Document text
DJ leaves us with sound of silence Mail Tribune / Jim Craven KTMT disc jockey Don Mayers, better known as Gemineye, is leaving Medford to take a radio job in Portland. He�s been a fixture on Rogue Valley airwaves and in area dance clubs for nearly a decade. Gemineye brought urban sensibility to Rogue Valley radio By Bill Varble The evening airwaves won�t be the same across the Rogue Valley when popular disc jockey Gemineye leaves for Portland after today�s show. Gemineye, aka Don Mayers, of Medford, has been a fixture on the Southern Oregon music scene for the better part of the last decade, working at radio station KTMT, where he was the key factor in a format change, and at local dance clubs. In the process, the smooth-voiced 31-year-old African American brought the burgeoning dance club culture of bigger cities to what surely would have been more of a backwater without him. Gemineye�s nightly show has been done live, in real time, unlike pre-taped shows that dominate the airwaves. That means he�s in the moment, and working without a net. "The thing is, you don�t have a chance to re-do," explains KTMT disc jockey Ron Scott. Mayers is originally from Beaverton. He came to the Rogue Valley to study communications at then-Southern Oregon State College, from which he graduated in 1993. He worked as a disc jockey at Club 123 (now Ground Zero) in Medford. In 1993 he and Brian O�Connor started a dance party show on KTMT. "They knew it worked in clubs," Mayers says. Before the station became Beat 93 it was Power 93, and more oriented to Top-40 rock tunes. The new format hit right away. "It was kind of the catalyst to the format change to contemporary hit music," Mayers says. When he wasn�t putting a dance party on the air, he was creating them in person for youngsters at VIBES Main 1, a Medford teen nightclub, or Kat Wok, an Ashland restaurant and dance club. Tom Cole, director of VIBES, says crowds were noticeably bigger the nights Gemineye worked. "He packs the house. Unfortunately, we can only get him a couple of times a month," Cole says. "If I could have him every Saturday, I�d always be packed. " Cole says Gemineye brought skills most disc jockeys don�t seem to have. "He has a unique ear for music and the ability to mix a lot of different kinds of music," he says. "He�ll mix something off the wall with something the kids are familiar with. "Many spin records. He puts on a show." Tiffany Thompson-Rodgers, 13, of Ashland, listens to both KISS 107 and Beat 93. "Mostly I listen to Beat 93," she says. "I think he�s a really good dee-jay. I like what he plays. And he�s really good at talking to people on the air." "He�s on the tip of what young people want," Scott says. Mayers plays artists to the younger, hipper side of, say, Janet Jackson. "We play �NSync, newer artists, a little hip-hop," he says. "It fills a niche." For the over-21 crowd, say, at Kat Wok, he plays less edgy music. "It�s a variety," he says. "Maybe some techno." After a decade of DJing, he says the process of picking tunes is pretty much automatic. He tries to not to stick too strictly to a play list. "It�s reading the floor," he says. His new digs, Jammin� 95.5, KXJM in Portland, is owned by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, and Mayers readily says better pay played a part in his choice to move on. "I love it here," he says. "It�s a beautiful, beautiful area. But I�ve filled the niche such a long time. "It�s growing, but it�s not ready to embrace that culture yet." If there�s a downside for the popular Mayers, it�s the sometime burnout factor that goes with heavy schedule. That and learning that, as he says, "You can�t please everybody." He knows he�ll leave a void, although he says there are other disc jockeys he admires, such as Chuck Powell and Azim. Also making it hard: He shares custody of his son, age 5, with the boy�s mother. "He�s the love of my life." He�s been pretty much the only African-American face in his field for some years in a very white neighborhood. "In the beginning, the biggest compliment I�d get from people (new to the area) is, they�d say, �I�m glad you�re here. If you weren�t I�d be homesick,� " he says. "I like to think I�ve paved the way." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA