Best Aural Quest
'Adventures in Sound,' KOOP 91.7FM
Like his terra-bound contemporaries, sound adventurer Dennis Campa, gentleman crate-digger and noted community radio host, whacks the aural thicket to unearth exciting nuggets of recorded history. But instead of a machete, the tools this easygoing disc jockey uses are in the form of waves. Encountering this old-timey explorer out in the pop-culture wild might elicit queries of "Dr. Demento, I presume?" But Campa dredges up more than mere novelty knock-offs. When he's not culling a theme show exploring topics as broad as 1920s black history, Looney Tunes, all-organ music, and the beat era or as specific as Spike Jones, Mississippi John Hurt, Bessie Smith, or an all-Frank Zappa show, he's spinning live at Vintage Vivant, Swan Dive's monthly trek through the dust bowl via the Jazz Age.
