Ginger Coyote interviews Bill and DD Thornton Kenny - The Creative Couple behind Deaconlight Virtual Music Bar
Interview by GINGER COYOTE
Bill and DD have been my friends for years. They are such a supportive couple. Check out their “virtual music bar” on Facebook
Punk Globe: Thanks for the interview, Bill. You are bringing Deaconlight back online. Tell us about that.
Deaconlight is my wife DD’s baby. I am just the driver. DD Thornton Kenny got her start on terrestrial radio in 1977 – the same year you launched Punk Globe! DD established what we now know as the Deaconlight Virtual Music Bar on Dec 27 2007 when she was hosting a live internet radio show on weekdays at noon ET. But DD eventually lost her inspiration to do much with it so engagement petered out. There were only about 400 members in Deaconlight when DD got the “call of inspiration” in April 2021 that was the impetus for bringing Deaconlight’s FB presence back to life.
That “inspiration” was Mitch Easter, a revered, top-notch record producer who is also a superb musician and all around cool guy. He formed a band in the 1980s called Let’s Active that released several albums on I.R.S. Records. Mitch told DD a Winston-Salem arts organization called MUSE was organizing a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Let’s Active’s first live gig and asked if she would speak at the event the following November. When Mitch said, “You are super important to everything that happened!, “DD got over her agoraphobic self and said yes. I’ll give you a brief history of Mitch and DD’s connection for context:
Mitch was very active in the North Carolina music scene for about a decade before moving to NYC in the late 1970s, where several other notable NC musicians were living. It was there Mitch got the idea to establish a recording studio, but the cost of doing it right got in the way and he returned to NC in 1980.
“I realized that doing the studio was a lot more of a serious step in NYC than it would be in NC,” Mitch tells Punk Globe. “I still wanted to play in bands, but a studio in NYC would need to make a lot of money, and I didn’t want to be 100% ‘studio.’ In NC I could sort of test the waters without nearly as much financial pressure.” Mitch bought a 3M brand 16-track analog recorder and used his parents’ garage to set up what would become Mitch’s Drive-In Studio, a mecca for new artists wanting to record new sounds. (The next year, Mitch would record R.E.M.’s 45 “Radio Free Europe” b/w “Sitting Still” on that same recorder.)
Upon returning to his hometown, Mitch became a fan of DD’s Deaconlight show on WFDD-FM at Wake Forest University. He was surprised and inspired to hear the modern sounds she was playing outside of NYC and in his hometown. Mitch has cited her show as re-igniting his spark to make music he believed could be played on the radio. He gave DD a reel-to-reel tape of his band The Pre-Fabs, which DD liked a lot. Her audience dug the band, too. There was a Mitch glitch, however. Mitch had no band. The Pre-Fabs were actually Mitch recording himself singing and playing all the instruments – a la Todd Rundgren DIY-style. What Mitch wanted was a real band.
In 1981, Mitch began putting together a band – called Let’s Active – with bassist Faye Hunter and drummer Sara Romweber. That same year, WFDD’s long-time faculty advisor (who had been a Deaconlight DJ in the 1940s-50s) announced he was stepping down from managing the campus station. A new full-time general manager from outside the WFU community was going to be put in charge of WFDD.
As Let’s Active prepared for their first live gig in November 1981 at the 688 Club in Atlanta, the new outsider-in-charge at WFDD proclaimed there were only three types of art in music – classical, folk, and jazz – therefore, there was no place for rock music on WFDD.. The perp killed Deaconlight at the end of 1981 and was booted out within a year of being hired. By the time he left, however, DD had moved Deaconlight to the big local commercial rock station and changed the name to the New Generation Show, so there was no going back to Deaconlight on WFDD.
Even though the name was different, the New Generation Show was essentially Deaconlight. For many music fans, New Gen was an oasis in a wasteland of corporate rock radio and those fans were very vocal to the station’s management about how much they loved it. Meanwhile, Mitch sent DD tapes of Let’s Active songs to play on New Gen. Therefore, even with the demise of Deaconlight, DD was able to help promote Mitch’s “real” band, this time on a much higher level. DD felt it was a great victory that she was able to encourage the radio station’s program director to add Let’s Active’s song “Every Word Means No” to the rock station’s regular rotation.
