Student disc jockey, Ben Murray, has been performing in and around the city since 2010. Now the up-and-coming DJ has landed a prime-time radio gig every Friday with the top-40 Memphis station 101.9 Radio Now.
It all started when Murray was asked to play at the downtown club Purple Haze every Friday from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. to help bring in an earlier crowd. While there, Murray befriended the station's staff, and it eventually helped land him what he says is his biggest gig yet.
"The station just got a new program director and I was starting to be around the station's staff more and more. Eventually the director came to the club and heard me spin. He asked me to start deejaying on the radio station every Friday," Murray, a junior management of information systems major, said.
Starting March 7, Murray will begin performing a live show from 5 to 6 p.m. on Fridays, which is the rush-hour-hot-spot in the radio world.
"Ever since I've started deejaying, it has been my dream to be on the radio," Murray said. "It's a big deal because 101.9 doesn't have any local DJs. The station is all syndicated, so it's a big deal to me to be the only local DJ on the station."
However, for the experienced DJ, this is still a challenge. He noted that he has to play and program a 46-minute set, which isn't typical to his usual musical tastes or repertoire.
"I have to play all the Miley Cyrus' and the Biebers'. It's a challenge for me because it's not what I typically listen to," Murray said. "I'm taking the songs that are big across the country and in other markets, like California or New York, and figuring out what's popular and what the listeners want to hear."
Murray also said that he is planning to bring some of his own musical knowledge to the turn-table by playing songs he feels are about "to break" or are "hot" in clubs even though they may not be the station's typical picks.
"They trust my judgment if I know a song is really hot in the clubs and they'll let me play it even if it isn't in the regular song rotation for the station," Murray said. "I just have to be careful about being relevant with their target audience by playing what the listeners want to hear."
Other than selecting songs, Murray's new job consists of making the music flow from beginning to end. He said he bases these transitions on the songs' tempos, keys and structure. He noted the final mix should result in an easy-to-the-ears and flowing final product.
"DJs are important because they are typically the first people to break songs-play it for everybody else to hear," Murray said. "It's how a lot of people hear music for the first time, and, before blogs and music sites, it was the only way people would hear new music for the first time. A DJ that knows how to mix music that you're familiar with in a way you've never heard is really cool to me."
Murray mentioned that the influx of DJs in popular-culture has struck the public with the concept that anyone with the equipment is potentially a DJ. However, he said that this is not the case and as people become savvier to the DJ-culture, the work and style behind it is becoming respectable once again.
"People are getting wiser to why DJs are important," Murray said. "This whole DJ-culture explosion made people think all you have to do is buy a piece of equipment and you turn into a DJ, but now people are starting to figure out what a bad DJ sounds like as opposed to a good one."
Murray has also opened for many notable electronic and hip-hop acts such as 3OH3, rapper Waka Flocka Flame and alt-rock band Boys like Girls. He is also responsible for founding the rave-based Black & Neon event series and competing in the Red Bull DJ Competitions in Memphis and Oxford, Miss.
"This is the biggest thing I've done and I'm super excited for this opportunity, and I'm really excited on where deejaying might take me," Murray said. "It has already taken me to places I never thought I'd go and allowed me to meet people I would have never met otherwise. The best part is this is only the beginning."
