Hell's Kitchen Radio with John Hell

Inspiration comes in many forms, but for tonight it was a pile of vinyl and an old friend. We held a very rare in-person Radio Valencia meeting before my show with 18 members of our staff (35 current shows). One of our staffers, the Alchemist, Saturdays 6-10pm, has been a close friend of mine since we first met when working at Tower Records back in 1989. Yes, that's a longterm frie

It's time for my 14th annual Annual Annual! This is where I choose one year to focus on for two hours. I like to put this out to my music-loving friends before I make a choice. I've covered a couple years from the 90s in the past, including 1991 last year. This time around I'm going with 1994.My memories of 1994, when I was turning 24, are murky at best. In my own life I was single

I take all the responsibility. Blame me. It's OK, I've been blamed before. No need to carry all of this on your shoulders. I took the night off before the election to go see King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and I was not able to share with you how to vote. I know, I know, I'm to blame. Shower me with your insults. What now? How do we carry forward knowing half of our country thi

Well crap, this was bound to happen, right? Everyone dies. When you're a kid and you discover your heroes you think they're going to live forever. You don't want to imagine a day when they won't be around to inspire and excite you.I remember being in my 20s think that some day every member of the Grateful Dead will be dead and gone. That seemed like such a long way off. Jerry Garci

Well Hell, here we go again. There was a time, from the age of about 5 - 30 that I really thought I wanted to be a professional radio DJ. I loved the thought of playing my favorite music for a wide audience. If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, then you loved your local DJ, who you thought was programming their own shows. Silly me. And silly you if you thought they had total autonomy

Some interviews are just that much more special. Monday night was twice as nice. I was honored to have Jack Napier from the Billboard Liberation Front in house to talk about his history of "improving" billboards, laughing all the while. Jack was also kind enough to bring along a representative from the artist activist collective INDECLINE, who are currently celebrating their 24th y

Happy birthday to MEEEEEEEE!It's my birthday, and here I am alone in the studio giving back to YOUUUUUUUUU. And why not? It's a real treat being able to do this every week. Two hours is never enough, and I never come with a plan. I start with a song and go from there. I let the music move me, and since I wasn't focusing on playing anything new tonight, I was digging into my vault t

This is one of those times when I really count my blessings. Everyone has their struggles, so don't let me start getting into my own. Does any of it really matter? No. None of it matters. Holding a grudge does nothing but take the time away from having a really good time. And isn't that what we want: to have a really good time?Why suffer? What does it bring? What have we gained by

I was this close (you'll have to imagine me holding my fingers really close together) to playing only three or four tunes for the entire two hours. And then I realized that's foolish when I brought a whole stack of albums with me. The first hour was only about four tunes though. Hard Bop (I originally wrote that as "Hard Bob" and that would have probably lost me a few listeners...o

You all need an exorcism from streaming services. The withdrawal is worth every drip of sweat and sleepless nights you are bound to experience. Those terrible voices in your head that will keep you up at night reminding you of the next recommended track you are missing when you cut them off cold turkey are going to hurt really bad. The headaches. The night sweats.The terrible desir