We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Randi Lavik a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Randi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I am the former Co-Host of TNN Radio with Jimmy Alvarez, Sundays, on Community-Supported KX FM 104.7 Laguna Beach.
Our shows go out locally via our FM signal and worldwide via our station Apps and several listening platforms, including iHeart, iTunes, and Amazon.
Jimmy is an L.A. Radio veteran and an Expert in Southern California Ska, Punk and New Music. With a laundry list of creative and talented buddies.
We interviewed quite a few of my Musical Heroes, and several Actors and Producers as well, on Jimmy’s weekly music and talk program.
I was almost a Librarian(!)
As Jimmy’s Sidekick, along with our longtime-friend Leeza London, I felt like I got to sit at the Cool Kids’ Table.
It was fun to go to the station in South Laguna Beach, Sundays, driving through Jack-in-the-Box on Pacific Coast Highway, while thinking “I wonder what’s gonna happen today?”
The Sunday Crew and Station Management at KX FM are fab Mentors, absolutely. My Son Bjorn also caught the radio bug and he learned how to produce a show there.
As I gained more confidence, Jimmy gave me a “Randi’s Pick of the Week” feature, where I would research and present information and trivia on various artists, oftentimes on-the-fly.
Newly-discovered facts and trivia about our lovely musicians led to many spontaneous and hilarious discoveries. Live! On the radio.
Meanwhile at home, my daughter Simone, Middle-School Student, became very interested in BTS (the record-shattering musical artists from South Korea).
She shared more and more videos with me, and I began to love the K-pop art form, as well.
Jimmy, being a great Mentor, and Publisher of the OC Music News, was encouraging about my writing as well. I enjoyed covering shows with Jimmy, Leeza, Photographer/Producer Michelle, and Crew.
We met Tiffany!
BTS was more and more of a staple in my house. I saw their concert to make sure… and they were for real. So I got brave.
I asked Jimmy to play ‘BaseLine’ (an old school scratch hip hop solo release by J-Hope, BTS Member), and he debuted “Idol” by BTS on TNN Radio.
After more pestering, Jimmy let me do a “BTS Report” feature, with news and gossip, on his punk/alternative/ska/new wave/new music show.
Eventually, it was time to do my own show.
Son Bjorn and I developed “The Drop”–we go live Friday nights at 9pm, Pacific.
Our show started out as EDM show.
Then slowly… I started to take more musical risks.
Bjorn got busy in his Senior Year of High School, so I was forced to learn how to use the station software and started to program my own show.
At first, I stuck with the super-fresh and new EDM in our catalog, from overseas mostly, that Producer Bjorn adored so much, then slowly started to slip in my favorites from the last Century, or so, all mashed up and mixed up together.
Then I started to slip in my favorite current music from South Korea.
Realizing I was the first DJ to play BTS deep tracks, solos, collaborations, and friends of BTS in the USA, I started to make low-rent videos from the KX studios on my iPhone7.
I started Live-Tweeting the show and reached out to the BTS fan ARMY around the world.
Slowly, my following and listener-ship grew. I found my people on Twitter.
I played more and more BTS until I eventually changed The Drop’s format to “BTS and Friends… and The Greats.” My dream show.
I took some heat from friends, family and Facebook.
I didn’t care.
At the same time, I received gifts at the station and love letters from the BTS ARMY. They are my family too. I’ve had the privilege to meet several in person.
They say BTS finds you when you need them. I believe this to be true.
I debuted a new song, “Don’t” — a collaboration between Kim Namjoon from BTS and Eaeon, a respected musical artist from South Korea.
Eaeon retweeted my video from the KX FM Studios, and wrote about how he felt, seeing his music being played on a different landscape.
Because of his kindness, my video received One Million Views. This was life-changing, absolutely.
Soon after, my listeners logged on at 8:59 pm on a Friday night, and broke our station server.
It happened the next week too.
We lost our station catalog and found a new station software provider.
The success of The Drop led to a Podcast for Snippet/Spotify called “BTS7” with Sidekick Sylvia “Pixie” Park,
And a Prime Time show: “Mashups and Remixes” on KX, Wednesdays at 2pm, Pacific.
Creative joy is possible; don’t be afraid to take a risk, at any age.
The Drop continues to play BTS first; we just debuted Jeon JungKook’s new album in its entirety last weekend. I have a lot to be proud of.
We have a fun and loyal ARMY following on ‘X”, formerly known as Twitter, and I play listener requests from all over the globe. Which is unheard of in 2023.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Thanks for asking–I’m Randi Lavik, LA/OC-based radio producer, programmer and host at KX FM 104.7, Laguna Beach. We are Community-Supported Radio.
I have an LA-radio background and produce two shows currently:
Mashups and Remixes, Wednesdays at 2pm, and
The Drop, Friday nights at 9pm.
Programming freedom is incredibly rare, and approximately 75 volunteers share my radio joy at Laguna’s only FM.
I work to preserve the art of the Broadcaster.
I’m camera shy.
My shows are plotted out from memory, on notebook paper, with a Sharpie.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Please support our Artists.
We need our creative types to speak out freely, now, more than ever.
If you want to support local radio creative freedom, kindly
reach out here: http://www.kxfmradio.org
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Programming radio shows is my favorite thing I do.
To see my listener’s reactions, in real time, worldwide, is a miracle of communication.
We all listen in together, I get a message and I just hit the ‘translate’ button to send my thanks.
There is nothing like it.
It turns out, we all speak the same language, musically.
Notes, scales and chords require zero translation.
Our Artists deserve an equal playing field.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kxfmradio.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedropsounds/ https://www.instagram.com/mashupsandremixeskxfm/
- Linkedin: R (She/Her) Lavik
- Twitter: @TheDrop Sound @RandiLavik
Image Credits
Michelle Alvarez, Green-Eyed Blonde Photography Randi Lavik