HIP THERAPY MUSIC

This is the first in a series of interviews that will attempt to simultaneously accomplish both goals of this website: to share new music that might be on an active rock radio station, were one to be in Los Angeles; and to direct you to platforms where you can find your own great new songs and bands. With his hard-rock Dirty Radio app, this guy is perfect for both tasks.

Daryl James, also known as “Dirty D,” has been on the air and programming radio stations for more than 25 years. Based in the San Bernardino/Riverside/Redlands market (otherwise known as the Inland Empire or IE), Daryl has made a reputation by finding and playing great new hard rock. Intriguingly though. his musical interests are much more diverse. I met Daryl 20 years ago at X103.9/San Bernardino where he was music director and host of the hard-rock show, “Xtreme X.”

With the demise of the X in late 2015 and after a 17 year run at the station, Daryl moved on and created the streaming app “Dirty Radio,”which has two feeds: one for new music and hard rock, the other for strictly classic rock. With the exception of help from a few DJ hosts, Dirty D is running a one-man show. He spoke about finding new music, what exactly IS “alternative” these days, and what makes a new song resonate.  

“I set up a transmitter and broadcast the party. The cops came…”

— Daryl James

First off, tell us about your radio journey. How’d you start?

I ran a little pirate station when I was 13 and it got me thinking about radio and music pretty much non-stop. One time I had a party at my house, parents included, I set up a transmitter and broadcast the party. The cops came… someone had decided to go bowling with a neighbor’s pumpkin. In the end I was the coolest kid in school but my parents weren’t too happy when they flipped over the couch cushion and found nacho cheese spilled there.

When I was young I was influenced by my dad who was in radio. He was a DJ and engineer. In my early days when I was working late-night weekends on KCAL, my dad was on Arrow 93.1 at the same time. We thought it was cool that we were on the two classic rock stations. One time we were playing “Light My Fire” at the same time!

It kind of collided for me about the age of 15 when he worked at a station in Orange County called KEZY and I got the opportunity to intern there for the summer.  Back then music came in abundance, the delivery guy was sweating everyday, and the program director (Craig Powers) needed someone to organize the music library and I said, hey, I can do that. He needed someone to keep that room in order. I ended up working events at Disneyland, I got to go there like 4 times, and by the end of the summer I was making $6 an hour, the greatest summer ever. 

I kept track of that music library and one time the program director came down and said he needed a certain song. It was “Joey” by Concrete Blonde and it had just come in and I remember giving him the CD and him running back and putting it on the air and, wow, that’s the power of radio, just to grab a CD and go do that. I was bummed at the end of the summer, I had to go back to school. The  next week it was like, “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” So that was my first radio gig, at 15, then I took two years off to finish school. Then I got my first professional gig at KOLA/San Bernardino.

Give us the rundown of stations and markets.

KEZY was the first, then KOLA, then KCAL/San Bernardino, which was a rock station, then I ended up doing part time nights at KPLM/Palm Springs, playing “Today’s Hottest Hits” — it was country, I’m not a big country person. At that time I was 18 and I found myself at one point working at all three stations. I remember one day specifically I did an overnight shift on KOLA the oldies station, 6 to 10am on KCAL and then went out and did an afternoon shift on KPLM the country station. And I thought to myself, well, that’s variety but I might want to fit in a little sleep. I was a die-hard back then. And then from there I pretty much left KCAL/KOLA and went to X103.9. That was back in 1998.

(At X103.9) I got hired on just to do two weekend shifts. Then that became full time overnights, and I bounced into promotions a little bit. When the midday girl who was the music director left, I decided to throw my name in the hat and I honestly didn’t think anything of it, didn’t expect to get it. I was still young, 24 years old and thought, well, that’d be cool. I ended up getting that role! Give credit to Kelli Cluque for giving me that opportunity. I learned so much from her… she totally rocks! I was at the X for 17 years with a quick break in the middle, I did go back to KCAL for about a year and then I came back. 

A lot changed in those 17 years. Describe how X103.9 went from an uptempo adult style to hard/active rock over a few years.

