David Eickhoff

Graduation Year and Major:

1982 and Mechanical Engineering.  

Most DJs were from the Journalism Department.  I may have been the only one from the College of Engineering.  A roommate suggested I become a DJ after he saw my vinyl collection.  I was very passionate about the music from that era (1970s classic rock).  I took the DJ training class in Fall Quarter, 1980, and had a shift each quarter until I graduated.

Position at KCPR:

I was just a regular DJ with a three-hour shift once a week.  DJs were required to produce two public service announcements per quarter (I believe they called them ‘spots’).  The PSAs were played during the music breaks each hour. One of the station managers liked my spots and put me in charge of checking/approving PSAs before they would be played on air.

Favorite part about working for KCPR: 

[My favorite part was] simply putting together a shift with great music and taking requests from listeners. I would occasionally go to the station very late at night and listen to albums, searching for good songs that didn’t receive a lot of airplay (similar to deep tracks on SiriusXM).  It was always a thrill to get calls from listeners who would say ‘great song’ and ask what album it came from.  

Where do you currently work and what do you do?

I am now retired and living in Southeast Texas.  I worked in the oil industry, as a petroleum engineer, after graduating from Cal Poly.  

How did, if at all, KCPR help or prepare you for your career trajectory?

My experience at KCPR did not really assist in my career trajectory since they are completely unrelated. It became an interesting and entertaining bit of trivia that I would pass on to people when the topic of conversation shifted to music.  The roommate who suggested I become a DJ was an acquaintance of Weird Al Yankovic which added to the novelty of the experience.