Community radio provides a forum all kinds of voices and a place to hear programming you won’t find anywhere else. In keeping with our mission to educate, engage, enlighten, and entertain our listeners, KZSM.org has launched yet another new show.
“The Ground Under the Rock” airs Wednesday from 10 p.m. to midnight. Host "John-Luke Pretard, the Human Cannonball" plays and comments on the full range of underground rock, from “the pre-dawn history of proto-rock 'n' roll to yesterday.” Like other “full-concept” DJs such as Wolfman Jack, Pretard completely subsumes his personal identity into his radio persona. The persona emphasizes his “full editorial control over every aspect of the show.”
Pretard describes himself as “an omnivorous consumer of this form of art,” which might loosely be described as “music you don’t hear on the radio.” He includes anything that might fit “that undefinable vibe,” whether or not the band eventually became mainstream.
In tracing the history and development of the form, he maintains that “every band comes from the self-created reality of the Velvet Underground.” He also cites MC5, The Stooges, New York Dolls, and the Ramones as foundational influences on the form.
Pretard promises a “heavy focus on the Texas component,” both because “I’m from here” and because “there’s a huge influence on the entire superstructure from Texas.” He maintains that “The Butthole Surfers literally changed the way that popular music functions. They were their own Velvet Underground in that they were a self-created, no-past-reference phenomenon that just changed the whole game.”
Pretard has a long history with Underground Rock and with radio. He has been attending rock 'n' roll shows and collecting music for almost forty years. His first radio show, on a college station in Portland, Ore., began in 1990 and ran for ten years. “I take radio very seriously,” he says. “I consider it, maybe, the last voice of the people in some hard-to-define way.”
As our newest DJ at KZSM.org, he anticipates his upcoming shows. Since “I’m such a nerd about this stuff,” he promises, “I’m going to pull off some sweet set lists. If you’re open to music—a little louder, a little weirder, then you’re probably going to enjoy what I play.”
If you are a nerd about something and would like a place to express your passion, KZSM.org has plenty of space for more new programs. To get involved, e-mail KZSMSanMarcos@ gmail.com.
