L.A. Q&A: KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley

One of the best events this weekend is hosted by everyone's favorite community radio station, KCRW. Masquerade is a full-out costume ball and dance party at the Park Plaza downtown, with a headliner that will make your head spin: DJ Shadow (whoa! that's a name we haven't heard in a loooong time). In addition to the mixmaster, you've got Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Sweden’s Little Dragon, and LA’s own Sea Wolf. If you're getting hungry for something that's not vampire blood, there's gonna be a food truck orgy -- Kogi, Border Grill, Coolhaus, and Sprinklesmobile! A lot of the KCRW jocks will be on hand, including Raul Ghoul Campos, Anne Elvira Litt, Dan Blood Sucker Wilcox, and music director Jason Nosferatu Bentley (cute Halloweeny names, guys). We talked to Jason Nosferatu Bentley about his upcoming one-year anniversary as the head of the station, as well all things L.A. Have you ever heard of Castle Heights Road? Us, neither.

Are you from Los Angeles? There don’t seem to be many natives.
I grew up in Santa Monica, I went to junior high school and high school in Santa Monica. Before that was Boston. ’m a Westside kid. I live in Venice now. It’s where I’m from.

What was the biggest challenge for you since you took over the station and Morning Becomes Eclectic since December 1—almost a year.
The biggest challenge is ... probably the guests on an ongoing basis. In order to really do a quality interview, it takes a lot of prep work, you have to be quick on your feet in terms of meeting people and having an inspired conversation with them. Sometimes you’re dealing with an artist who just doesn’t want to cooperate, so, ultimately it takes two. So, that’s the biggest challenge.

A challenge in a different way has been expanding and broadening my musical horizons, so I can meet the standard of Morning Becomes Eclectic. You know, what does eclectic really mean? It means different things to different people to different music directors in different years, and I am the fourth. So trying to respect the brand, and what it means to people. Morning Becomes Eclectic isn’t my show, in the sense that I created it, that I created that concept, coming from me. I came into this position, and it had a show and a sound and overall aesthetic. I’m really just the caretaker of this program that really means a lot to people over the years. So, um it’s been a little bit about respecting what’s it been and what it means to people and embellishing upon that and adding my own flavors and my own take on it.

But I’m uniquely qualified because I have been there so long. I’ve really grown up at KCRW. I started volunteering there the summer after high school, so this was 1988. I’ve been there in some capacity, advancing in my interests and passions for 20 years. I think that gives me a unique perspective on all the previous music directors and the evolution of KCRW music overall.

What do you think you do differently than your predecessor Nic Harcourt?
Well, it’s a whole different thing. It’s a different music sensibility, it’s a different demeanor because I’m a totally different person. Also the way that I want to manage is different. Since I’m coming from the ranks of a DJ and from being a nighttime DJ at the station, I have an appreciation of that kind of position. The one thing I longed for was being more integrated into the overall music department program. So once I was in the position of music director, I was able to do that. I think I’m much more proactive in activating the talented music minds running across the board at the station. Putting them in position to have exposure, to express themselves, to brainstorm on ideas, to outreach events, the various music initiatives that we have. The reality is that we have some really, really talented people who are super active in the music industry as well. A lot of them are music supervisors, dealing with some of the biggest projects around, huge film projects and I always felt like we could take advantage of those skills, take advantage of those connections more. I wanna hear more voices on the air, I wanna hear the personality and the diversity, the men, the women. I just want to hear all the range. I think what’s strengthens our foundation more is if we also celebrate the people we have. Chris Douridas, Garth Trinidad, Aaron Byrd, Raul Campos, just terrific people that are active in the community and passionate about music. That’s a marked change.