In this episode:
“Radio…really is a labor of love.”
Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird sit down with Stella of KXLU’s Stray Pop for a conversation spanning nearly five decades of independent radio, punk, and underground music in Los Angeles. Stella traces her beginnings at Loyola Marymount University in 1977 and the launch of Stray Pop in 1980, when playing punk and new wave on KXLU could still get her in trouble. From D. Boon singing an impromptu fundraiser song in the studio to the changing cultural status of music once treated as threatening or disposable, Stella reflects on what it means to remain behind the same microphone while both punk and Los Angeles change around her.
The conversation moves through radio as vocation and “punk rock salvation,” the mainstreaming and commercialization of punk, Janet Cunningham’s punk casting archive, and the musicians, artists, DJs, record stores, clubs, and neighborhoods that formed Stella’s Los Angeles. Along the way, Stella considers what the city has forgotten, how underground culture moves into institutions and everyday life, and why punk remains less a fixed musical genre than an attitude—something she recognizes through a visceral response to music rather than a formula for what it should sound like.
At the center of the episode is Stella’s practice of radio itself: hauling physical music into the station, annotating CDs and playlists, improvising connections live on air, and navigating the increasingly elaborate relationship between analog collections and digital systems. From reel-to-reel tapes and paper playlists to smartphones, streaming, automation, and algorithms, Stella reflects on the labor, accidents, memory, and intuition behind Stray Pop’s “eclectic disarray”—and on what live radio can still offer that an algorithmically generated playlist cannot.
Stella has been part of KXLU 88.9 FM since 1977 and has hosted Stray Pop since February 5, 1980. Her decades in Los Angeles underground music also include work as an L.A. correspondent for ZigZag magazine and as a senior editor at RIP magazine. Drawing on a vast personal collection and archive, Stella continues to broadcast Stray Pop live from KXLU, where her self-described “eclectic disarray” moves across punk and far beyond it.
Recorded September 2026.
Links + References:
Stray Pop
Fridays 11 PM–3 AM (Pacific Time) – LIVE
Mondays 2–6 AM (Pacific Time) – encores from the Stray Pop archives
KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles
Live stream: https://www.KXLU.com
Spinitron playlists: https://spinitron.com/KXLU/show/190234/Stray-Pop
Listen to recent Stray Pop broadcasts:
Recent episodes remain available to stream for two weeks after broadcast. Select a playlist with the speaker icon. Because the show crosses midnight, the first hour appears under Friday’s date and the remaining three hours under Saturday’s date.
Social Media
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stella.kxlu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stella_kxlu/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@stella_kxlu
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/StellaKXLU
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stella_kxlu
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stellakxlu.bsky.social
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Co-hosted and guest produced by Tequila Mockingbird.
Photo Credit: Cathy Metcalf
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, \"Bitch-a-thon,\" Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram: punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
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