Last week we celebrated the 30th anniversary of KCRW's flagship show, Morning Becomes Eclectic with interviews with Jason Bentley, Chris Douridas, Nic Harcourt, Anne Litt, Liza Richardson, and we conclude our special with Gary Calamar, the host of KCRW's Sunday night staple, The Open Road.

For those of you who might be watching tee vee at night instead of listening to the radio, you might not know it but you were probably listening to Gary's music choices anyway. As Music Supervisor for such shows as Six Feet Under and Weeds, among others, when you sang along to "Little Boxes" you were doing so because of today's interview subject.

And if you happen to fly on Delta, put your headphones on, ease your seat back, and tune in to Delta Radio where Gary hosts a show way up in the sky.

(Full disclosure, Gary hired this LAister way back in the '80s when Gary was the store manager of the Licorice Pizza record store on Wilshire in West LA. Great job, great boss.)

LAist: Didn't you start at KCRW as a librarian or something?

Gary Calamar: I started as a volunteer in the music library, 3 hours a week, opening mail and refiling cd's. I was advised that I shouldn't be taking this volunteer job with hopes of eventually getting on the air as it is an extremely long shot that it will happen. At the time I also started taking broadcasting classes upstairs at Santa Monica College to surround myself with radio waves.

LAist: So what ended up being your big break that lead you to hosting The Open Road?

Calamar: After a while my hours increased in the music library and I got to know Chris Douridas who was music director and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic at the time. One day he casually mentioned that they were looking for a Saturday-Sunday overnight dj...the very words I had been dreaming of. I (literally) dropped to my knees and begged Chris to give me a shot...and he did. As The Temptations sang "Ain't To Proud To Beg". If there's something you REALLY want, don't rule out begging.

Jason Bentley spends four nights a week in the basement studios of KCRW at Santa Monica College. 20 years ago that was virtually the job description of a DJ, but Jason's one of those DJ that didn't exist 20 years ago. He's as likely to be found talking music on the radio as he is to be spinning to four city block's worth of dancing revelers in downtown Los Angeles.

If you've enjoyed "Metropolis" on KCRW or his Friday midnight show "Afterhours" on KROQ, you know that what he plays is more than just a mindless string of club tracks at 150 BPM. At lot of DJs working in the same genre play sets that are the musical equivalent of a snake eating itself by the tail. You can't tell where it begins and where it ends. You're actually interested when Jason back announces a set.

To hear what Jason plays, tune in to KCRW Monday and Wednesday through Friday, KROQ on Friday midnight or check him out a cool sounding free event at the Music Center called Uptown Underground on September 22 (more details below). To hear what Jason says when he's not playing records, please keep reading.

LAist: How does producing a radio show with a small handful of people and no one watching compare to spinning at something like a live Giant Village event with a large crew and the potential of thousands of eyeballs (and ears) on you?

Bentley: I do feed off of the crowd at a live gig. It's a powerful thing, being in the DJ booth at a club. I love it. Playing in the studio is much different, and hard to compare. I love that too, but it's much more of a controlled environment. In the studio you can explore different moods, while in clubs the DJ is pressed to move the crowd and keep the energy up so there's less of an overall range possible.

They say it's who you know. They also say, you have to be at the right place at the right time. For many KCRW DJs the "who" to know is Chris Douridas and the right place is standing next to him.

A chance meeting at a party with the host of Morning Becomes Eclectic, set Anne Litt down a path that would eventually lead to her hosting "Weekend Becomes Eclectic."

Now the host of "The A-Track" (Saturdays & Sundays, 3pm-5pm), which evolved from WBE, Litt took some time out to answer a few questions during this 30th anniversary week of MBE. She gives us a little bit on quality problems, sailing and world capitals.

LAist: You host The A Track, which evolved from Weekend Becomes Eclectic. How are the two shows different and how are they similar? Also, tell us about how WBE compared to MBE.

Litt: When we initially launched the music channel on KCRW.com, I was on five days a week, so it really didn’t make sense to call it Weekend Becomes Eclectic.

But the content hasn’t changed at all -- I still love to play a mix of the newest tracks and some of my old favorites. I continue to cross genres and find the thread that connects eras and musical styles.

The A-Track takes the same spirit of the eclectic format and tailors it for a weekend audience. It’s probably a little more pop than MBE because people are looking for a different musical experience during afternoons on the weekend than they are at 10am on a Tuesday. Also we have different musical touchstones that inform our shows.

