DJ Not a DJ

Recently, we’ve had to accept the fact that our liberal-arts degree has earned us financial destitution, preventing us from ever attaining the status of music aficionado. Our CD collection has hovered around 250 since adolescence. And though we’d like to think our taste is eclectic and sophisticated, we bar most self-described indie connoisseurs from our door, lest they peruse our library and sneer like a master sommelier at jug merlot.

However, Robert Moore, music director for KCUR 89.3 and host of the poor music lover’s dream Sonic Spectrum, is welcome around our grotesquely large ’70s prog-rock collection anytime. Mellow except when it comes to talk of corporate radio, Moore is surprisingly devoid of Jack Black-from-High Fidelity snobbery. “I’ve been into everything growing up — how can I be a snob?” Moore tells the Pitch.

At 38, Moore has lived our dream. He started at a college radio station in his native Los Angeles, then did promotions for IRS Records, the premier ’80s independent label. He worked in publishing at Bug Music and went on to do A&R for Virgin Records, where he learned that corporate labels suck as hard as commercial radio. “That was my downfall,” he says of his experience at Virgin. “I lost faith in the industry, was very unhappy with Hollywood and the scene, and decided I needed a change of pace.”

Moore flew against the cultural current, migrating from the West Coast to Kansas City in 1992. After stints at Recycled Sounds and KKFI 90.1, he began working his way up at KCUR, beginning as host of the daily jazz show Take Five. Then the radio gods smiled, and he was granted his own two hours to spread the gospel of eclecticism over 100,000 watts.

“What I do on Sonic Spectrum as a free-form show is rare even in public radio, so to be given this opportunity by KCUR is a dream for me,” Moore says.

His goal is to become nationally syndicated. But for now, Moore is glad to be celebrating his first two years at the KC pulpit, spinning for a weekly base of around 10,000 omnivorous listeners who are familiar with his laconic on-air persona, which tends to belie his personal interest in the show.

“It takes me several days to come up with what I’m going to play. I labor over every set,” says Moore, who also does his own engineering. “If I didn’t have the show, I’d do mix tapes for friends. I live for turning people on to new music.”

Moore says he approaches his work as a listener rather than a DJ, so his show is a product of his own tastes. Though he may not cater to everyone’s preferences, Moore simply won’t play music he doesn’t like — and that includes bad local music. But that’s rarely a problem; he regards the local scene as one of the best in the country. “I’d say there’s probably 30 bands in this town right now that deserve to be signed,” he says.

From among his favorite area acts, Moore has invited Unknown Pleasures, Minus Story, Doris Henson, Hot Fruit and In the Pines to celebrate his second year at the microphone with a bash at the Brick, where he’ll spin between sets.