Famous Firsts with Brian Garris
Brian Garris
Music Director | ON-AIR
KJJZ-HD2 (ALT 101.5)/Palm Springs, CA
September 1995, KPSL 1010AM Talk Radio in Palm Springs, as an intern/assistant producer for “Palm Springs Life - The Radio Show”
My late father Sidney Garris managed The New Christy Minstrels, as well as The Crusaders featuring Joe Sample, Wilton Felder, and Nesbert “Stix Hooper,” so my first concert was probably around 5 years old in the early 80’s.
The first record I remember buying at the record store was the RUN DMC “Raising Hell” cassette tape. My Mom and I both listened to it together at home as she wanted to ensure it was suitable for my young ears, little “tricky” at times, but overall, she let me “walk this way” with it!
My first interview was with Vinnie Brown, of the Grammy Award winning Hip-Hop group Naughty By Nature. I was helping to produce a local talk show on 1010AM, found out they were at an LA radio station doing press, so I called the station, and asked if Vin could jump on with me after, and he did, he called us in Palm Springs!
OH BOY! Well, I was filling in on the weekends on Power 100.5 in Palm Springs, and my girl-crush stopped by to say Hi. I ran outside quickly to give her a radio station t-shirt, and she planted a huge kiss on me to say thank you! I was so excited that I forgot the door code back into the station, and we were running off CD’s, and carts manually, NOT automation. After multiple attempts, I finally cracked the door code and got back in… after several minutes of dead air!