Which brings us back to the bar:
DD wanted to help promote the Let’s Active event, but she wasn’t particularly engaged in social media at that time. She hoped to breathe enough life back into the old Deaconlight group to drum up publicity, but she wasn’t able to put enough time and creativity into the effort to get much going.
That’s when Julie Joyce got involved and became a game-changer. I’ve known Julie since I managed a record store back in the 1980s and she has always been an ultra-cool music person. Over a period of a few days in July 2021, boatloads of people came on board thanks to Julie.
Julie quickly became our official “Moderator,” which marked the beginning of our staff development. We had to use the term “Moderator” to denote “staff” since FB didn’t give us any other good option. Among our early staff Moderators were author and music journalist Mark Kemp, long-time Detroit scene-ster Meg Geddes, and Scott Marsh. Our newest Moderator is Ryan Sizemore, who plays in the punk band The Camel City Blackouts.
As fun as things were getting, DD was all hung up on the stigma of Deaconlight just being another Facebook “group.” So many people on FB are anti-“group” because there are usually a bunch of rules and snarky people and boring content. DD wanted something different. She began thinking of Deaconlight as a “bar” where people can drop in, pull up a chair, have conversation about music with friends, and make new music friends. It was also important that music artists feel encouraged to promote their music by sharing their videos, doing live performance streams (with a tip jar), and posting their upcoming events in Deaconlight’s events calendar.
After discussions with staff and vintage Deaconlight DJs who were members, it was agreed the community would be renamed “Deaconlight Virtual Music Bar” and usage of the word “group” in reference to it should be avoided. This change coincided with Facebook’s new “public group” policy that allowed non-members to comment. After dealing with a few bad eggs, it was agreed by all DVMB staff that the bar should go private.
Adding to the depth of the bar’s staff has been a more active presence by long-time Admin Paul Ingles, one of DD’s primary inspirations and mentors at WFDD. DD and Paul are the most involved of the original Deaconlight DJs at the bar. In the decades since leaving Wake Forest, Paul has produced an exceptional collection of audio documentaries for public radio, as well as developing and managing Peace Talks Radio for the past couple of decades. Rolling Stone Magazine writer Mikal Gilmore, who has been a guest in Paul’s audio documentaries, has said, “Paul Ingles is a treasure.” Paul has been sharing some of the vast collection of his works at the bar and we hope the bar’s “patrons” will encourage their local public radio stations to carry Paul’s programs, if they are not already.
There are many high-visibility members of DVMB – musicians, journalists, authors, radio people, etc. I’m not going to name-drop or I’d never finish this interview.
Punk Globe: Your lovely other half DD supported the arts with her wonderful Deaconlight radio. Tell the readers about Deaconlight radio.
In 1946, two Wake Forest College students built a radio transmitter in their room at a boarding house near the original campus in Wake Forest, NC. They named their new radio show “Deaconlight Serenade,” a mashup of “Wake Forest Demon Deacons” and Glenn Miller’s song “Moonlight Serenade.” That little transmitter evolved into radio station WFDD with Deaconlight Serenade as its signature music program. Ten years later, Wake Forest moved its campus to Winston-Salem, taking WFDD and Deaconlight Serenade with it. By the end of the 1960s, the show’s name was shortened to Deaconlight.
DD started listening to Deaconlight in the early ’70s. Those shows and their DJs had a profound impact on her musical appreciation and knowledge. She skipped her last year of high school to become a freshman at Wake Forest University, but could not take her first steps to the DJ chair since the required Radio Practicum class was not offered until sophomore year. Students had to audition to get into the class because they were expected to host classical programming in the evenings and on weekends. The station’s faculty advisor expected student announcers to have high professional standards, and for that they were actually paid minimum wage for the shifts they worked, including Deaconlight.
But only a subset of those student announcers were allowed to host Deaconlight. There were just seven Deaconlight slots. Hopeful DJs had to be “approved” by the student staff to be a Deaconlight host. That approval was based on the DJ’s musical knowledge and the “cool factor” of that knowledge.
When DD failed the audition for the class, she was crushed, but not defeated. At the time, radio announcers were required to have an FCC operator license. And not just the little mail-in cards, most people think of. (The FCC dropped that requirement in 1995.) You had to take a long-ass FCC test!. Despite not getting in the class, which also helped students prepare for the test, DD studied on her own. She drove to Norfolk to take the three-hour FCC test, passed it, and was issued her “Radio Telephone Third Class Operator Permit” on Nov 4 1977. A little more than a month later, despite lacking the required Radio Practicum class, DD hosted her first Deaconlight show by herself while students were home for the holidays in December, and eventually worked her way to becoming an “approved” Deaconlight DJ with her own show on Tuesday nights during her sophomore year.
