Community radio, close enough to hear people think.
KALXtra moves between record-shop-deep artist interviews and reported segments from the Cal community. The show is warm and unhurried, giving musicians, students, and campus voices room to explain process, pressure, memory, and connection.
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KALXtra is an original-content feed from KALX Berkeley, built from artist interviews, campus reporting, and public-affairs conversations. Its center of gravity is community radio: conversational, local, and comfortable with the pauses and detours that make a real exchange feel alive. The music episodes often begin from close listening. Sergio Rios talks through funk, hardcore, African records, touring, and the appetite to bring heavy Afro punk energy back to Orgon shows. Say She She reflects on musicality, live instrumentation, vocal acrobatics, and a name that nods toward Nile Rodgers without reducing the band to a single influence. Ted Feighan describes shifting from sample-based work toward vocal features and more self-made instrumentation. Charles Moothart considers Fuzz, collaboration, live records, the audience as part of the performance, and the way a set changes in the room. These conversations are not just promo stops. They are about process, taste, friendship, constraint, and the small decisions behind a sound. The campus side of KALXtra has a different shape. Spaced Out looks at third spaces, loneliness, and the places where students might still find casual connection. Berkeley Brainwaves brings Cal stories into focus through topics such as community-engaged research, housing affordability, and legal relief connected to the criminal justice system. Those pieces can be explanatory, but they still keep human voices close. Students define terms, describe pressures, and talk through what public space or affordability feels like in daily life. The show’s range is broad, and that is part of its identity. It can move from vinyl digging to water policy, from disco punk to graduate research, from a club date in San Francisco to the cost of rent near campus. KALXtra is best for listeners who want discovery without the slickness. It offers a living campus-and-music archive, one conversation at a time.
Made for: For listeners who like artist interviews, Berkeley campus stories, and public radio that leaves room for personality and context. It especially suits music fans who care about process, influence, collaboration, and local scenes.
What sets it apart: KALXtra is less a single-host format than a rotating window into KALX Berkeley’s original work. Its mix of deep music conversation and Cal-focused reporting gives it a looser, more lived-in texture than a standard interview feed.
Interviews and other original content from KALX 90.7FM, the radio station of UC Berkeley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
KALXtra turns artist interviews into detailed conversations about influence, arrangement, collaboration, touring, and the changing energy of live performance.
KALXtra lets musicians trace the decisions behind their sound rather than stopping at release-cycle summaries. Meklit discusses arranging from voice-and-drum source material, building parts layer by layer, and working with trusted collaborators.
KALXtra takes you from a funk musician's record shelf to the Berkeley bench you've walked past.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A record-digger's interview that ties funk, hardcore, and Afro-punk into one lived-in conversation.
Sergio Rios makes this KALX conversation feel like a practiced way of listening. He moves from funk learned through records to 80s D.C. hardcore, Metallica, blues, soul, and the wider African diaspora without forcing any of it into a tidy label.
A patient campus-radio look at loneliness, third spaces, and the ordinary places that still make belonging possible.
Spaced Out opens with a plainspoken question about where people go after work or class, then turns that setup into a clear account of loneliness and the search for third spaces, those places outside school, work, and home that still leave room for human connection.
A thoughtful look at live performance, crowd energy, and the work of keeping a band in motion.
Fuzz comes across as a project that can be revisited without the old pressure, and that gives the conversation its core. Charles Moothart describes the band as less active than before, which makes getting back in the room sound enjoyable rather than freighted, and he ties that…
A student-led look at Greek life that moves past the Frat Row joke without losing its edge.
Berkeley Brainwaves uses Piedmont Avenue as a clean entry point into Greek life at Cal, opening with the Frat Row stereotype and then letting student voices complicate it.
A grounded studio interview that turns one album into a wider conversation about arrangement, memory, and cultural meaning.
KALX uses the interview to frame A Piece of Infinity as more than a new release. The artist talks through the title, the record's origin, and the idea that a song can carry cosmology inside a melody.
Classical recordings, patiently brought into focus.
Life and craft on the low end.
Piano lessons, seen from the parent's side of the bench.
On 90.7 FM KALX Berkeley, Sergio Rios of Orgon and other projects sits down for a conversation about where his funk comes from.
Spaced Out opens by asking where people go after work or class, then ties that ordinary question to loneliness and the idea of third spaces.
This episode features an interview with Lisa Garcia-Bodoya, Vice Provost for Graduate Studies at UC Berkeley, discussing the principles and importance of community-engaged research in academia.
This episode features an interview with the band Say She She, discussing their new album 'Cut and Rewind', their musical influences like Nile Rodgers, and their upcoming performance in San Francisco.
This episode humorously explores the extreme measures students take to afford housing near UC Berkeley, highlighting the severe cost of living and housing crisis in the area.
This episode features an interview with musician Ted Feighan discussing his recent EP 'Own It', upcoming full-length vocal features album 'Echoes of Emerald Sands', and his evolving collaborative process in music creation.
This episode features an interview with Professor Colleen Chen about using technology and AI to help people receive legal relief from the criminal justice system through the Paper Prisons Initiative.
Ears of Maze on 90.7 FM KLX Berkeley talks with Charles Muthart of Fuzz ahead of the band’s January 24 show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.
Berkeley Brainwaves heads to Piedmont Avenue and the Greek houses along it.
KALX opens the hour by introducing MacLeet in the studio and centering the conversation on A Piece of Infinity.
This episode features an interview with members of the Kronos Quartet discussing their upcoming performance at the SF Jazz Kronos Festival and the themes of their music, including Terry Riley's work.
Dean Wareham discusses his recent solo album, touring experiences in Europe and upcoming US dates, and his various musical projects including Luna and Dean and Britta.
Pianist Gloria Cheng discusses her new album 'Root Progressions' and her journey from classical training to exploring jazz-inspired music through collaborations with composers like James Newton.
This episode features an interview with musician Christopher Owens discussing his new album, recent sold-out shows in San Francisco, and his experiences returning to the Bay Area.
Emel discusses how her personal practices like making rosemary tea and sharing with neighbors connect to her music's themes of authenticity, empathy, and community.