June 6, 2008 17:02

Lou Reed turns radio DJ in New York

He returns to his college roots

Lou Reed has spoken about his decision to take on a radio show in New York, and reveals isn’t the first time he has taken a turn at spinning on air.

The former Velvet Underground legend presents ‘New York Shuffle’ on Sirius satellite radio, and co-hosts with producer Hal Willner. Reed says he always wanted to do a radio show, and learned how to play music listening to radio.

“I've always wanted to do a radio show, and I was talking with Hal Willner about doing the kind of radio show that once was here in New York where the guys played whatever they really liked,” he told New York Magazine. “You know, I did it when I was in college. I liked being a DJ. I think the radio is amazing — I learned to play from the radio. The Sound of the Hound, Magnificent Montague, Alan Freed, people like that.”

And Reed’s play list is an eclectic affair, which will see the New Yorkers air anything from a Moog sampler to Solomon Burke.

“We're just there playing music that we think is really great. I mean, I was just listening to some Theremin music that Moog puts out on a DVD sampler and I've got to play this, it's so astonishingly beautiful. I was listening to another group the other day called the Books that was pretty good. And then Willner played this amazing old Solomon Burke track. Ah, fantastic. Wouldn't it be great if there were like hundreds of people playing it like that, turning you on to some really good shit?”

Reed also said he currently cites Brooklyn as the leader of the music scene in the New York area.

“These days it's more of a Brooklyn sound. It's not out of New York anymore; it's all out of Brooklyn. I go out there to listen to music. A lot of the stuff we played, when we checked out where it came from, it was from Brooklyn.”

‘New York Shuffle’ airs on Sirius’ Disorder channel 70 every Saturday at 6pm ET.

--By our New York staff.
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