When Chris Douridas moved from Dallas to take over "Morning Becomes Eclectic" at KCRW, his first hire was Liza Richardson. Liza's had a varied career at the station, hosting multiple shows over the years and her musical choices are as varied as her resume.

She currently hosts Saturday night's "The Drop" from 9pm to midnight. She specializes in underground music and limited releases on vinyl.

Continuing our series on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of "Morning Becomes Eclectic," Richardson tells us a few things about passion, switching and the time of day.

LAist: You traffic in vinyl on "The Drop," but recently there's been a lot of talk about the upgrades to the KCRW music library. What effect, if any, will the digitization of the music library change your show? Might you eschew the new system and stick to CDs and vinyl?

Richardson: I’ll just have to take more prep time. It will be a big learning curve, but there will be a lot of good things about it that I’ll just have to get used to. I’ll still play vinyl, but I’ll play it in a digital format, if that makes any sense.

LAist: Speaking of new technology, how has the Internet changed the way you source new music? Do you use sites like MySpace, iTunes or PodShow's music network to find new music and/or do bands find you via those same sites?

Richardson: I use the Internet constantly — no paucity of research at my place every day. I check out taste-making sites such as Other Music, DJhistory.com and Picadilly. I use MySpace, iTunes as a reference (but I don’t buy music on iTunes because it’s copy-protected and my job requires me to share music with clients and directors). I search blogs, Scott Perry’s New Music Tip Sheet, charts, Google, Allmusic, performance society sites, whatever.

People reach out to me on MySpace but it’s impossible to respond to unsolicited music and all the unfiltered junk I get all the time. Good music finds its way to me in more traditional ways – I hear about it from friends, read about it in my research, or it gets sent to my office with a proper presentation, or from someone I have a relationship with, who I trust and they know me and my taste.

Chris Douridas can currently be heard as the host of "New Ground" on KCRW 89.9FM (Saturdays, noon-3pm) and on the online only version of "New Ground" at KCRW.com (Monday-Friday, noon-2pm & 8pm-10pm and Tuesday-Saturday, 4am-6am). From 1990-1998 Douridas hosted "Morning Becomes Ecelctic."

Continuing the celebration of MBE's 30th anniversary, we had a chance to bounce some questions off Chris about MBE, being influential, and new technology.

LAist: By definition, MBE gives a DJ wide latitude as to what they can play. Did you ever find it to be too wide or too narrow?

Douridas: The parameters of the show are defined by our taste. I wouldn't stray beyond those parameters because I wouldn't be true to my own taste

LAist: KCRW and MBE in particular are well known for giving new and unsigned artists their first airplay. Of those who you've debuted, which was your favorite (whether or not they were everyone else's fave)?

Douridas: Beck is the obvious choice for me because he continues to surprise and excite me as an artist. Gilliam Welch was fun because I got her demo from a producer here at the station who worked on "Which Way, LA?" and had gone to school with her.

While public television has a reputation of stuffiness with TV classics like "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Nova" documentaries, public radio, especially here in Los Angeles, is on the cutting edge of music and news reporting. Keeping that edge sharp on the music side is KCRW's (89.9 FM and KCRW.com) morning music show "Morning Becomes Eclectic."

MBE celebrates is 30th anniversary this week. To celebrate, the station is offering special programming today. The three DJs, Tom Schnabel, Chris Douridas and Nic Harcourt, who've hosted the show over the years will offer three hour blocks of music, including live performances and master recordings that look back on their time at the helm of the flagship program. The programs run 9am-6pm, repeating 6pm-3am.

While MBE, along with most all of KCRW's programming is available around the world via the internet these days, it started out as our own little treasure here in Los Angeles (okay, Santa Monica to be specific).

LAist will be passing along our best anniversary wishes to MBE this week by featuring daily interviews with KCRW's DJs Jason Bentley, Gary Calamar, Chris Douridas, Nic Harcourt, Anne Litt and Liza Richardson.

We kick off the series today with KCRW's Music Director and current host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" Nic Harcourt.

LAist: By definition, MBE gives a DJ wide latitude as to what they can play. Did you ever find it to be too wide or too narrow?

Harcourt: Not at all, I play whatever I feel like playing from day to day. I usually have an idea of what the first few songs are going to be, but I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants. There is always the possibility of a train wreck, but I am lucky enough to have a position where I can take chances on air.