Katherine Peterson of Radio 1190
One of the local scene's most listened-to tastemakers unpacks the closet
When she’s not spinning tracks by Colorado bands on Radio 1190’s long-running Friday-afternoon show The Local Shakedown, the station's music director, Katherine Peterson, mostly listens to good music. Though, that's not to say that she doesn't have a few sonic skeletons rattling around in her closet. In preparation for the Local Shakedown’s benefit show tonight at the Hi-Dive with local indie bands Bad Luck City, Cowboy Curse, and Overcasters, Decider challenged Peterson to share a few embarrassing (but loved) CDs from her personal collection.
Bee Gees, Bee Gees Gold
Katherine Peterson: I stole this from my dad's record collection, actually. I got it because it has that song "Holiday" on it. I heard "Holiday" for the first time a few years ago, and I loved it. I listened to it on repeat for days in a row, and then I told everyone at the radio station about it. They gave me a lot of shit and laughed at me. And then I saw that [local band] The Denver Gentlemen had covered it on one of their albums, so I think that gave it some more street cred.
Dashboard Confessional, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
KP: This CD got me through all the tough times in high school, when I found out that boys who I liked didn't like me and that kind of thing. I really wanted this CD, but I've always been stingy, so I didn't want to buy it. So I'd request the songs on the radio and then tape them onto a cassette. Then I would have little snippets of Dashboard songs on my tape, and I would just listen to them on repeat in my car. When I finally bought the CD, there was like a whole month where it was the only thing I would listen to while I was walking to school every day.
The Spice Girls, Spice
KP: I just thought The Spice Girls were really empowering and fun to listen to. All the girls at my elementary school would decide which Spice Girl they were the most like, so everyone would have a Spice Girls persona.
Decider: Which Spice Girl were you?
KP: I think I was Posh Spice. Everyone always talked about how Posh Spice never smiled and that was her thing. That's not why I was Posh Spice, though. It was mostly because I had brown hair.
Seal, Seal II
KP: I got this because it has "Kiss From A Rose," the song from Batman Forever. I never actually saw the movie, but I watched the music video over and over, and then I liked the rest of the CD, too. There's a lot of slow dance jams on that album.
D: What did you like so much about the music video?
It was pretty stupid, actually. It's just a bunch of clips from the Batman movie. And then it would show Seal on top of a building with his shirt off, singing. He was wearing like a trench coat or something, so you can see all of his well-defined muscles.
Various Artists, Free Willy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
KP: This one starts out with Michael Jackson doing "Will You Be There," the theme to Free Willy. And then there's New Kids On The Block and this band called Sisters With Voices that sounds like Mariah Carey and TLC. I have it on a cassette tape, and that tape is at home in Fort Collins, so I was listening to it online this morning. It's still so good! I remember when I was 8 my family moved from Oregon to Colorado, and I would only let my dad listen to the Free Willy tape on the whole drive. My dad hated it. I was really little, and I thought it was funny when he would ask me what all these songs had to do with a whale, and I would say, "Nothing!"
