Jennifer Esperanza
After almost 13 years of her daily Radio Café program, iconic local DJ Mary-Charlotte Domandi has hung up her headphones to pursue other projects. It truly is the end of an era, but it's hardly the last we'll hear from Domandi. We caught up with her to see how she's faring after the end of her show and find out what's next for the stalwart Santa Fe celeb.
What was behind your decision to call it quits?
First of all, when we talk about sustainability, it became kind of unsustainable for me. It was more work than one person can do. Thirteen years is a long run, and I felt like I had given a lot to the station and I was happy about that.
How are you feeling now that it's all over?
Well, it's not over. I am already moving on with other projects. I'm working on a sustainable agriculture project which will probably be a 10 or so part series that looks like it will be broadcast on KUNM (author's note: that's 89.9 on your radio dial). I've actually been working on that for some time. I'm going to be broadcasting the Radio Café about once a month on KUNM. The first one will be Friday, July 22 at 8 am. I'd like to take some time off, and I'm going to Ojo Caliente.
Do you think radio still has a future?
Yes. I don't know whether broadcast radio will cease to exist. As long as there are people driving cars to work, there will be radio in one form or another. Like, Netflix does House of Cards; it's never been broadcast television, but it's television. I don't have a date yet, but I'm planning on having a big party to invite the community to celebrate all those years of radio. I just want to celebrate anyone who's ever been on the show. When you do radio, you get to know your audience up to a point, but you're just sitting there with one other person and a lot more people are listening. It's important, sometimes, to have a big public event.
