Austin Icon Jody Denberg Retiring
• Jody Denberg‘s remarkable four-decade run on Austin radio is sadly coming to a close this Friday, August 2, as he does his final afternoon drive broadcast on non-comm Triple A KUTX 98.9 and heads off into retirement.
“My wife retired in March. I want to be with her,” Denberg said. “I’m going to be 65 the day I retire. I want to get some time in a cooler climate and not have to work. I’ve been on the air five to six times a week for 40 years. I just feel like it’s a good time to bow out at the top. KUTX won all these awards this year. Somehow I won the ‘Best DJ’ award this year — 37 years after I won it the first time — before anyone knew I was retiring. It was sort of like a gift from the heavens.”
Denberg celebrated his 40th Austin radio anniversary in March 2021. As KUTX posted on that date: “March of 1981, Jody Denberg signed on to KLBJ-FM for his first on-air shift in Austin as host of Critic’s Choice, a Sunday ‘alternative’ show that Spoon frontman Britt Daniel credits with turning him onto music he’d never heard growing up. From there Jody spent 20 years at KGSR before joining us here at KUTX in 2010, where he continues to introduce us to new music and mentor the next generation of Austin radio DJs.”
When asked the secret to Denberg’s unique longevity, veteran Triple A programmer/consultant Dennis Constantine said of his longtime friend, “Jody interviewed many great musicians through the years, and always approached everything he did as a music fan first!”
“KUTX is the best job I’ve ever had,” Denberg says. “The place where every single person that’s in a role here excels in that role. And also, the ultimate manifestation of the eclectic dream of playing all kinds of music on the radio. And plus we’ve got a badass building, you know, the studio 1A, it’s just incredible. I’m not here to pump up anybody. This is just my truth about working here.”
Please take the time to read Jeff McCord‘s amazingly in-depth retrospective of Denberg’s phenomenal career, posted here.
