Get to Know Your DJ: The Grand Yoni (The IMPACT! Sound)

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;28;28
Unknown
Okay. This is X-ray AFM, and I'm here with the Grand Yoni. Yoni. Tell me what show you represent. I do the impact sound every Saturday afternoon, 1 to 2 p.m.. Playing the best in ska, rocksteady, reggae and all music. Jamaican. One of the many reasons I stayed listening to x Ray was your show. It's absolutely fantastic. You bring so much energy and you are really starting to incorporate a lot of guests on your show now.

00;00;29;01 - 00;00;56;07
Unknown
Yeah, I've, I've really tried to make an effort. This was something that I started before Covid, and now that that we're back in the studio, I'm trying to get it restarted again. Ideally, I would like to never DJ again on the show. I want to. We're blessed with such a great number of deejays who play Jamaican music, whether it's modern dancehall or oldies or roots reggae, and I really want to showcase that.

00;00;56;09 - 00;01;23;01
N
Portland has always had a reputation as being a rock town, and it really overlooks a lot of the other communities that exist here, one of which is the reggae community. We have wonderful bands, wonderful, made up of incredible musicians, incredible deejays, sound systems, and I really want to showcase that as much as possible. And you do it really well, especially because every single Saturday you highlight the calendar for the week.

00;01;23;03 - 00;02;02;06
Y
Yeah. A lot of that credit really all the credit for that goes to D.J. shortchange, who is one of the pillars of this community who runs PDX reggae.com, where all those events are pulled from. And he tirelessly keeps that updated with everything that is going on in the greater Portland area, whether it's something like a Cali roots band, Hawaiian band, whether it is someone who's playing vintage reggae, you know, old stars coming back that we have so many opportunities and really just trying to make everyone aware of this great resource and this great community, that they can be part of it should they choose to.

00;02;02;08 - 00;02;18;01
Unknown
And that peop make it clear that people are, you know, waiting to embrace you out there with this, with this music. Since you started this show, how many years ago you been doing it, by the way, since x ray started. So I it has been ten, 11 years. I don't know where we're counting at this point. Wow.

00;02;18;08 - 00;02;40;27
Unknown
And so have you started to see your your audience, your fan base really increased to encompass and embody some of the different Bipoc communities that the music generally reflects? Yeah, yeah, I mean, Portland, my Portland has always had a very, very fractured scene when it comes to reggae. Like the people who are in Scott bands, rocksteady bands, whatever that.

00;02;41;00 - 00;03;02;24
Unknown
That tends to be a specific social group, right, of people who enjoy live music. Then you'll have, dancehall people who really just want to go have a good time at the dance. And, and then you have you're like your deep religious Rastas and like all these different groups of people who enjoy different aspects of this music.

00;03;02;26 - 00;03;24;26
Unknown
And one of the things we've tried to do is kind of create a space that everyone can come together and enjoy it and enjoy it and create a larger community. Because when it is such a small scene comparatively, like coming together a lot is the only thing that will allow us to make a bigger impact. And over the years it has worked.

00;03;24;26 - 00;03;40;19
Unknown
I mean, it's been written by brick and certainly has not been easy at any point, but I, I can't I can't overestimate how important it is for whatever you're doing. I mean, just show up and do it and do it and do it and with that positive intention and and it will slowly but surely, you know, come to return to you.

00;03;40;19 - 00;04;11;01
Unknown
And, you know, now I see people who I've seen add, you know, reggae on the patio who will be, big dancehall fans, you know, cross-pollinating with people. I'll see it come do the reggae who were like deep, rocksteady and and boss reggae fans and like that, that fills me with so much joy because everyone's like, getting people across these communities to talk and come together is how we're going to build, you know, we're going to build the community that's going to see us through the rest of our lives.

