Jake Rudh talks about taking Transmission to the Current

Meet your new radio jock

​Look at that face -- is that a face that belongs on the radio? Solely, surely not. Before the Current snagged the city's best DJ for a new show named after his popular Transmission dance night, Jake Rudh was out in front of the decks and the dance floor more often than not, and he even graced the cover of our most popular issue of the year a few months back (Best Of, 2011).

Now, every Thursday at 10 p.m. on 89.3, the man responsible for the city's most sophisticated dance night for vintage rock, new wave, electro and Britpop fans can play to an even larger audience.  In anticipation for tonight's show, we checked in with Jake for a minute to gauge what we knew would be out-of-body excitement for such a music lover.

Jake in his Mad Men pose for CP

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Why do you think the Current sent you an email asking you to take Transmission on the air?

I think there are secret Current robots that monitor who listens to this song more than others - and their internal homing devices lead them straight to my inbox. (Just lucky, I guess.)

Name three songs you'd never dream of excluding from your show.

David Bowie. Any song. If there was no Bowie, there would be no show. Joy Division "Transmission," and Generation X "Dancing With Myself" (as this is what I'll be doing in the studio every Thursday night at 10 p.m.).

What was a definitive moment for you where the radio is concerned?  Did you ever want to be on the radio when you were young?

Between playing with Star Wars & G.I. Joe figures, you could generally find me sticking blank cassettes in the boom box recording tunes off the radio and commenting in-between...thank you, WLOL. I had high aspirations as a child, I wanted to be a VJ on MTV. Watching Martha Quinn just be her quirky self made it feel like it was possible.

How many records do you own? What's one title you'd never ever give away or sell?

After almost 20 years in the music business, whether it be stores, labels or radio, I've accrued quite a few titles both on vinyl and disc. We'll just say it's over 100. Narrowing it down to one "desert island" title is always a challenge for me as it changes daily, but today I'll say it's David Bowie "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," and tomorrow it'll be Elvis Costello's "This Year's Model," Saturday it'll be Astrud Gilberto's "Beach Samba" ... you get my point.

Will your show accept requests, interviews, or call-in listeners?  What's the format, if any?

Yes, yes and yes. There are talks of some very exciting interviews to come this year! I encourage all of these things in the future. Just give me a few months to get settled in first. I'll be set up with an MPR email address soon, but listeners can also feel free to send feedback & requests via twitter at @jakerudh or on Facebook. The format of Radio Transmission will be very similar to the club version. Selections from the best of glam, punk, post-punk, new wave, synth pop, Britpop and indie genres.