M. James Kennedy, a.k.a. Jumbo Dubby, one of the newest hosts to join KXCJ-LP, brings a lot of experience to the station. New to the station but not to Oregon, he has lived all over the state since 2003 and in the Valley off-and-on since 2009. He joined the KXCJ team in May of this year.
“I started radio DJing at the University of Oregon when someone asked me to be their co-host on KWVA. Most folks have to fill out a huge application and go through interviews about their show and then only a few are selected. It’s highly competitive. Eventually I ran several hours of shows every week and got to start my own. I never even had a security code; everyone just knew me and would let me in. That wouldn’t fly these days so I’m super grateful for that timing. And KWVA was a wonderful radio environment to get started. In that time I worked as a live DJ as well, playing parties and school dances and anything that needed speakers plus music.”
Jumbo Dubby is known for his resonant, professional voice and along with a short stint in voice acting (he found it deadly dull), he was, “…a touring singer-songwriter for a number of years. I toured on an extra-long bicycle setup both alone and with others. I also released many albums starting around 2005 with lots of covers and originals.”
His show “Gold Timers” is the result of some deep thought about music, the nature of the universe, and mathematics. “Radio waves echo forever so I as much as I play for present listeners, I also think carefully about what future civilization might hear my show and how I’d like them to feel. Reggae, as a genre, is still in the beginning of its story. The creators of the first Reggae songs are still alive and performing. I think that Reggae tells a poignant story of righteous struggle against a collapsing empire. And in the midst of all Reggae’s war medicine, it talks of Love & God with great bass,” said Kennedy, adding, “My show is called ‘Gold Timers’ in honor of the work of Martin Armstrong. He created a market-predicting AI many years ago based on patterns in the irrational number Pi. The movie Pi is based on him. He is mathematically timing the collapse of Western Hegemony and I like to study timings of all kinds.”
And Jumbo Dubby has ambitions for his show. “Long term, I would like to syndicate “Gold Timers” So very soon I will be adding a few more pieces of flair to the show.” KXCJ already has one DJ who has blazed the path forward. Robert Hirning, a.k.a. The Trainmaster, just received the good news that his show, “Smokin’ Bluegrass” has been syndicated through Pacifica Radio Network. Pacifica is the source for KXCJ’s syndicated programming which supplements their live shows.
Kennedy finished the interview by adding, “I love digging for great songs and I play live hybrid DJ sets with singing and guitar which you can find more about at JumboDubby.com.” Tune in 2-3 pm on Fridays to catch “Gold Timers” by tuning your radio to 105.7 fm or click on “Listen Now” at kxcj.org.