DJ Comet and DJ Moon were a natural fit for KSPC 88.7 FM, the station of The Claremont Colleges, which celebrated 68 years on the FM airwaves in February. (KSPC was preceded at Pomona by the AM station KPCR.)
DJ Comet was supposed to be a placeholder name until Anaelle Roc ’24 found another. But the moniker—a play on her last name and love of space—fit perfectly at the station often known as The Space. Pomona classmate Emily Gibbons ’24 christened herself DJ Moon on the same theme.
Roc and Gibbons represent a senior class whose introduction to college came via Zoom during the early months of the pandemic. While remote in 2020, Gibbons worked as a music director at KSPC, reviewing albums and music. Roc became a production director, learning how to edit shows and write promotions and community messages. Once they were on campus as sophomores, KSPC’s secluded headquarters awed them both.
“The Space is a time capsule,” Roc says. “There are posters there from the ’80s, photos there from the ’50s when it became an FM station. I was instantly hooked.
“People ask, ‘Why do radio? Radio is dead,’” Roc says. “We have Spotify, the internet, AI DJs who can find you the perfect song. But people are really attracted to The Space. It’s a beautiful space with all this history. We want to be part of that legacy.”
Gibbons, a philosophy major and host of In the Clouds with DJ Moon, plans to attend law school, with dreams of becoming an attorney for a band or music label.
“I would love to get involved in the radio station of whatever law school I go to if they would have me,” she says.
Roc, a physics major, is so invested in mastering the craft she says she only applied to astrophysics graduate programs with established radio programs either on campus or in the community.
“Live music is something I can’t live without,” the host of cathartic destruction says. “I’m tied on a soul level to radio now.”