Di Kulka is a friendly and familiar face to anyone who has spent any time at all around the Chicago music scene. Along with her husband Razor, she co-hosts THE RAZOR AND DIE SHOW on Chicago radio station WLUW (88.7 FM and www.wluw.org and owned by Loyola University) on Friday afternoons from 4 to 6pm, spinning a cool, eclectic, and eccentric mix of music and personality that has kept her and her hubby on the airwaves in a major market for over a decade. She is a true music super fan and brings an infectious enthusiasm for all things rock and roll, a trend-setting sense of style, and a love of independent music to every party she attends. Di was good enough to take some time out of her hectic schedule to hang out with us here at the Mike O’Cull Music/Street Level Guitar home office and survivalist compound and give you, Gentle Reader, the straight skinny on one of Chicago’s hippest radio shows. Dig the printed flow and be sure to tune in each and every Friday!!
Are you originally from Chicago? How did you get involved with the Chicago music scene? I was born in Mexico City and came to Chicago when I was 10 months old. My mother was originally from Chicago and met my father in Acapulco on vacation. It’s strange how I got involved in the Chicago music scene because I had been involved in it in the late 70’s & early 80’s. When I turned 18, they changed the drinking age to 19 and when I turned 19, they made the legal drinking age 21. Punk and new wave clubs almost always accepted my “fake” ID, but not always. I made friends with Chicago bandmates when my best friend started dating one. They’d open shows and we’d get in, carrying equipment. Beth and I used to go out almost every night to see bands, even when it wasn’t a national touring act. It’s funny how in high school, I only went for the national acts. After my husband, Razor, graduated IIT and got a full time job, we didn’t go out to live shows as often and usually only on weekends. We didn’t go out all the time, like we had before college ended. When we got back from living in Europe, we still went to mostly touring band shows.
How did The Razor and Di Show come about? Were you always on WLUW? Razor and I used to DJ in clubs in the early 80’s until we moved to Holland in 1987. Razor was a DJ in college in Memphis and in Chicago (he was also the program director for a year at IIT.) When we had our own beer business (Brewin’ Beagle) and it became our living, he’d heard that WLUW was independently run (unlike WZRD where you had to be a student) and that you could become a volunteer with a possibility of becoming a part-time or full-time DJ. Since our schedule was our own, we could be available for a variety of times. Razor wanted me to join him for the volunteer orientation meeting. I thought maybe I’d offer my photography services or something else. I never thought I’d go on the air. Tom Jackson has a show on Saturdays (Somebody Else’s Troubles) and he interviewed us (as Brewin’ Beagle and music junkies) on his show. He loved our banter and our varied musical tastes and offered us an hour a month and we started September 25th, 2004. Because we were officially trained and on the air, when a slot opened up we jumped at the chance. It was a 3 hour shift and 1 hour of playing a pre-recorded show. We couldn’t be on the air together, due to management’s rules, so we took turns DJing 90 minutes each. In the Winter break that year we also took on a 6-10am shift when one became available. We really cut our WLUW teeth that year. When the popular FULL ON FRIDAY show (2-6pm) needed a DJ, we snapped that up and have been Friday DJs ever since. When management changed (Loyola University took back the station), the GM at the time wanted us to DJ together as Razor & Die and change the name from FULL ON FRIDAY to THE RAZOR & DIE SHOW.
How long has the show been running? This is where it gets tricky. We’ve had different timeslots and different days. But we’ve always called it THE RAZOR & DIE SHOW except for the beginning of the FULL ON FRIDAY takeover. Full on Friday was a show centered around what was happening in the music scene that weekend and the following week. We continued what we were doing but on a grander scale and in a longer timeslot. We also still DJ-ed for the Saturday show (Tom Jackson’s original show) but were eventually edged out of the one-hour timeslot when the schedule changed. We started doing 2 hours every month and subbing for him as well. The show was more of a roots-based show and we did our own spin on that. It’s all very confusing. lol
What do you think makes your show popular? At first I wanted to get the word out and attain music from everywhere and MYSPACE was a big help. I was a promoting machine, designed our logo, built a website, etc. We went out a lot and courted bands, just to get the music and the word out. Razor learned how to run live sound on Saturdays with David Bragman who did the LIVE ‘N’ KICKIN’ BLUEGRASS show with Billy J. Ivers the first Saturday of the month (which was a part of Tom’s SOMEBODY ELSE’S TROUBLES umbrella.) In the beginning of our Thursday time slot, we had other staff members run our live sound until it became difficult to schedule and management realized that Razor could run the sound himself. We started booking bands to come in to chat/play music and play live on a weekly basis. The INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW FESTIVAL was a big help in getting the word out that you could come on and promote your live gig and your new music. That first year we were heavily invested in that festival, sometimes having 3 bands on.
What genres of music do you play on the show? Most music we enjoy from three chord punk to big band swing. We especially favor quirky bands that aren’t well-known but should be. Other favorite genres are 70s and 80s punk & new wave, garage music and psychedelia from the 60s and beyond, rockabilly, blues, C&W and what is called ‘indie' but isn’t always, in our opinion. Because we were on a particular day (Thursday mornings to begin, Friday afternoons later), local bands were easier to book for the live sets. We had touring bands come in more often for interviews, sometimes to play live. But local bands were easier to schedule. We also did some on-site interviewing at clubs and shows, but those were fewer.
Do you always have someone playing live in the studio? When we moved to the Gold Coast location, we were offered the super cool tv studio on the street level as a showcase for the live performances. We used to broadcast it all live and over the speakers on the street. When management decided to cut all shows down to a standard 2 hour timeslot, 4 hour shows ceased to be. It was great fun while it lasted (a couple – 3 years) but it became an all-day endeavor and for a 2 hour show, we decided to take a break and only do interviews and acoustic performances. When management changed (again) we revisited the live performance scenario but choosing instead to pre-record the live set on another day and broadcast it during our Friday shows. We don’t do this as often (as every week as we had previously) but we still book full bands in the tv studio.
What does the future hold for the radio show? Plans? To continue booking bands during the week and broadcasting them on Fridays. Continue introducing music you might not hear everywhere and maybe sponsoring events. We have done fund-raising back in the old days when we ran pledge drives for WLUW, before Loyola took over finances. We also held fundraisers (with multiple bands) for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It might be fun to try that again.
What’s the best part of being on the radio? Finding new music and bringing it to the masses!
