Microtone

06/23/2026

Ugh, I get so tired of my digital devices crapping out on me all the time!

Just replaced two frazzled data cables, and decided to back up my primary digital music drive while I’m at it. That’s the SanDisk Extreme portable SSD I’ve velcroed to the back of my laptop. Well, turns out the Samsung portable hard drive that I purchased as a backup a little over 14 months ago is already refusing to be connect, can’t be read. 🚫 So I’m backing up on a Western Digital drive that was sent to me LAST time my music drive was serviced, when that Western Digital SSD died after just two years.

And in this process, I’m noticing my SanDisk music drive claims a creation date of December 31, 1969??? 😰🧐😵‍💫

Times like this I’m grateful for good ol’ physical media, and the accumulation of treasures and memories over so many years of collecting. Yet, none of this would matter if I didn’t have friendly ears to share with. Through mixtapes to radio, music has always been my favorite way to connect with others.

Let’s spend some time together tomorrow, Tuesday 6/23 from 9:30 AM to noon on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM!

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

P.S. In your experience, what’s been the most reliable portable drive? What are your best advised data maintenance practices? I already do “regular”backups and always purchase an extra rescue plan for data storage devices.

P.P.S. Locked grooves at the end of maryam qudus ⚡️ spacemoth new album, Inward Eye, make a great soundtrack to watching progress while backing up digital devices 🌀꩜🌀꩜

06/10/2026

Popping by this afternoon for one hypnotic hour of Radio Dunya, the weekly world music show. Today I feature the bamboo instruments of the Gamelan Jegog. 🎋🎶

RADIO DUNYA, Wednesday 5-6 PM
📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

05/22/2026

Not really capable of any fancy social media posting or DJing right now. Will be Shortraving anyway in about 20 minutes, Friday 5-6PM Pacific on

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

05/19/2026

Haven’t had much time to plan playlists lately, so today’s show is going to be whatever it’s going to be.

On air at noon this Tuesday 5/19 💃🏻

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

05/12/2026

This brown tabby kitten is named RADicchIO whose name contains this most beautiful word, RADIO 📻🎶

Rad’io is not my cat. Actually, none of the animals I’ve posted on this IG are owned by me, except for the very first two dogs you’ll see in the very first post on my Instagram page (they passed away in 2020 ❤️‍🩹).

In my off-screen and not-KALX volunteer life, I also foster animals, mostly cats through the . I’ve been doing this since December 2020, which is shortly after I started this account. In case anyone was wondering, this explains why I have different animals just about every post…

The second slide/video here is Squash, who was a KALX colleague favorite and had inadvertently performed a live enactment of one of our promos 😸 (sound on for naturally occurring background noise, the KALX “Owls” legal ID).

Though I was originally scheduled for a show tomorrow 5/12, I realized my latest batch of fosters need extra attention. So dear is covering for me! I am quite pleased about that. I’ll be at home caring for my current fosters, and also driving around running errands on these kittens’ behalf while tuned in to —

DAHLIA on KALX
Tuesday 5/12 9:30 AM-NOON
📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

at run by and

04/28/2026

G’morning ☀️

It’s radio time again, Tuesday 4/28, from 9:30 AM to noon.

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

04/14/2026

THANK YOU EVERYONE who supported KALX during our spring fundraiser last week!! I was more of a DJ sidekick to and behind-the-scenes support this year, which is exactly where I wanted to be. Delighted to hear so much enthusiasm for our radio community from DJs and donors alike!

We’re back to our regularly scheduled freeform, commercial-free programming. I’ll be on this Tuesday morning April 14th at 9:30 AM, blissing out with tunes until noon. 🥰

📻 KALX 90.7 FM Berkeley
🔊 KALX.Berkeley.edu

and

04/05/2026

I didn’t announce my last radio show which happened on Friday 4.3.2026 at midnight. To be honest, I went in with almost no preparation, just an obligation to deliver as promised — a late night show to keep freeform radio diehards company.

The last time I did a non-specialty late night show was May 2nd, 2019, 0100~0330. Wow. What a different time and place that was…

A DJ trainee sat in with me for the first hour. It was a fun way to demonstrate how you do NOT need to have a playlist fully pre-planned to do a good show. But you do need to know the library and something about music, and you should have some favorite songs to fall back on in a pinch. This night, I gave myself 10 minutes to grab the first things that came to mind from the 1990s from my personal collection. Everything else I cobbled together from the KALX library 20 minutes before my show.

What I love about live radio is its spontaneity, the traces of human manipulation at analog controls. In my second hour, after my trainee left, I blended a couple things into my program that even surprised me: SF electronic vinyl from Bento Box that blended perfectly in pitch with a CD of Batak from North Sumatra. The beats were slightly off… but one thing Michael taught me about psychedelic DJing is that if you ride two (or more) seemingly disparate tracks together long enough, as long as they’re in the same key, it’s probably going to work out, maybe even better than expected…

Just as Michael listened to nearly every one of my radio shows in those ten years we were together, it really felt like he was there with me in spirit that night 💙🩵🩶.

When you have radio, you are never truly alone. 📻 📡🌌

This, and all KALX radio shows available to replay for up to two weeks after broadcast on KALX.Berkeley.edu/archives. Direct link to show and playlist in my bio. ⬆️

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