Jazz Deejay Keeps His ‘Hobby’ Honest

Ron Galon has been a local deejay for 16 years, longer than practically anyone else in San Diego, but he still maintains that broadcasting is “just a hobby.”

That’s why he would rather spin traditional jazz records on public or college radio stations than play the hits on more popular commercial stations.

That’s why it doesn’t bother him that in the decade and a half he has been on the air--first on KPBS-FM (89.5), the local public broadcasting affiliate, and then, starting in 1984, on San Diego City College’s KSDS-FM (88.3)--he has made less money than most commercial jocks earn in a single year.

And that’s why he hasn’t minded holding other jobs outside his regular weekly air shifts, just to pay his bills.

“I’m only in broadcasting for the music,” said Galon, 46. “Unlike most deejays, I don’t have to rely on radio for my livelihood, and I certainly don’t need the ego trip.

“As a result, I can be honest with my hobby and play only the music I like, instead of doing something on the air that I’m really not comfortable with.”

In September, Galon’s “hobby” turned into a spot for him as host of the new “Original Jazz Classics” program on KSDS, which airs each Saturday from 6-9 p.m. and features a wealth of early be-bop recordings from the 1940s and ‘50s.

“There’s a big interest in nostalgia all around the country right now, and a lot of record companies are starting to re-release many of the old jazz recordings that haven’t been available for years,” Galon said.

“So we decided to take advantage of that--and of the fact that many of these reissues have been digitally remastered for an even cleaner sound--by building a regular show around them.

“And since a lot of that stuff is straight be-bop, the music I like best anyway, I’m enjoying this more than anything else in radio I can think of.”

Among the recently unearthed be-bop chestnuts Galon regularly plays are:

- “Jazz at Messey Hall” by the Quintet, a live album the late Charlie Mingus personally tape-recorded in Toronto in 1953 while sharing the stage with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, the late Charlie Parker and Bud Powell.

- “Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section,” recorded in 1955 with members of Miles Davis’ “first real great quintet,” Galon said, “and one of the earliest studio meetings between East Coast and West Coast be-bop players.”

- Early recordings by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and the Modern Jazz Quartet (with original drummer Kenny Clarke).

Occasionally, Galon pulls out original pressings that haven’t been reissued from his personal library of more than 3,000 jazz discs, which includes vintage Charlie Parker and Leo Parker extended-plays on the Savoy label.

Between musical selections, Galon is apt to share bits of trivia he has amassed over more than 30 years of studying liner notes and reading jazz magazines like Downbeat and Metronome.

For example: “On the ‘Jazz at Messey Hall’ album, Parker used the alias ‘Charlie Chan’ because he was under contract to a different label; he played the entire show using a plastic alto saxophone he had purchased just hours before from a local music shop, because he had forgotten to bring along his own horn.”

“I’m not into personality radio; if it were up to me, I could just play the music without saying a word,” Galon said. “Besides, jazz listeners are generally very knowledgeable, so you really don’t need to tell them much.

“But you also have to consider that there are a lot of young people out there who don’t have that knowledge, and they want to know something about the records they hear. So I try to be interesting without being repetitive.”

Born and raised in Harlem, Galon was introduced to jazz through his older brother’s record collection. The Navy sent him to San Diego in 1963, and after discovering three local jazz radio stations, he vowed to one day go on the air himself.

Despite his lack of formal broadcast training, Galon landed his first deejay job in 1971, on KPBS, through the federal Model Cities Program.

“I just walked in there with an armload of records and said, ‘I want a job,’ and they gave me one,” he said. “I made a hole for myself, which is what you have to do.”

Galon remained on KPBS, hosting a six-hour Saturday night jazz show, for the next 13 years; his most significant achievement, he said, was pioneering live broadcasts of local jazz performers in 1974, three years before the start of KSDS’s monthly “Jazz Live” series, which is still on the air.

When federal budget cuts led to the cancellation of Galon’s weekly KPBS show in 1984, he switched over to KSDS, which by then was the only jazz station left in San Diego. He has been there ever since, serving as the unofficial spokesman for the local jazz community and befriending hundreds of be-bop players, both national and local, through on-air interviews and countless concert and club-date plugs.

“For a while there, I really didn’t want to be known as the oldest jazz deejay in San Diego,” Galon said, laughing. “But I’m having a good time, and as long as I do, as long as there’s somebody out there who enjoys what I’m playing, why not?”