Today is National DJ Day – I Recognize Raul Campos!
- January 21st, 2018
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The voice of pirate radio in the mid-’90s and a native Angeleno, Raul Campos has come from the underground to represent the eclectic airwaves of KCRW.
From his menagerie of influences, Raul dreamed of becoming a radio broadcaster. His youthful affection for music began with the 8-track and vinyl collection of his Mexican parents and six older siblings. Their musical influences ran the gamut of genres and styles. Before even developing the ability to speak, Raul would regularly babble tunes from the radio using his own made up words. By age eight, Raul was avidly playing the likes of the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer and the Beatles, sprinkled with the rancheras, cumbias and mariachi music of his parents.
His assorted collection expanded as tapes became the format of choice and Raul began to experiment with cutting and “mixing” tapes on a boombox. At the age of 14, he finally put the needle to the record and stepped behind the decks as a DJ. Specializing in house parties, college mayhem, nightclubs and underground events, Raul quickly developed a reputation across Los Angeles.
Laying his urban planning career aside, Raul followed his dream into the world of radio. He established a residency on Power 106FM’s longest running after hours mix show Power Tools, along with Richard Vission and Swedish Egil, cutting his teeth banging out mega-mixes.
But it was in a basement in Santa Monica that Raul would find a home for his motley musical influences at public radio station KCRW 89.9FM. Under the attentive and personal mentorship of renowned Music Director Nic Harcourt, Raul quickly worked his way from volunteer to production and on-air stints.
Embracing KCRW’s devotion to diversity, Raul secured a weekly show, formerly called Nocturna, on weeknights, from 10 PM to midnight. After many years of the night shift, he moved to weekends from 3pm to 6pm in August 2013.
Campos still loves to rock the club and has been billed along with some of the world’s biggest talents, including deadmau5, Kaskade, Moby, Armin Van Buuren, Louie Vega, Paul Van Dyk, and Mark Farina, to name a few. He’s also opened for some of music’s greatest artists, from Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Stevie Wonder and Cafe Tacuba, to Booka Shade, Groove Armada and Lionel Richie. You can catch him in the mix all over town.
Raul also continues his work behind the scenes as a remixer, putting his special spin on tracks by Femi Kuti, Supreme Beings of Leisure, Aterciopelados, and Jill Scott. He has also hosted the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) in New York for the last six years, spinning at Central Park and introducing some of the biggest names in the genre to crowds of thousands in Brooklyn and beyond.
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