Becca Jones-Hochmuth hops on a flight with Modern Jetset host, Iris Berkeley for a Q&A. Fasten your seatbelts!
What was your inspiration behind the making of Modern Jetset? How did you come up with the title?
Modern Jetset first went on air at the beginning of 2020 on KVCU Radio 1190 in Boulder, Colorado, where I’m based. It made it through seven whole weekly episodes before the station closed its studios due to COVID … but then found a new home later that summer on Radio Rethink’s internet stream, and went into syndication in 2022! The show now airs on 59 stations around the world, which is a lot of flights … and a lot of fun.
As for the name, that’s sort of a funny story! Originally, it was just a nod to the vibe I wanted to cultivate — fun, funky, a little glamorous, and the sort of mix of new and retro sounds you might hear in the air lounge of your dreams. Music is a great escape, after all! But when we started airing during the pandemic, that seemed more important than ever — so much so that Radio Rethink’s director said, “if you call the show Modern Jetset, you have to make it sound like you’re on a plane, because none of us can fly anywhere fun right now.” Five years later, we’re still on that plane!
What are your top three most listened to genres of music? Are they similar or different than what you play on your show?
This is a tough question, because it’s probably a different answer every week or even every day! Truthfully, though, what ends up on Modern Jetset every week is often what’s at the top of my personal list of new-release favorites, plus whatever deep cuts those new tracks end up reminding me of. The most fun part of assembling the show for me is in connecting the dots between new music and the classic tracks that might have inspired them … everything old is new again, after all, and even genres that didn’t exist in days past still take cues from vintage favorites.
I have a huge soft spot for house music, especially tropical house and disco house, but that might be the only genre that doesn’t make it into Modern Jetset very often — just because the show’s only an hour and it can be a little tough to get there and back musically! Everything else is fair game though — global groove, synthpop, new and roots reggae, post-punk, conscious hip-hop … whatever we can manage to journey through in those 58 minutes every week.
How do you seek the music to play for each show?
Picking out the tracks to play every week can be an adventure in itself! Often, I’ll have some new album or single cross my desk and it’ll immediately be obvious that a particular song will set the direction for the whole show. Sometimes, two or three standout tracks sort of self-assemble as waypoints: How can we get from song A to B to C in a way that makes sense and sounds fun? Or sometimes I just hear something in the local coffee shop and can’t get it out of my head, so it’s my duty to share that earworm with everyone else. It’s different every time.
Are there ever times when you get stuck on what to play? How do you overcome it?
Usually, it’s less about running out of ideas and more about having too many to fit in the time available! It’s a good problem to have, but when I do get stuck, I often look back at the last dozen or so shows — both to make sure I don’t get too repetitive idea-wise, but also to remember what I didn’t have time for two or three weeks ago and see if there might be space in the show I’m currently working on. And, I’ve got a massive playlist of “add these to Modern Jetset” tracks … I just checked and as of today it’s got 2,678 songs! We live in such an amazing time for music.
Be sure to check in to your musical flight with Modern Jetset, Tuesdays at noon and Saturdays at 11:00am on WSDL 90.7