Courtesy Chris Diestler
Some know Chris Diestler (aka The Mighty D) as a comic book guy. To others, he's Uncle Jesse from Hutton Broadcasting's country station, or the mind behind radio station KBAC's show Toast and Jam. However you know him, he's been a mainstay at Hutton and its stations since … forever. But now he's also KBAC's director of programming, a job he took over after longtime beloved radio genius Ira Gordon called it quits earlier this year. We're Diestler fans, so we called him up.
What brought you to the radio game?
Originally, I moved into the dorms the first day of college [at Washington State University] and realized there was a campus radio station, and I thought that sounded like fun. And I ran over that day or the next day and said, 'Sign me up, I'll work for free!' And they said 'Good, 'cause everyone works for free!' I wasn't in school for broadcasting specifically, but they had an excellent broadcasting program, and I spent all my time doing that as an extra curricular. I probably changed my major, like, five times; graduated with a fine art degree and a double minor in broadcasting and drama.
What would you say is the value of community radio?
There are a lot of things that community radio does that are now doable on the internet and people's phones, but sometimes people just don't wanna deal with that while they're driving, so it becomes something they can tune into to hear what's going on. And sure, there are other ways they can find that out, but radio has this weird immediacy to it. People will sometimes flip out like, 'Ohmygod! there's a band coming in September and I need to get tickets now!' because they heard it on the radio, whereas when they come across it online they maybe don't. In this day and age when we have all the information we want at our fingertips, but we rarely try to call it up. The thing I love about KBAC is that it's kind of the radio format without a format. It's almost freeform, like the old days of radio.
OK then, big boss—what's in the future for KBAC then?
I don't know. I didn't think I would [advance]. … I thought I'd reached the top of the ladder over here, but it turns out I was wrong. I've been doing it for 34 years now, and I've always enjoyed it. As long as I get to play some good records and turn people on to information they can use, I feel like I've done a good job for the day. It's kind of like being the town crier—you're standing there clanging a bell shouting 'Hear ye! Hear ye!'
