - but DJ Donnie Dee is one musician who is certainly deserving of the label in its truest sense. This week, we get to talk to the man himself about what that term means to him, the art of DJing, and his work as a community host on 91.7FM KRTU.

Host Feature: Miguel Vargas and Terrell LaMarr

“Radio Pocho is an eclectic mix of music from across time and space but centered in the experience of Latinxs in the midwest. Radio Pocho plays new music as well as revisiting the past, featuring local talents and those from lands we’ve yet to traverse. Each host has a distinct taste, but it blends perfectly in the musical molcajete that Radio Pocho strives to be.”

— Terrell LaMarr

About Radio Pocho

This month KRTU is excited to feature Radio Pocho. Miguel Vargas, current San Antonio resident and DJ, started the show in 2010 with Steven Renderos. Together they began broadcasting Radio Pocho on KFAI-FM Fresh Air, a community radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota. KFAI-FM allowed Miguel and Steven to play a wider range of styles than their weekend dancefloor DJ sets. They mixed Latinx influence with other pop culture influences and Radio Pocho was created. This mixing of influences allowed Radio Pocho to become a platform for local and non-local Latinx artists to connect with audiences who understand their experiences and embrace their music.

In 2012, Steven left Minneapolis and Radio Pocho in order to pursue career opportunities. As the show continued, Miguel took this as an opportunity to invite different co-hosts to join him in creating it each week. This led to “one of [their] most supportive guest hosts”, Terrell LaMarr,  joining Miguel as a frequent co-host of Radio Pocho. 

  From 2015 to 2017 Radio Pocho began booking and promoting a series of concerts that featured the host’s favorite artists outside of Minneapolis. This included artists from Chicago (Dos Santos; ESSO!; Lester Rey), Los Angeles (Buyepongo, QUITAPENAS, Yanga, Brainstory), and Austin (Money Chicha). During this time, the show picked up its next regular co-host, Brenda Azueta. Brenda had photography and video skills that were essential to the promotional material then and now with her direction of Radio Pocho’s social media accounts.

In 2015 Miguel visited San Antonio and attended one of J.J Lopez’s (our General Manager) Friday dance nights. The next day some of Miguel’s DJ friends were invited to spin records live on-air on JJ’s show, The Soul Shakedown. This is when Miguel “thought that if he ever moved to San Antonio, KRTU would be the station he would bring Radio Pocho to.” In July of 2019 Miguel moved and Radio Pocho was added to KRTU’s Indie Overnight programming. When Miguel moved, Brenda and Terrell kept producing the show in Minneapolis and they brought on Cristina Selvan-Morfin as a co-host. Cristina has helped them grow Radio Pocho’s social media presence through content like “Song Of The Week” and “New Music Friday”. 

When the pandemic hit in the Spring of 2020, the Radio Pocho team decided to use “remote technology to begin producing one weekly episode that would air in Minneapolis and San Antonio.” This “cross-country collaboration” happened to be synced up with Radio Pocho’s 10th anniversary! Terrell is the board engineer on Wednesday nights for KFAI in Minneapolis while Miguel edits the archived episode to air on KRTU the next Monday.

 Radio Pocho Playlist: Updated weekly to reflect the show

https://open.spotify.com/user/radiopocho/playlist/66rnHbGSHHPfKWFDUgr81v

Radio Pocho airs on KRTU on Mondays at 11pm.

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About Miguel Vargas

“My name is Miguel Vargas, and I am a DJ, Cultural Curator, and have worked over 10 years in public and community radio in different capacities such as Producer, Program Director, Sales Rep; you name it. I love networking with aspiring and emerging music and visual artists, and developing platforms by curating events that engage communities ready to support them. Aside from producing a weekly radio program, I love going to concerts, catching my DJ friends around town at their gigs, collecting records, watching old movies, and am always on the hunt for the best breakfast tacos and BBQ.” 

