10 Questions with ... The Razor (Rey de Carlo)

1. What was your first job in radio and some of your early influences?

After interning there for a year, my first job was in promotions driving the "Pure Rock Patrol" van for the legendary L.A. metal station, KNAC. Talk about baptism by fire! Earliest influences were the top 40 jocks on KTKT-AM in Tucson. Ed Alexander, who I later got to know and briefly work with, was the first jock that made me realize that something was happening behind the scenes and made me take note of the idea of a radio personality. When AOR came into play with KLPX, the late Bob Cooke is the guy that opened my ears to irreverence on the radio. That's when my wheels began churning, and I started making my own radio shows with a small tape recorder and a turntable, like a lot of aspiring jocks. Ha! I moved to L.A. in 1986, just three months after KNAC flipped to Pure Rock, and once I heard the jocks, I wanted to be one of them.

2. When did you know you wanted to do radio for a living?

Without realizing it, I was always preparing for this. I studied every liner note, learned my band history, attended concert after concert, discovered new music, learned to play guitar, studied journalism so I could write reviews, and became an all-around music-head. So, one day, about a year and a half after I up and left Tucson for Los Angeles, I heard the late Tawn Mastrey doing a spot for Columbia School of Broadcasting in Hollywood, and I suddenly saw my future clearer than ever. I just knew what I wanted, and I was extremely driven to make it happen.

3. How long have you been rocking for Lotus in Tucson and what are your main duties there?

I joined KLPX on Labor Day Weekend of 2010, so, 11 years now. I'm currently Assistant Program Director for KFMA and KLPX. I also hold down afternoon drive on KFMA, and I make it a point to get my hands dirty in other departments. If need be, I'll handle production duties, or do some traffic reports. I've even filled in as morning show producer. Because we all know if you aren't multi-tasking in radio, you're not working. It's also how you often find issues that you wouldn't have known otherwise.

4. I know you work with KLPX as well as your duties with KFMA. Let’s talk about KLPX for a moment. How is KLPX positioned musically and what’s your take on the Classic Rock format today?

KLPX leans heavy on 80s rock. That AOR stuff like REO Speedwagon, Journey, Police, Def Leppard, Billy Squire, Mellencamp etc... We of course reinforce it with Zeppelin, Floyd, AC/DC, and Van Halen. That strength allows us to dip into the 90s guys like STP, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the like. As we've hit the 30 year mark on a lot of those bands they'll come into play a lot more for KLPX in the 2020s and it'll be good to have the base already built for it to go deeper. We haven't gotten to the point where we're playing Foo Fighters, but that day will come. I feel Classic Rock works best when you play what that median target audience was listening to in high school. It's that sliding scale.

5. Now let’s talk about KFMA. Over the years it has evolved from a taste maker in the Alternative format, to an Active Rock station. What was the reason for the format adjustment and how has KFMA been doing the last few years in the Active Rock format?

Research showed that Tucson wanted to rock and having grown up here I had always known Tucson to be a rock town. We felt that it was most likely the case, and once we saw the research pointed that way, we wasted no time in picking our lane. Had it leaned Alternative, we would have taken it in that direction, which I think would have been an even bigger identity switch. It's been several years now, and we're still satisfied with the direction.

6. How many shared artists, if any, are KFMA and KLPX both playing?

When you own the top two male-dominated stations, you have to think about the guy that likes Guns N' Roses and can appreciate an older Led Zeppelin tune, but also cranks 90s Metallica and rocks out to something more recent like Volbeat. Larry calls it flying wingtip to wingtip. The shared artists for that listener would be obvious choices like STP, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and even 3 Doors Down and Beastie Boys. As I mentioned, we're now playing Pumpkins on KLPX. A newer addition to KFMA is Black Sabbath. When I go to concerts, I'll see listeners at a Pop Evil show, and the next week I'll see them at Styx. There is definitely an audience going back and forth between the two stations, and we try to comfortably fit them in between. We've even set the clocks so that when one goes to spots the other is in music.

7. What is your take on the current state of new music at Active Rock and the format as a whole?

It's interesting to see what's being serviced to Active Rock these days. After Greta Van Fleet hit a high note a couple of years ago, it seems there is an influx of vintage-sounding artists that have come out front. Rival Sons, Dirty Honey, Ayron Jones etc.. So Active Rock is sounded quite vintage these days in a lot of ways.

8. What kind of research, if any, do you do to determine what is working at KFMA, and do you pay attention to how Rock songs are streaming in the market?

We do pay attention to streaming but you don't know if that's a 14 year old girl or a 40 year old guy. So, we like to do research that comes with a bit more substance to it. We look at national trends but tend to rely a bit more on our own sources.

9. What are three of your favorite new artists/and or songs at Active Rock over the last few months?

Mammoth WVH, Architects and Ayron Jones hands down!

10. Finally, you go by “Razor” Rey de Carlo. Care to explain?

Sonically, it's really just a natural extension of my first name. More in-depth, when I started at KNAC and was going to have a name used on-air, I was in the company of guys like Thrasher and Gonzo. You couldn't just be Darren, you had to be Dangerous Darren. I was sitting in the studio with Jack Trash and a listener kept calling requesting a local band called Razor's Edge. After about the fourth time I said, "That's it! Razor Rey!" Jack suggested just Razor, and I refined it to The Razor. To me it's always evoked that image of the razor blade on the cover of British Steel from Judas Priest. When I was a kid, I always wanted a cool nickname like Ace Frehley, and it's worked out well so far. It was especially fun when I was introduced as Razor to Slash, as well as The Edge from U2. "Edge, Razor. Razor, Edge." Good times! I'm just glad we weren't a hippy-dippy station eating trail mix. I could have been The Raisin!