We had this way of wanting to marry 90s music and that new 2000s rock sound that was coming out. In 2000 we had such a crazy swell of this new generation of Korn and LImp Bizkit that got thrown at us. I mean, what is alternative radio? Are we this? Are we that? I guess we’re everything. My first shift there I had a segue from Natalie Imbriglia into Godsmack. It was so neat for me to come over and play New Order’s Blue Monday, it was like, wow, I got to play that song on the radio!

There’s nothing better than playing some of your favorite songs especially when you’re starting out in radio and you have to play whatever is thrown at you, and then you get to the point where you’re like, wow, I actually love all this stuff and the people that are listening are like-minded like me. One of the coolest things I got to do in radio was to interview members of Metallica, a band that has always been in a league of their own and I’ve worshiped them since I was a kid.

The X ended rather abruptly. Had you considered doing the “Dirty Radio” app before that station ended, or did the idea come about as a result of the change in your employment status? 

I had thought about it and the one thing that stopped me was the technology, thinking I don’t know if the bandwidth is there to sustain music. I had tried a couple times before just as a science experiment. Eventually I got pushed into it, the X listeners were like, you should do this and I was, ok, I’ll look into it. Basically, one day, I just went online and went crazy learning information, figuring out how to use a server, how to do all this.

It was Christmas Eve and I remember throwing some songs on my home computer and driving 15 minutes and listening to it on my phone and bluetoothing to my car stereo and I was blown away! I’m listening to Prodigy’s “Breathe” and then Three Days Grace and it’s streaming, the audio is super clear… and I’m having flashbacks to when I tried it 10 or 11 years ago, 56k, it was unlistenable. I’ve always known that when it comes to streaming, the internet is everything. With everything we’ve been through, the internet just keeps getting better and better which has allowed us to stream at 128 kbps and not miss a beat. When you look at the last 5-6 years of movie streaming, audio has more than enough bandwidth.

The sound on your app is really beefy. How do you do it?

(Dirty Radio) does have processing to give it a little punch. The classic rock stream is flat without any processing because I want it to be very open, sounding like you’re listening to a vinyl record. But I tried a few different things and it’s like 4 different moving parts to get it to all work together. I’m super happy with the way it sounds now, it seems to just go and I have different DJ’s and I help them figure out their home equipment situations. It’s still a work in progress. I’m not anywhere near where I want to be with it. It’s a fun toy!

“I want to be that next breed of the cool ‘underground-that-your-mom-frowns-at’ radio station.”

— Daryl James

What are you aspiring to?

The big picture is to be that cool underground radio station that everybody (loves), trying to give radio another life. If we didn’t have radio in the mix it would just be straight streaming where you would pick a song and another and another…. I’d like to preserve some of it, making old-school radio in a streaming form. Keeping DJs out there, keeping the imaging, a little bit of the localness. I don’t want to see radio die. I want to be that next breed of the cool “underground-that-your-mom-frowns-at” radio station. FM stations shouldn’t go away and then everyone is left with YouTube and Spotify. There needs to be a middle ground between that. The new breed of what radio is.

You have some elements of the old X. MIke Madrigal, your image guy, was from the X, right?

I got lucky having him, him staying on with me. He’s great. I love making imaging, it’s like art to me. I don’t want to see radio die but I don’t ever aspire to being a mainstream radio station. And this is the best way, I mean, let’s face it, the music is unedited, it’s very raw and in your face, there are fewer rules, you’re able to do that at this next level. 

Did you aspire to a streaming station while hosting Xtreme X? Or did that show inspire the app? Which came first?

I honestly didn’t realize what the technology would be, it got here so fast. I didn’t realize what the technology had become. There had to be a next generation of things but I didn’t realize how the delivery systems would work to be able to (stream).

FM radio is adapting to having apps. Most stations have apps now, but they don’t push them because they still want to get the ratings (from over the air). They feel like they’re closing the doors on themselves by promoting the streaming. So it’s there, they promote it a little bit, but eventually you’re gonna see, probably in the next couple of years I imagine, everything will be streaming. It’s just so easy to stream from where you’re at. With your car radio being able to get feeds from the internet and stream, that’s really something that’s going to push it forward even faster.