  “My first experience with indie music was following the MN Twin Cities hip-hop scene in the early 2000s which is also how I met Terrell while we were students at the University of Minnesota.  I was hanging around a handful of beatmakers and was always mesmerized by how they sampled vinyl records and rearranged them into beats for their music. I never made beats myself, but I was quick to soak up the production liner notes, the session personnel, stories and artistic narratives of the records that were dug through. It not only encouraged me to select the lesser known deeper cuts on an album, but to share that information and enthusiasm through DJ sets on the radio. I also encountered a lot of 70’s jazz funk records through hip-hop during this time period, and some of my favorite albums were on CTI and Blue Note labels, and also Chicano bands who covered Afro-Caribbean music and rhythms. I like uptempo dance music like disco, house, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and blending them together; if possible, seamlessly. I also like sounds that have funky and psychedelic twists to them. I honestly would be stuck in 70’s music. I’m always happy to find contemporary music that tries to recreate those sounds.”

Miguel’s top album at the moment is Reyna Tropical’s Sol y Lluvia and his top song, his favorite earworm, is “Desilusionándome” by Georgel, Immasoul, and Ferraz.

Each week, on Radio Pocho, the co-hosts take turns arranging the sets and song order. Miguel considers mood, rhythms, and tempos when creating the show. When Miguel is not talking about the music he focuses on announcing community events and “debriefing what is happening in the world”, with his co-hosts. “In more recent times we find ourselves addressing anti-blackness, misogyny, homophobia in the Latinx community and beyond. As well as how we are feeling in the middle of a global pandemic. I think we had to let our listeners know that it’s ok not to be ok, and that we are here for them.”

“Sending love to all the fam and friends, Radio Pocho crew back home in the MN Twin Cities. I also want to send a shout to Friends of Sounds Records, Sweet Chela’s Custom Cakes, and The Lighthouse Lounge for helping me get situated when I arrived in San Antonio. I also want to thank my partner Sylvia, and our dog Freddy Fender for being my home.”

Miguel Vargas.

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About Terrell LaMarr

“Hey. I'm Terrell LaMarr. I work in education and have been working with and in service to youth since I was one myself. I started doing radio about 9 years ago and really enjoy it. Music is obviously a passion. I collect records, read books, watch movies and sports. I don't know, introductions are hard.”

Terrell enjoys going to concerts in his spare time. “The pandemic has been really difficult for me in that regard. Pre-covid there were stretches where I'd be at up to 3 or 4 shows a week. I also really enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, discovering new music, and biking is a new hobby as well.”

“Growing up in the Twin Cities, my earliest experiences with indie music were with the local hip hop scene that I really started engaging with as a teenager. Around my sophomore year of high school I started to get familiar with local artists and became a big supporter of underground hip hop. I really started to reject a lot of what was popular or mainstream and went the backpacker route sans jansport. My interest in jazz, like a lot of other things, came through hip hop. I was always a fan of the jazzier tracks on rap albums but I didn't really have a way to engage with jazz beyond that. I didn't know anyone who listened to it much, so entry points weren't always easy to find. I also tend to gravitate more toward what's current than things from the past. So, the first jazz artist I became a big fan of was Esperanza Spalding, when she released her second album, Esperanza. That led me to artists like Jose James, Gretchen Parlato, Magos Herrera, Gregory Porter -- vocal jazz mainly. My mother even ended up recommending I check out George Duke. In the past few years, I've really been excited about the London jazz scene. There's really something special happening there and it's amazing to see all of these young musicians of color making jazz fun, and danceable, and cool.”

“Right now, I'm really interested in R&B en español as a subgenre. But we live in a world where genres mean less and less, so while lots of things I choose to play tend to be on the R&B side, it's always hard for me to say we play this genre or that one. And our show really pulls from a lot of places. You might catch a show that has a set of Rock en español, followed by a set of Bachata, followed by Jazz and Funk. Radio Pocho tries to give exposure to up-and-coming artists and show love to local musicians. Sometimes we have a theme which could be related to current events, anniversaries or holidays, or whatever we may come up with.  It's important to us to be very aware of the voices we're featuring and try our best to make sure there's great representation of marginalized voices on the show. Sequencing is one of my favorite parts of putting an episode together. I really try to spend time figuring out what songs make sense being played next to each other. Usually, that means finding similarities sonically, in vibe, in tone, or even thematically.”

