Today we’d like to introduce you to Cameron Tepper.
Hi Cameron, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hi! My name is DJ Saltnteppa aka DJ Cameron and for the past 3 years, I’ve hosted and produced a community radio program, EXCLAMATION! Fridays 4:30pm-6:00pm for KOOP 91.7, Austin’s Community Radio Station (Radio for People, Not for Profit!). It’s been a dream and an honor to do this for the community! Since I was in high school, I’ve always been a fan of community/college/independent radio where it feels like real people are picking the music they like. (Shoutout KSPC 88.7/KUCR 88.3 for all the early music discovery!). During college, I didn’t have the opportunity to participate in radio because I was working different jobs. It was always a bucket list thing to do for my future.
When I moved to Austin in 2016, I immediately turned the dial to KOOP 91.7 FM. I got into the station like how many people do with The Lounge Show fueling my Saturdays and Jamaican Gold for my Sunday afternoons. Then I found the Emo Diaries, Hip Hop Hooray, Free Samples, Africa Express and The Last Roundup. Their shows opened me to new music genres like Exotica and Rocksteady, Zamrock, and so many new musical discoveries!
During the pandemic, I was craving some sort of outlet and KOOP was there for me. I was drawn to it not only because It’s one of the nations only cooperative radio stations but because local people were doing this for the community. In 2022, I started to get involved with the station and in 2023 I became a certified programmer and submitted my show idea, EXCLAMATION! which is a show that centers around upbeat/high energy music .Really it’s exploring the fringes of pop music where we will dip into New Wave, Alternative, Pop punk, Punk, Indie Rock, Disco, Funk, Soul, international music and everything in between.
It’s been a great experience so far where I’ve had the opportunity to have local bands on the show like J’Cuuzi, Dorio, and TC Superstar, as well as community figures and organizations like the Lone Star Zine Fest, Wheatsville Co-op, South Austin Parakeets (sandlot baseball team), and Poet Sarah Matthes.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Man, doing a radio show with the episodes archived immediately can put some pressure when you’re like me and deal with perfectionism issues. There was definitely a learning curve in hosting a show and balancing your own talking points about the music, as well as running all the technical pieces like the volume leveling, fading between songs, keeping track of time while still being engaged in an interview. There’s a lot to keep track of!
Thankfully there has been a really strong community of people at KOOP to support that learning and development. DJ Nick from Heavenly Pop Hits is a wizard at show production and social media, DJ Hollapino from D00mscrolling gives such a great mindset to approach this work, DJ Freeskate has been a pillar to lean on because we both started at the same time, and then you have the heavy hitters like Jay Robillard and Scott Gardner who’ve been on the air since the station started in 1994.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Another hobby of mine is making collages out of magazine material. It started for me after following Austin Kleon and his approach to creativity as well as learning more about Zine making. For each show, I create a collaged image for my instagram (@exclamation_koop) about the episode. It feels like I’m making a mixtape for my listeners and I love having the visual image to complement the music.
My partner has been such a support in this because she has an art background. It’s been so fun to collaborate on a collage with her. If you ever see a particularly good post, trust she had a big hand in it. It used to be all handmade collages but instagram changed their default layout from a square to a 5:4 ratio. I have no clue how to make that size for different materials so I’ve migrated to digital collages.
How do you think about happiness?
It really brings me joy to support KOOP and the station. It’s community powered and volunteer run. It’s been great to provide some entertainment to the Austin Community as well as bringing on guests who are doing cool thing in the community!
We just had Merlin Tuttle and Melissa Donnelly of the Merlin Tuttle Bat Conservation to talk about Bats and their role in our environment. I learned so much and appreciate the bats under Congress Bridge so much more now!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://koop.org/exclamation
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/exclamation_koop
- Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/Exclamation_koop/
Image Credits
For the collage of the milk bottle and the collage of the guy playing banjo, please add credit to Grace Lawrie for support. For the pink illustration of animals dancing, it was an image commissioned by artist Alabaster Pizzo