“All of a sudden I see all of these FM DJs doing it from their houses and it kind of puts (streamers and broadcasters) on an even playing field.”

— Daryl James

I think with the pandemic, too, that really pushed people to upgrade their phones, to stream more, to find sources of entertainment for themselves while having to be at home more. Look at what it’s done for blowing the doors off delivery services and pushing technology forward faster than we ever expected. I know that food delivery services weren’t expecting to have that rush happen right away, maybe the next few years but it happened so FAST. And in this state, with radio and music, it pushed a lot of DJs back to their houses and all of a sudden I see all of these FM DJs doing it from their houses and it kind of puts (streamers and broadcasters) on an even playing field. I feel like technology has exploded in the last year.

Did you get more users during the pandemic?

Definitely. More downloads. Definitely. And the thing is, at that time, I stopped doing as much as I was doing, I took a break from doing events and throwing concerts and sponsoring stuff. So at the same time that I’m doing less, I actually was getting a lot more so it kinda worked out in my favor. And there have been times where I’ve had other things to do and other jobs and I had to move (Dirty Radio) to the back burner but at the end of the day it just keeps going and going and going. I just have to keep pushing it and keeping up on how I do it.

What’s cool is that I love what it’s become. I get excited at my own station! When I get in the car and drive somewhere I listen and like, oh, hell yeah! This song and this segue, where would I hear THIS… because I definitely am playing stuff that no one is. I love classic rock, I love metal, I love everything in between. 

Are you getting record company service? Itunes? What’s your source for the actual songs?

There are a couple of different ways, first of all I do use AllAccess.com so I do get music through the radio communication of the record companies. With that being said, I don’t care about the charts or follow the timelines of the record companies. If it’s a good song and I like it, I’ll play it. I go by the merit of the songs on everything. The way that I do it is I look at what’s new, is it a good song then cool, I’ll put it in.

“I don’t know where they’re from, I don’t know if they’re signed or not. The songs are good so I throw them in. I don’t care.”

— Daryl James

I have a working theory that any song I put in the system will always remain there. I’ve never been a person that wanted to play a song, get people all excited about it, then just drop it, like how 95% of the Top 40 stations do it. So every song I’ve ever added to Dirty Radio, believe it or not, is still there. My other way is I go straight to YouTube and I look at what’s new there and I look at people’s comments. There are times when I’ve gone on YouTube and I’ve found maybe 7 songs and maybe two of the songs I’ve never even heard of. I don’t know where they’re from, I don’t know if they’re signed or not. The songs are good so I throw them in. I don’t care. 

When you go to YouTube and you’re looking for new music, how do you start?

I go on and I look at the new stuff on the front page and kind of branch into there. Take the band Korn, they put up three or four songs a few weeks ago when their album came out. And that’s a problem I have too, and I’ll use Korn as an example. So, Korn releases their album, all the music goes up… there’s like four songs I like on there. I grab all four and I put them in. But, I space them out a little bit. Two are new and two are on the back-burner because people can only take in so much and I know that.

I have a method of easing things in and I’m able to set rotation values. Right now I have 39 songs that are in the “new” category and that’s about the number I try to keep. A couple of weeks ago I was up to 54 and I was, wow. And that’s the thing too, there’s so much music out there!

How do you deal with the sheer volume of music releases?

You would think that with all the new music coming out, the volume of it, it would be hard to find something unique but it really isn’t. I’ve never had that issue. I still get excited, I still find songs that I can’t wait to put in. And at the same time you have all these big bands that are releasing songs. Looking at my new library, you’ve got new Foo Fighters, you’ve got new Bullet for my Valentine, you’ve got the new Korn, new Papa Roach, new Black Keys. You have bands that have been out there that are popular that are still putting out new music but you still have newer bands that are putting out great music. It’s just a cluster of stuff. 

“Right now I’m aware of five songs I need to go and put into my system.”

— Daryl James

In your experience with Dirty Radio, what has been the biggest surprise?