Lucky for me, the FCC eliminated the test requirement for a DJ to get an operator’s permit on Jan 5 1979. When I worked in college radio at Appalachian State University, all I had to do was fill out a form and the FCC sent me a little yellow card.
Deaconlight had a substantial following because the shows were exceptionally well-programmed by their hosts, plus WFDD had a signal of 36,000 watts – higher than a lot of college stations. DD got there at an interesting time in the music world, but it wasn’t until a year or so later that she started catching on to the sea change that was happening musically. In 1978, she acquired a copy of DEVO’s first album “Q. Are We Not Men? A. We are DEVO!,” which she found to be weirdly different from what she had been playing on Deaconlight.
After she played “Jocko Homo” on Deaconlight in October 1978, a wonderful relationship developed between DD, her growing audience, and the new sounds/new wave/new generation of music just beginning to get any airplay in the foothills of NC. Last year she was invited to DEVO singer Mark Mothersbaugh’s private 72nd birthday. Her legacy preceded her. When Mark saw DD outside the bar of his hotel before their show at Pier 17 in NYC that night, he said to her, “It’s so nice to finally meet you!” and the two of them walked to the venue together.
It’s interesting to look at DD’s playlists and see how the music she played evolved from mid-70s album rock to a wide berth of new sounds mixing punk (Ramones), pop (The Cars), Electronic (Gary Numan & Tubeway Army), new wave (The B-52’s), experimental (The Residents), to downright weird (Renaldo & the Loaf). And, oh yeah, let’s not forget Slim Whitman in 1980.
I cannot count the number of people that have told us that DD changed their lives by introducing this huge variety of music they did not know or barely knew existed.
Punk Globe: How are DD and your family doing?
We are all reasonably well. DD had a “bizarre gardening accident” a few weeks ago. She slipped in the mud after fetching a rake while building a dry creek bed/french drain. (She blames me for leaving the rake in a spot where she was likely going to walk.) We felt it was a severe sprain and addressed it with rest, ice, compression and elevation: RICE. I am certified in advanced first aid by the Red Cross. A few days later she had a trip to NYC that caused her ankle more stress than the ankle could deal with and heal properly. She was x-rayed a few days ago and her ankle is broken. I am afraid that she is going to need to be put down.
We have two adult kids, Annecy the Younger, who you met in L.A. a few years ago and Avalon the Elder. Both have been living in NYC for many years. Annecy is very talented as an actor, musician, and comic genius. Their vocal range is more than four octaves – as soft as a snowflake and as loud as an earthquake. In 2014, they were invited to play a feature role as Toto in “The Wizard of Odd” at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre and got raves. Between the time they moved to NYC and the start of the pandemic, their screen roles included parts in Lloyd Kaufmann’s Troma film “Shakespeare’s Shitstorm,” the Netflix series “Tales of the City,” and NBC’s “Manifest.”
After arriving in NYC about eight years ago, Avalon played guitar in several punk bands including Cruiser, Tantrum, and Pearl. Among her music friends when she got there was Paul Collins of The Beat, who you interviewed for Punk Globe a few years ago. Avalon’s fiancé, Stavros, is the lead vocalist in a hardcore band called Matî. Stavros’ family is from Cyprus and all of his lyrics are in Greek. The band kicks ass. Becoming a highly-praised Advanced Placement Art teacher has cut into their band life. To get there, Avalon studied art at Hunter College and was one of only nine students allowed in the MFA program. They were accepted into the Master’s programs at Columbia, Pratt, and New York University. They chose NYU because it had a program that focuses on a “social justice approach to teaching” and graduated summa cum laude (the highest academic distinction). Avalon’s students learn to incorporate their environment, their families, and other pertinent issues into the art they create. But Avalon is still a devout music enthusiast, going to concerts and festivals and finally convincing their mom to give up her one Iron Maiden album.
Punk Globe: Are you still located in North Carolina and how is Burly doing?
We are still in NC for now, although Portugal was looking attractive as an exit plan if it became necessary.
When I received your question about Burley, I attempted to check in with his wife, Crystal. Burley had serious health issues. He passed away last week. There has been a huge output of respect from the Greensboro and area music community. Burley was literally a huge force on the local live music scene. His venue, Somewhere Else Tavern also known as SWET, had been around since the very early ’80’s. Burley closed the doors around four years ago. I knew Burley very well.
Punk Globe: Speaking about Burly, how is the live music scene doing there? I have not heard from Elvis and The Independents. Do you know them?
Mitch Easter coined the term Comboland back in the ’80s to describe the NC music scene. We are located in a convenient spot for bands traveling the Southeast and East Coast. I saw Black Flag in 1981 at a local club called Fridays, a pizza dive that brought in some excellent bands. R.E.M. played there multiple times before they became nationwide. They came back through and played the last night the club was open. There are still multiple music venues and independent music happenings. Although Warped Tour was not limited to NC, it was the big highlight of the summer until its demise. DD and I don’t get out to shows as much as we used to, but we use Deaconlight as a music community sounding board. Bands and artists are encouraged to post their events coming up and any pertinent news they would like to get out.
Punk Globe: You support so many artists, including Punk Globe’s last month cover boy Johnny Hickman from Cracker. What other bands do you support?
There are too many bands and artists that we support to name. DD and I are both wide open to accepting and promoting hard working talented artists who deserve exposure. It’s so much harder for music artists these days because the major record labels for the most part only want to support the lowest common denominators that appeal to the greatest number of people. Streaming services are cheating artists by refusing to give more support to less popular as well as new and growing artists. DD believes these services should take portions of the profits made by the mega-artists and use those funds to help lesser artists develop. It seems most artists these days have to rely primarily on merch sales and touring to make money and are often left to their own devices to promote and distribute their music. Even though DVMB is there to help promote artists, we still need to find ways to reach more people who want to hear new artists while keeping the riff-raff out.
I can’t begin to name all the standouts in our circle. I have given much praise and thoroughly enjoy the Chicago-based band The Handcuffs. They are headed by Chloe Orwell and her husband Brad Elvis, who is also drummer for the Romantics. Their sound has many glam influences. They released their fourth album “Burn the Rails” a year ago and I still can’t get enough of it. Morgan Fisher of Mott the Hoople guests on a couple of songs.
This Twisted Wreckage released their new album “Billions” earlier this month. It’s fantastic, blending in echoes of Depeche Mode, Joy Division, and other influences while still maintaining a sound of their own. The band is Ricky Humphrey and Luke Skyscraper James. DD is particularly excited about this record because she was a big fan of the I.R.S. band Fâshiön in 1980, which featured Luke (known as Lūk on their album “Product Perfect”). U2 opened some shows for Fâshiön back then.
We were very excited to get a message a few weeks ago from Ian Hutchison notifying us that former members of his band Mohanski have reformed under the name Clear Runners. They released a four-song EP that is fabulous. DD will listen to their song “Falling” over and over continuously. Mohanski were a London band that reached out to DD in 2006 with their demo “Doiley.” We dug it and were devastated when they broke up a few years later. Mohanski’s music was a major reason DD agreed to start hosting Deaconlight on internet radio in January 2007 (until May 2013) because she felt she MUST get their songs out on the airwaves. Missing from Clear Runners is Alex Highton, who began an impressive solo career after the demise of Mohanski. DD says she can’t imagine her life without Alex’s voice!
The other artist whose music influenced DD’s return to radio is Jeffrey Dean Foster. He’s been around for decades as a solo artist and as a member of The Carneys, The Pinetops, and most notably, The Right Profile (who DD was playing on the radio in 1986). He is hands down one of the most gifted singer-songwriters with the beautiful voice to match. He’s not a new artist, but he is still essentially relevant.
On a completely different note, I must mention the band I probably listen to the most: the string quartet known as ETHEL. They are smashing all kinds of boundaries on their own and by collaborating with other artists. One of my favorites is their work with Native American flute player Robert Mirabal. Robert creates these amazing flutes, some of which have been displayed at the Smithsonian. It’s impossible for me to describe how magical this combination of ETHEL and Robert Mirabal is – especially live – so I won’t even try. Todd Rundgren has also collaborated and toured with ETHEL several times. In theory it might sound weird to think of Todd backed up by a band of strings, but it really works. Really!
ETHEL created a work called “Documerica” that DD and I were fortunate enough to see live. It’s just trippy as shit. Parts of it are on YouTube, but if anyone reading this finds themselves with the rare opportunity to see it live, GO!
Which brings us to my pal guitarist Johnny Hickman. He has produced a record for the San Diego band Swive. He sent me a couple of tunes last week that are very good. I will definitely be plugging them and posting their music often. (Cracker is playing a few selected venues, including the Cats Cradle near Chapel Hill, so we are looking forward to that.)
I could go on but there are too many bands to name.
Punk Globe: I personally would like to thank you for coming to my rescue after my accident. You got the distress word out and you and DD sent a shitload of medical supplies that you had from DD’s mom. Thank you very much.
You are very welcome. Those medical supplies come in handy and they are all safe and sterile. The important thing to know, however, is that I personally picked out that chocolate for you, Ginger.
Punk Globe: Thanks to The Grossman Burn Center I had a successful operation but the fading of the wound is taking forever. I really do appreciate all the medical supplies and love you and DD sent me.
We are very glad you were able to get great care.
Punk Globe: Give the readers your thoughts on Morrissey?
He is a twat. Next question.
Punk Globe: Any thoughts about Kid Rock and his girlfriend Wanda, an alleged notorious Drag Queen in the south?
I rarely have any thoughts on Kid Rock. He is an opportunistic moron.
Punk Globe: Tell us what the future holds in store for you.
DD and I have been married for 33 years. I hope that part of my future is settled. Music has been an integral part of both of our lives. DD has a fantastic legacy as a DJ who knew the music and bands that she was playing. We will see some shows. We have Cracker on June 9th. We are excited to see and hang with Johnny Hickman. Our spawn live in NYC. We spend much time there. But I’m not sure DD will be truly happy until she can see My Chemical Romance since they have gotten back together.
DD continues to want to do more with the Deaconlight Virtual Music Bar. She has all these ideas – a Saturday Coffee house featuring live streams of new and established artists, playing games, doing polls. I don’t know what is all in her head. The problem is she hasn’t had the time to project-manage DVMB to a point that we can take it to that next level. Our hope is that within the year, the bar will be a place where music fans can predictably find what they want, while still keeping it free and laissez faire. DD prefers to try diplomacy when spats begin to develop rather than kicking people out. So far that’s been working well. We only having one rule:
“Have a good time, all of the time.”- Viv Savage
Another big thing for DD is finding time to resurrect her music website Deaconlight.com. There are thousands of pages hiding behind the home page that need to be reformatted to be mobile-friendly and there are zillions of bad links. Because she so aDD, however, she insists on hand-coding every page. She’s not the fastest cat on the block.
Punk Globe: Do you have any Internet addresses you would like to share with Punk Globe readers?
There are a few ways to reach the “bar.” The traditional FB link is https://facebook.com/groups/deaconlight. But it’s easier to just type in deaconlight.com/bar, which redirects to that page.
Comboland on the Old Grey Whistle Test.
I was at the recording and at the live show.
Mitch Easter
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Easter
Fidelitorium Recordings: https://www.fidelitorium.com/
This website shows photos of Mitch’s beautiful and unique custom-made studio. DD and I took Todd Rundgren there for a tour and to meet Mitch a few years ago.
Paul Ingles
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ingles
Pro page: paulingles.com
Paul Ingles’ Music Archive Showcase: https://exchange.prx.org/series/37798-paul-ingles-music-archive-showcase
Peace Talks Radio: https://www.peacetalksradio.com/
Punk Globe: Describe yourself in 3 words.
Fine Corinthian Leather
Punk Globe: Any last words for Punk Globe readers?
If you’re wondering about our names William Thornton Kenny and DD Thornton Kenny:
DD did not change her last name at the time we got married. About nine years later, I got the idea to change my middle name to Thornton. It was a bonding thing, ya know. And I didn’t have to change my initials because my former middle name started with T. That got DD to thinking about a name change. DD was born Dxxxx Txxxxx Thornton, but was always called Dee Dee, D.D., DeDe, etc. So she decided to throw out the first two names, use her preferred spelling as her first name, her last name as middle name, and my last name as hers. That way we all match since the kids have Thornton as their middle name.
But you can call me Billy Leather. Or fine corinthian leather.