00;04;11;04 - 00;04;32;23
Unknown
Yeah, and especially at times now, irrespective of the reality of our political agendas in this country, I think there's no one that's feeling comfort right now, irrespective. And so I think music is the only thing that really ties music and sport. Yes. Yeah. Oh, maybe divisive I don't know. Yeah. But I think that music is the fundamental thing.

00;04;32;27 - 00;04;52;07
Unknown
The beat that drives us all is our preference for the type of music we love. And I think that's one of the reasons why x ray in general has been so important. The, the community based radio, the landscape really changed when x ray came on. You know, we've had CBU since I was, you know, since before I was born.

00;04;52;07 - 00;05;17;02
Unknown
And I have nothing but love and respect for everyone involved there. Ross. Danny, gave me my break on the radio, and, but x ray has really been, refreshing voice. And now now we have x ray, we have cable, we have freeform. And it's creating more opportunity for people to get these unique voices out there. It's creating opportunity for people to find each other.

00;05;17;05 - 00;05;38;01
Unknown
And it's it's really is creating community if you want it to. You know, every summer we run sound system events over at the park across from Mississippi, records. It's very small, very informal. And people bring blankets. They hang out with their families. You know, Red Fox is right there, and we all just hang out and have a nice time.

00;05;38;01 - 00;05;58;03
Unknown
And it's very much like you're talking about, you know, that summer thing. And we have whether people are playing dub, whether they're playing rocksteady, whether they're, you know, playing hip hop or whatever, you know, soul music, cumbia music. We try to bring all of these people together and try to cross-pollinate all of these, genres because everyone is looking for that community.

00;05;58;03 - 00;06;30;04
Unknown
Everyone wants to hear that, and it creates really special experiences. I've met people who've come to town, they've not known anything. Maybe they they, you know, came from Southern California, where they were very involved in, in the reggae scene. And they come here, they don't know anyone, and they hear this beat. We had a, gentleman who was standing at the edge of the park when, Sonido Dead Steady was playing, and he was in tears and, after he finished, Steven went to talk to him and he came up to me later, told me what was going on in.

00;06;30;04 - 00;06;54;08
Unknown
This man was so touched that he could hear cumbia being played on the streets of Portland that that it just moved him. And that's that's important. We were allowed such, kind of an open playing field to enjoy and indulge in the potential for, reflecting and representing our community musically. Which brings me to the spring drive for 2025.

00;06;54;08 - 00;07;11;08
Unknown
Yes. I'm so glad we got here. We will be we're going to be doing live broadcasts from Ladd's 500. I'm very excited. It was something that we had hoped to do last year, and scheduling didn't quite work out, but, you know, it's going to be beaches. It's going to be me. It's going to be the way we're girls.

00;07;11;08 - 00;07;34;05
Unknown
So club. And I'm so grateful to all of these shows and to, you know, everyone at the station who's helped craft this Saturday afternoon because we have beaches, who has such a unique take on Soul music in general. And then we'll have myself and I'll be bringing on the rest of the Impact Sound deejays who have, their own unique take on all of this.

00;07;34;08 - 00;07;54;28
Unknown
And then, of course, the way we grow. So club, who are probably the preeminent soul club in Portland right now and will be there for three hours and, and will be hopefully raising a lot of money for x ray keeping forward on this mission, expanding the signal and making sure people feel direct ownership over the station is so key.

00;07;55;01 - 00;08;21;00
Unknown
And, doing more live events where we're all they're both promoting this is the promoting the station. And, you know, just directly talking to people I think is so key. It's it can be a very isolating experience. Obviously, doing radio when you're alone in a studio and you're not directly talking to people. So the ground really will you be cycling the plaid 500 as you do your show?

00;08;21;00 - 00;08;42;27
Unknown
Will you be going round the roundabout? Can I have a, can I have a headset? I would like that sounds I would do, I would do that. That sounds fun. You'll hear a lot of deep breathing and gasping for breath, but I, it would, it would, I think, provide a more real experience, you know, reflection of what was going on in the area.