Terrell’s favorite albums at the moment are Hiatus Kaiyote’s new album, Mood Valiant, Sons of Kemets’ album, Back To The Future, and Nubya Garcia’s album SOURCE.

When Terrell is not talking about the music on the show he also talks about “what’s happening in our world. Last year, with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the uprising that followed and the court cases this year, we've talked a lot about those things. So, while we're a music show, I also think we'd be doing a disservice to ourselves, our listeners, and the communities that we come from to not speak about those issues.”

Terrell LaMarr

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“I would love to see KRTU grow their audience and support the Eastside, Westside, and Southsides of San Antonio. A way of doing this is to provide more opportunities to create content they can get behind. I’m sure there’s a wide range of creatives from those respective communities that can produce dynamic indie programming.”

— Miguel Vargas

KRTU is currently looking for more volunteer hosts to fill show spots at the station! So, if you are interested in curating your own show please contact us at krtu@trinity.edu or on our social media pages.

Live & Local - July 2021

July 8th and 10th - Drummers of Texas Panel Discussion

We have a very special episode of Live and Local this week as we have assembled an All-Star cast of drummers from across the great state of Texas! Join us for a stimulating discussion that covers topics such as the origins of the instrument, the connection between drums and dance, rare (and common) pieces of essential gear, and of course, hitting stuff to make noise. Our panel challenges (yet somehow also reinforces) drummer stereotypes and shares their work on the kit in what is the first of many more panel discussions to come. - Featuring: Korey Cook, Jacob Rodriguez, Toph Lawrence, and Parker Anderson

July 22nd and 24th - Donella Drive

Donella Drive is grabbing ears and banging heads with their latest release, "Ozell." Through expert musicianship and thought provoking lyrics, the group delivers a unique brand of progressive alternative rock that captures the spirit of San Antonio and pushes the sound of the city (and state) forward. But as LeVar Burton would say, don't take our word for it - tune in at 10:00pm as we listen to tracks from the album and discuss the sounds with the creators themselves!

Live & Local - June 2021

June 3rd - Lemon Disco

As spring turns to summer and lockdowns are easing across the Lone Star State, Texas musicians are emerging from their slumber like wildflowers from the hill country! Not only does Lemon Disco have a brand new single for us, they also have begun performing live after a year of being cooped up due to COVID19. We discuss the emotions that come with reintegrating themselves into the DIY house show scene as well as the inspiration behind the tune "Wasted Weekends."


June 10th - DOPPEL

One need not be born and raised beneath a mesquite canopy in order to create great Texas music. Jan of the duo DOPPEL brought his talents to the good people of Texas from Germany and has been welcomed with open arms by audiences of all walks of life! The group's most recent work, Intermission, is a captivating collection of tunes that demonstrates both technical prowess and a delicate touch when necessary. We get to hear Jan's thoughts on creating during a global pandemic, the use of accordion in Norteño music, and of course, listen to DOPPEL's latest release!


June 24th - Brian Donohoe

Here at KRTU, we are united by music above all else. The day time jazz programming and Indie Overnight work in harmony with one another to deliver outstanding soundtracks to all tastes. However, some artists challenge where exactly the line between jazz and indie lies, or if it even exists at all! This week on Live and Local, we talk to Brian Donohoe about this very dilemma, what it's like to have a bassist poached by Kanye West, and his debut album as a solo artist, Soundtracks For Trying Times.

Host Feature: Travis Hildenbrand

We are featuring Travis Hildenbrand in this month’s host feature! He is a co-host and producer of Live and Local alongside Albert Salinas, our operations manager. Travis is passionate about creative expression through the arts because it can connect us to the world around us. He expresses himself through music and drumming. Travis is currently a member of Collective Dreams, a local San Antonio band. He also writes and produces for the pop duo Firefly Cartel. Travis also enjoys kicking back with “the birds, brush, and bugs” in the natural world through gardening, walking, or spending time in the hill country.

