Name: Kalie McAlexander
Year: Fifth-year Senior
Major: Film and Media Studies and History
Current KJHK Role: DJ and Content Staffer
Notable KJHK contributions: Host of Across the Pond, Tuesday’s 8pm-9pm
GM: So whats “Across the Pond?”
KM: It’s an interview based show that started off in the spring semester of 2015, when I began interviewing people from the international community. I’m semi-international and I just wanted to interview people about their backgrounds, and then it kind of just transitioned into being interviews with any kind of non-traditional student.
GM: So what do you mean by semi-international?
KM: I moved around a lot growing up. I moved like thirty different times growing up.
GM: What was your favorite place you lived while growing up?
KM: Glasgow, Scotland, which is where I spent the first six years of my life – then I moved back there when I was in high school.
GM: So who is the most interesting person you have interviewed on Across the Pond?
KM: I’ve interviewed so many great people with interesting stories and backgrounds, but I think my favourite was Geeta Tiwari, from India. She worked at KU and is now at the Eudora Yoga Centre but in the middle of our interview about cultural differences she just dropped in the fact that she’d lived in the forest under the Himalayas for a year with monkeys for a study in ecology. I love anyone who can just casually drop it into conversation that they lived with monkeys for a year.
GM: So you’ve visited quite a few places, or lived in quite a few places actually – so where do you see yourself living in the future?
KM: Oh boy. How dare you ask me this question when graduation is two months away and I am here, trying to avoid thinking about it. I mean I’ve only been in university for five years, I haven’t had time to consider my future. But I like the ocean and I think I want to work in TV, so I’m thinking California eventually. Send me sunblock.
GM: Any plans to visit Glasgow?
KM: I’d love to go and see everyone but I don’t have any immediate plans.
GM: What are some of your hobbies, outside of KJHK?
KM: Uhh, I don’t really have time for hobbies, but writing is one, and I like to play with my dog.
GM: What kind of dogs?
KM: I think he’s a greyhound, but he looks like Snoop Dogg. That’s all that’s important.
GM: So, what drove you to join KJHK?
KM: Even before I chose KU I knew I wanted to be involved in campus radio. I was in high school I watched a lot of 30 Rock and I wanted to be an NBC page, and I remember them saying you that involvement in campus radio was important. So even though that career path has changed – I don’t want to do that anymore – that was the initial reason I joined KJHK, and I really like it.
GM: So what would you like to do now?
KM: Well, actually I think I started out wanting to work in film, but KJHK really made me want to be in radio. I work for KPR now and I’d like to work for NPR one day.
GM: What drew you into DJing in particular? What do you like most about the job?
KM: Well my first DJing shift was at three in the morning on Wednesdays and I really liked the freedom of it, especially at KJHK, because you can pretty much do whatever. I used to come in here and I had the union to myself. It was kind of like therapy.
GM: If you could have one actress star in your biopic, who would it be?
KM: I feel like Emma Stone has similar hair.
GM: So, time for the next question. Who is your role model? And what about them do you admire?
KM: There’s a comedian called Moshe Kasher who I’ve always looked up to. He wrote a book called “Kasher in the Rye,” which is about his experiences growing up in this weird limbo because his mother lived in Oakland, CA and was sort of a hippie and a feminist while his dad lived in Brooklyn, was conservative, and very involved in a Hasidic Jewish community. That was hard for him as a kid and I grew up with something similar – this strange clash of cultures and kind of feeling like you don’t belong in either of them. Moshe also overcame a lot, like drug and alcohol abuse, the death of his father … and now he does comedy about that kind of thing. Even though it’s sad he can tell it with a smile. I heard him talk on this podcast about the concept of dealing with life with some laughter and some tears and I really admire that approach to everything.
GM: So if I looked through your ITUNES or Spotify account right now, what would I find? What would be the last few songs you listened too?
KM: Embarrassingly, Lil Dicky.
GM: Hey, nothing to be embarrassed about, I love Lil Dicky.
[awkward silence]
GM: Yeah, I might need to scratch that one from the record. But anyways, go on.
KM: I just went on a Lil Dicky spree last night because I had one of his songs stuck in my head.
GM: Which song was it?
KM: The one about ex-boyfriends. I don’t really have a favorite genre. I just go through phases like you were saying – sometimes I’ll make Eric and Chad send me Africa Radio playlists, and I’ll be really into AfroPunk one week, and then the next week it’s techno or Lil Dicky or something. It just kind of depends.
GM: Alright, so out of nowhere a genie appears, and it tells you that you get to pick three bands or artists, dead or alive, to see in concert. Who do you go see?
KM: I would see the The Pogues before Shane MacGowan knocked out all of his front teeth and became incomprehensible. I would see Frightened Rabbit again, even though they are alive and touring and I could go see them anyways. And then I would say Led Zeppelin.
GM: If you were stuck on an island, with a lifetime supply of only one food, which food would you choose?
KM: Potatoes. There’s so many variations of potatoes and they’re all amazing.
GM: Hopefully you know how to start a fire. Raw potatoes aren’t very good.
GM: What would you say to anyone who is considering joining KJHK? Or someone who is thinking about Dj’ing? I think that people are often intimidated by doing something that is outside of their comfort zone, and DJ’ing certainly pushes most people’s comfort zone.
KM: Do it! I joined KJHK when I was seventeen and so, so shy. But it’s given me some of my best friends, best memories, and best conversations. Being out of your comfort zone is important. When I started Across the Pond, it was like a dare for myself, because I knew I wanted to do something like that but I had always been too shy. So I proposed the show like “if you get it, then you’ll have to at least try” and then I did, and it’s really helped me as a person. I used to take forever to warm up to people and now it’s way easier. Everyone at KJHK is so kind and willing to help you learn how to do everything, and it’s so flexible that you can do a lot. It’s honestly one of the best decisions I ever made which is great because it was kind of a random one.