Matt Lacefield played cutting-edge music on a Cincinnati radio station… but it wasn’t 97X. While Dave and Damian were on the air at 97X in the 90s, Matt was a DJ for Nightwaves, which aired overnights on WVXU-FM. So we were kindred spirits… and still are, because Matt loves discovering new music. He’s sharing his latest favorites via his blog/podcast called “The Unfamiliar.” We chat with Matt about his radio days and how he finds and shares the latest and greatest indie tunes.

97X served as a gateway to a life of music discovery for Matt, just as it did for so many other Tri-state teenagers. Here’s an excerpt from Matt’s blog:

My older brother, three years older and close enough in age to be an influence (for better or worse), also played a big role in my music obsession as a teen.  He was tuned in to U2, the Talking Heads, INXS, the Smiths, and so much more.  The walls of his bedroom were lined with racks of cassettes full of bands who were completely foreign to me.  Like the scent of a pie on the windowsill, the sounds coming from down the hall lured me in. I would sneak into his room, borrow cassettes, listen to them when he wasn’t home, and sneak them back. This exposed me to bands like R.E.M., Husker Du, the Minutemen, and the Replacements. In hindsight, this was the beginning of my love of digging for new music.  I had also heard him listening to a radio station that I had never heard of, WOXY – 97X FM, broadcasting from Oxford, Ohio, playing the same music that lined his walls. For me and so many others my age who lived in Southwest Ohio, discovering 97X was like striking gold. It provided a soundtrack to my life until it went off the air in 2010.

From the “About” page of Matt’s blog

Matt’s podcast is called The Unfamiliar, and you can listen to the first episode below.

Here are a couple of shots of Matt’s extensive music collection: