Complete Control Radio Returns to L.A.

Starting on April 18th at 10:00PM, Los Angeles will have a new reason to turn the radio back on. The Complete Control radio show will be returning to L.A. on Saturday nights now on 98.7 FM.   The show features both new and old-school punk rock music as well as interviews and tons of information on all that is punk.  The show’s creator and host, SideOneDummy Record’s own Joe Sib, was kind enough to chat with us about Complete Control, Indie 103.1 (Complete Control’s first home) and the show’s new home in L.A. on 98.7 FM.

RM64: Can you tell us some of the story behind Complete Control Radio?

JS: Complete Control began almost 5 years ago on Indie 103.1 FM.  Around the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004 I remember people telling me, ‘you’ve got to check out this new station’.  The first time I turned on Indie 103.1 I heard in one sitting Elvis Costello, Black Flag, The Shins and then some local Los Angeles band.  I immediately wanted to find out who was running the station.   At the time I was handling radio here at SideOneDummy, so I tracked down the Program Director, Michael Steele, and we setup a dinner to talk about the new Flogging Molly album.  From that point on Michael and I started becoming friends, and one time he asked me about classic punk rock and what kind of stuff the station should be playing.  Since this is L.A. I immediately listed off a bunch of classic L.A. punk bands, and I ended up making him a playlist of all sorts of stuff like The Germs, The Weirdos,  Bad Religion and Social Distortion.  A few weeks later I was in my car and I heard some of the songs from my playlist, it was awesome. And that was the thing I loved about Michael, he was the first guy in radio at that level who not only took my call, but also actually asked me questions and for my opinion on music.

So Michael and I were talking one night, and I mentioned to him that there should be a show on Indie 103.1 that incorporated everything from old school to new punk rock. Not for it to be a throwback show just really informative, and when you had a punk band coming through L.A. for a show they would do an interview on Indie the night before.  Really it was based on a show I grew up listening to in San Jose in the 80’s called Vinyl Rights, it aired on KFJC and was hosted by Alex Morgan.  It was on Thursday nights and he was amazing, so full of information.  So I based the idea for Complete Control off of that show and pitched it to Michael.  I pitched it with the idea of getting someone else to host it but before I even got to that point, he said I love the idea, I want you to do it, and let’s start next week.

RM64: What was it like doing your very first show?

JS: I went on the air for the first time in May of 2004. Being in a band I’d been interviewed on-air a ton of times in the past, but this was different.  All of a sudden it’s me in a room by myself with a live microphone and Los Angeles listening.  I remember my very first night on the air, the red light was on, I’m stumbling through my intro and the board operator starts mouthing to me, ‘say Indie 103.1’.  It was a little rough, but the show quickly picked up and became really popular.  During those years we had Johnny Ramone’s last interview, everyone from X came on, Youth Brigade, Keith Morris, Greg Hetson, just tons of great guests.

RM64: Now that Complete Control is on 98.7, will you do anything different?

JS: No, not at all.  That was the number one thing I said.  The show that I used to do on Indie 103.1 is the same that I’m going to do over there.   We’re not going to make a watered-down version, and the freedom to do that was one of the main things that made me say okay let’s do it.  I know there will be some people that say ‘how can 98.7 do a show that’s punk rock when during the day they’re playing stuff that’s really pretty far from that?’.  And my answer to that is, at the end of the day commercial radio is commercial radio, but for them to turn over the airwaves to me for two hours every Saturday night, and let me do 100% of what I want to do, play whatever I want, that’s really cool.

RM64: Thanks for talking with us, and congratulations on the new show. We’ll be tuning in on April 18th at 10:00PM!

JS: Right on, thank you.  I’m stoked to be bringing Complete Control back to L.A.!