Disc jockey settles in where love of city, job intersect

By Jerry Fink

Monday, May 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.

You can hear Duncan Payton during the morning drive, the disc jockey playing modern and alternative rock on KVGS, 107.9-FM (Area 107.9), or you can hear his influence as a programmer of smooth jazz on KOAS, 105.7-FM (The Oasis).

When he’s not busy with this over-the-air stations, he’s busy with another broadcast passion — StudioOut.com, a gay Internet radio station he started two years ago.

“It’s a music-based station,” says Payton, 46. “We combine pop and R&B and old-school dance.”

The station mixes music by mainstream artists (such as Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, Beyonce, Prince, Fergie and Pink) and openly gay artists (Melissa Etheridge, Ari Gold, Indigo Girls, Brian Kent and George Michael).

“This provides us with the opportunity to show that gay artists can stand up against any of these other artists — they just need a place to show it,” Payton says.

Interviews and announcements mix with the music.

“In addition to the music angle, the station gives gays in the community a voice,” says Payton, who has been married to his partner for three years. “It’s a place to unite, a place to come together that is entertaining, thought-provoking and educational. We really try to hit it from all sides.”

StudioOut has affiliates in Las Vegas and Los Angeles — StudioOutVegas.com and StudioOutLA.com.

The streamed stations are not associated with the Riviera Broadcast Group, which owns the mainstream stations that employ Payton.

Music has always been an integral part of Payton’s life.

“I grew up around music. My father played bluegrass and we did festivals in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas when I was growing up,” says Payton, who was born in Tulsa, Okla. “I was exposed to lots of music early on in life — but I went in the other direction. My likes are more in the contemporary world.”

His musical taste runs to pop, R&B, alt rock and jazz.

“I love pretty much everything, but I’m not a huge old-school country fan. I like the new stuff,” he says. “Basically I love music and I love people, and radio is a great common ground for those two things.”

When he was a child, he would seclude himself in his bedroom and pretend to be a DJ.

“I set up an old cassette recorder in my bedroom and had a lot of fun with it,” he says. “I knew that I wanted to be in radio at an early age.”

While he was in high school, he was the DJ at a Tulsa roller skating rink.

“At the same time, I was doing radio work. I cut my broadcast teeth on the radio in Tulsa,” he says. “I always say Tulsa is a good place to be from. I’m not sure I could live there now that I’ve been on the West Coast as long as I have.”

He moved to the West Coast in 1988 and worked for several stations in Los Angeles before moving to Las Vegas for the first time in 1998. He worked for KMZQ, 100.5-FM. (The Henderson station has since changed its call letters and format and now is KKJJ “Jack FM.”)

Payton moved to San Diego in 2002 but returned to Vegas in July 2007.

“I’ve been picky about where I wanted to live,” Payton says. “That’s probably the one thing about my career — I sometimes think I might have gotten places a lot quicker if I had taken advantage of opportunities that were out there but that were not in places where I wanted to live.

“I wanted to have a great career and enjoy where I was living at the time. Every market I picked was largely about the city. But there were also great radio opportunities at the same time. I’ve been blessed in some great markets. Obviously I love Vegas or I wouldn’t have come back here.”