00;08;43;00 - 00;09;03;15
Unknown
I love that. I think that's one of the things I love about community radio is I don't want perfection. I want to hear it's like vinyl. I want to hear the pops and crackles. It's important. We don't always want to hear dead air, but to know that there's a real person doing real things is key to reflecting the truth of community radio and the volunteers that we have that maintain the station.

00;09;03;18 - 00;09;24;29
Unknown
Absolutely. Everyone puts their entire heart on the line every time they step into that studio, every time they go on the air. And it shows every time. I mean, perfection is gross. People don't respond well to it, right? We want to hear the humanity of people. And, I hope that's what we're able to show through the station.

00;09;25;01 - 00;09;46;28
Unknown
I really love that. So just back to Springfield, right. You've obviously been doing many years, ten, 11 years of fun drives. Does it ever get any easier? Do you ever feel like you have hit the kind of you've gone past the marathon wall of this is a tough year, or this is a tough ask? I mean, it's always nerve wracking to watch the numbers go up.

00;09;46;28 - 00;10;09;25
Unknown
I do my best to try to get everyone out there excited, who may be able to help us reach our goal. I try to, you know, do my best to to provide a lot of energy and, joy as we go forward. I do think that that, you know, the pitching gets easier. I will say that, but but I don't think it gets any less nerve wracking.

00;10;09;27 - 00;10;34;16
Unknown
I think one of the key things is, that we really don't expect people to have to provide much money if they're not able to get any money. Is a wonderful donation $5 a month, $10 a month. I mean, you know, and that's an easy ask. And it's an easy pitch, right? A cup of coffee, a month is not is not an unreasonable amount for a station that you can tune into 24 seven.

00;10;34;18 - 00;10;54;00
Unknown
It is that simple. It's almost one time. Donations are great, but we need the consistency of donations throughout the year to be able to start to perform and routine our responses. Yeah. I mean, so much goes into all of this, you know, it is like an iceberg. And what you hear on the radio is the smallest part of it, right?

00;10;54;00 - 00;11;15;00
Unknown
The the number of contributors of monthly recurring contributors is what is the ammunition that, that people at the station can use to go and get larger grants? It shows that the community is growing. It allows us to reach out to people individually and say, hey, you know, we have these events going on. We see that you're engaged in the community.

00;11;15;00 - 00;11;47;10
Unknown
Would you like to come be part of this? Like the we're really are growing a community here. And and you know, community does not come for free. It comes with the effort, both the, you know, the blood, sweat, tears and unfortunately, money of all the people involved, you know, we and it requires this constant care and feeding, if we're going to continue to be able to provide this space for people to come together, do you have any idea of how much you are hoping to raise for your show?

00;11;47;10 - 00;12;10;25
Unknown
Do you have any, minimums or if I could raise $5,000, I could be over the moon. I don't know if that is reasonable, unreasonable, or anywhere in between, but that would be an incredible amount. You know, I think that gets you more than a bumper sticker. Okay. All right. If anyone out there can help me raise $5,000, you can have my bumper sticker.

00;12;10;27 - 00;12;35;21
Unknown
Do you think you'll ever get to a point where you won't have to end your show with smash? The first? In my lifetime? No. But, you know, we, reggae music is a positive music, like we've talked about. You know, we we work and we pray for a better future. And, we are born into the time that we're born.

00;12;35;21 - 00;12;58;17
Unknown
We we do the acts that we can to hopefully provide a better future for our children and other people's children. And the world and, create some positivity, you know, and eventually, eventually. Yes. But today, no. Yoni, thank you so much for talking to me. It's been an absolute pleasure to understand the background and the passion that you have for your show.

00;12;58;18 - 00;13;23;24
Unknown
That's impact sound Saturday is 1 or 2. Every Saturday was still smash in the past and radio is yours. Our fun drive is now in full swing. Please visit X radio FM to provide your vital support and help keep Community Radio alive. An important.