 When Travis was young, he and his sisters would watch music videos together on Saturday nights. They grew up in an area that had little to no internet connection, but programs like TVU’s Ten Most Wanted and Fuse’s Oven Fresh introduced Travis to all genres of music. This music kept his attention for the years to come. Travis “will always be an early 2000’s scream/post-hardcore kid at heart,” so he is always listening to groups like At the Drive-In, Thursday, and Dance Gavin Dance. He also is “always first in line for anything released by Kodak Black or Trippie Redd.”

 Travis began listening to KRTU when he started driving. “The jazz programming was always a good vibe when cruising around as a high schooler and still is to this day.” Albert Salinas asked Travis to be involved in the Live and Local show two years ago. Travis had been a big fan of the Live and Local programming for many years, so he “jumped at the opportunity.” He was excited to be involved with a show that supports Texas musicians as well as projects he and his community are involved in. Live and Local’s platform was and is very special to him.

 “The Live and Local show is dedicated to listening to Texas music and talking to Texas artists. If it’s made in Texas, we play it.” Live and Local has been a part of the Indie Overnight programming for a long time, so when Travis and Albert took over, they wanted to do it justice as well as bring more variety to the overall program. They made the change from featuring only San Antonio artists to including the whole state of Texas in order to expose themselves and listeners to more voices, ideas, and music. This idea of inclusivity is found in the genres played on the show from hip-hop to punk, drone, post-rock. “The sounds are as varied as the Texas landscape from which they are birthed.” Travis and Albert keep a running Spotify playlist with the featured artists, here. Travis and Albert keep up with new releases through bandcamp, social media, and person to person interactions.  In most cases, if a local musician has a song or album they want to promote, they can get in touch with Travis and Albert. The Live and Local duo love to promote new music in order to support the San Antonio and Texas music scenes.

 Travis and Albert also interview the artists “in order to gain a deeper appreciation of the musical context and a stronger connection to the artists who create” the music. Generally, the interviews revolve around two questions: “What makes this artist unique and what can we learn from their uniqueness?”. Travis explains his reasoning for these questions as follows, “Each of us has a one-of-a-kind life experience and perspective on the world around us.  These artists are kind enough and brave enough to share that through their music.  By conducting interviews that link the person to the performance, it allows us all to further appreciate our fellow Texans, acknowledge a diversity of ideas, expose ourselves to new perspectives, and provides context for our own place in the world.” Soon, Live and Local will include panel discussions in the programming such as Drummers of Texas or Punk artists of Texas. They “look forward to expanding the spirit of unity and inclusion through diversity.”

 “Independent music is such a strong uniting force.  In a world where division and isolation are prevalent, supporting the unification and inclusion of all people through the power of music is something that I am very passionate about - and KRTU shares that passion.”

– Travis Hildenbrand

Live and Local airs on Thursdays and Saturdays from 10-11pm. You can submit music or music requests to liveandlocalkrtu@gmail.com – they would love to hear from you! You can also check out the music Travis, Albert, and their bandmates create by listening to Collective Dreams on Spotify, Apple Music, or bandcamp.

Live & Local - April 2021

April 8 & 10 - Knockin' Chucks

The music industry abounds with stories of bandmates creating a brotherly bond, but the fellas in Knockin' Chucks have created a band from brotherly love! The group instantly makes any listener (or interviewer) feel right at home and a part of their special family. The music is inviting, catchy, and full of feel good vibes that the band describes as "90's music from the 2000's." Join us as we learn about the groups influences and recording process, as well as listen to over fresh tracks yet to be released publicly!

April 15 & 17 - Peewee & Jaykub

Within the Texas music scene exists a great variety of artists - weekend warriors, dive bar superstars, platinum selling artists, and everything in between. Peewee and Jaykub out of Houston, TX are what Sheck Wes might call "really with the ___." By that we mean they live, breathe, bleed, eat, sleep, and sweat music. Whether they are playing psychedelic drum and bass as dadsmom, sexy funk/rock as Handsomebeast, or top 40 bangers as Nick and the Hits, these two multiinstrumentalists bring it 24/7/365. This week, we talk to the dynamic duo about how they first met, their approach to playing so many different styles, and 3rd Coast fishin'!