The Oracle of Taste: KCRW Before the Algorithm Apocalypse

When I think of KCRW in its prime, the vintage frequency that turned Southern California’s airwaves into a velvet groove, I’m back in the 90s and early aughts. That was when the DJs, high priests of cool, dropped Zero 7’s “In the Waiting Line”, Groove Armada’s “At the River,” the Sneaker Pimps’ “6 Underground,” and Kaskade’s “The Wink of an Eye” and “Right Dream.” Those weren’t just songs—they were the soundtrack to Los Angeles itself, the city’s languid sigh in stereo. Back then, KCRW wasn’t just a radio station. It was an oracle of taste, an influencer before “influencers” became a plague, before algorithms strangled the mystery out of music and left us with playlists designed by soulless code.