I’m just blown away by how much music is out there. There is so much. I don’t even think that people realize…. Even compared to the radio days of 10-15 years ago, receiving stacks of CDs, some stiffs, some the record company says “well I just want you to get familiar with this artist.” In this day and age there is just so much music. Right now I’m aware of five songs I need to go and put into my system. 
It’s become easier for artists to get their stuff out there as well. I always had this problem back in the day where a record company would work a song and there’d be a local band down the street that had a song and the local band’s song would be 100 times better but my hands were tied, it didn’t work that way. I had to go with what was on track for the record company. Now I don’t do that anymore — I’m able to play whatever, even a little harder than before. 

Do you consider the “Dirty Radio” stream to be alternative?

I’ve struggled lately with the word “alternative.” Alternative rock used to be a miss-mosh of things. You have the LA stations that play what we consider indy music and it’s alternative to them. The Inland Empire’s definition of alternative is different from the LA term. For instance, in LA, Billie Eilish would be considered an alternative artist. To people out here, she’s more like Top 40. To me, alternative always meant Sublime, the 90’s era, a little ska. Even when Godsmack and Disturbed came out in 2000, that wasn’t the normal rock stuff. We could play all of it and it’s all “alternative.” I think that term has changed and I’ve tried to fight on that. But when you say “alternative rock” and then you go into a Lamb of God song, it just doesn’t sound right. People say that’s hard rock, that’s metal. 

The genre labels just don’t seem to mean as much anymore?

And I stayed away from that, too. When I searched for a slogan for Dirty Radio, it just one day appeared. “We’re the app that rocks.” That’s what we are, the app that rocks. With the two radio stations that we have, we cover literally six decades of rock music. With Dirty Radio we play stuff from the late 80s, 90s, 2000s, newer stuff. It’s such a broad situation.

You know, the word alternative, I’ve always put it out there that yeah, we’re rock, we’re metal, alternative rock. There’s classic rock in there, there’s ska, there’s all these sub-genres. I think if you’re a big music person, you don’t even need labels. You like what you like. Not everybody has an ear for five decades of rock music but if you’re a music person, you do. I could hear a Slayer song and then hear a Bob Marley song. To me, it works. I don’t even blink. 

How did your time on X103.9’s “Xtreme X” inform what you’re doing now?

Xtreme X was my form of free-form radio for the metal world. John DeSantis gave me the name “Dirty D.” A bunch a girls called the request line for me and he said on the air, “Here’s that ‘Dirty D’ guy” and it stuck. He’s also the one who originally brought me over to work at the X.

“We can’t believe you’re playing this stuff at three in the morning!”

Dirty Radio Late-Night Listeners

I liked the element of surprise. I like when you put an Eminem song on. I’ll be honest, if you’re listening to Dirty Radio at three in the morning, you never know what you’re going to get. I play some crazy stuff here in the middle of the night. I want people to be shocked and surprised, ya know? I’ve had people write to me, “We do the shelf stocking at Stater Brothers. We can’t believe you’re playing this stuff at three in the morning!” Hey, that’s what I want. I want people to be surprised. And time zones don’t really matter for streaming stations. We have a strong local following so when I have to, I play by those numbers on the clock. 

Last question, first answer that bubbles up: what’s your song of the week?

That’s an easy one. It’s the band Crosses, and their song “Protection.” It’s the singer from the Deftones. It’s a very melodic song and it’s got this sub-base in it. A song that, when you’re driving, takes you out of your body for a minute, then you come back. One of those melodic songs that grabs your soul. When I first heard it, it was very light and very chill. By my third listen I really liked the song. Not everything I like is metal and hard. Everybody thinks that! I like everything, I love music in general. I don’t know where I’d be without music. It’s such an integral part of my life and I’m thankful for it. 

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HipTherapyMusic.com has huge respect and gratitude for Daryl James. He’ll receive a HipTherapyMusic poster for his generosity of time and spirit. Check out Dirty Radio, and the Dirty Radio Facebook page. Download the streaming service for your mobile device from Google Play or Apple’s App Store.

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