The Lounge Show is the Birthplace of “Keep Austin Weird” (Thanks to Red Wassenich!)
The Lounge Show first aired on KOOP Radio on December 31, 1994 (two weeks after KOOP began broadcasting). Jay has been the primary host and programmer of the show from its beginning. The show’s theme is “Lounge music” but the focus of the show can be broken down to: Easy Listening oddities, thrift store discoveries, Vegas-style crooners, old television and movie soundtracks, exotica, mambos, cha-chas, bossa nova, rhumbas, tangos, kitschy instrumentals, beatnik jazz, crime jazz, spy themes, foreign tongue, vintage electronics, easy grooves, and old radio jingles.
Jay has been a radio disc jockey since 1975 – first working at his parents’ radio station in Haynesville, LA (KLUV-AM/FM, later KLVU in the 1980s). He attended high school in Sewanee, TN where he DJ’d for 4 years at the nearby university station, WUTS-FM. While in college at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge he was on the air for 8 years at KLSU-FM. Shortly after moving to Austin he was on the cable-only station, KTSB (later to become KVRX-FM), at the University of Texas. He then had an overnight show briefly on KUT-FM when the station had music shows on its schedule. He became a volunteer member of KOOP in September, 1993 and has been a programmer/DJ on KOOP’s schedule since it went on the air in December, 1994.