Assistant Program Director and Live Music Booker Deidre Gott is the person responsible for booking the diverse array of live music you hear on KUTX every day – from our 300+ live Studio 1A broadcasts, to KUTX Rock The Park, to our annual morning broadcast during SXSW. A longtime fixture in Austin’s music and radio community, she has built her career connecting artists and audiences through booking, curation, programming, and production.
With a background in theater and music, she came to Austin in 2001 as production assistant—and Von Trapp cat herder—for Austin Musical Theater’s The Sound of Music, and soon after, quickly traded theater for radio. She went on to become Music Director and evening DJ at a major Austin Top 40/CHR station, later spending a decade on-air at alternative rock station 101X, where she also booked their local music showcase Homegrown Live and launched Homegrown Radio. Along the way, she slung records at Waterloo Records, co-hosted Now Playing Austin on KOOP Radio, served as music director for an Austin music television outlet, and curated playlists for brands and retail spaces as music designer for Mood Media.
A devoted Dolly Parton fan, Deidre has produced several Dolly tribute nights—including Hot Dolly—featuring 30+ Austin artists and collectively raising more than $22,000 for people experiencing homelessness. That love goes back to her very first professional gig: singing and dancing at Dolly’s theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
What musical experience most set you on the path to a career in radio?
My whole family is musical and it’s always been a big part of my life. Piano, choir, band – I was a total music nerd. When I was old enough to listen to the radio and pick my own music I was obsessed with the oldies station. My friends and I would tape ourselves pretending to be DJ’s when I was a kid.
It wasn’t until I moved to Austin in 2001 that I pursued radio. I stumbled onto a radio remote happening at a club on 6th street and asked the DJ how to get a job in radio. She gave me a card and that was that.
What’s your favorite Austin music experience so far?
The Black Angels in 2006 at the very first Fun Fun Fun Fest. It had been an amazing festival, the sun had set and right at the beginning of “The First Vietnamese War”, a helicopter flew over. It was such perfect timing and sounded like it was part of the song. I just knew I had been a part of something really special and felt lucky to be have that experience.
Why public rather than commercial radio?
I worked 15 years in commercial radio before moving into public radio in 2016. When I first joined KUTX, I kept marveling, “This is what I always hoped radio would be!” There’s a freedom afforded in public radio that commercial radio doesn’t have. We’re not bound by charts and singles or advertising $$ so we can tke chances and really lean into music discovery. It opens us and our listeners up to so many different genres and artists that I’m constantly discovering new stuff I really dig.
How do you spend your time when you’re not spinning records on the air?
Eating bean and cheese tacos.
Finish the sentence: “Austin Music Is ….”
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious