Posted on March 7, 2009 - by MattSchichter

Life on the Air…

Hey my name is Matt Schichter and I’m a radio host and the Music Director at FUEL 90.3 in Calgary.  I’m on the air Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights from 8pm-1am as well as weekend afternoons from 2-8pm.  I also hosts 16th Ave a local/Canadian indie rock show Sunday nights at 8pm, Live Rock Thursdays at The Brickyard in downtown Calgary and RockStar our $350,000 local band competition.

Fuel 90.3 Host: Matt Schichter

I started in radio to get music out there to the masses.  I realized the bands I was playing in weren’t paying the bills and decided to switch things up.  I wanted to stay in music and figured radio was a good choice and it certainly has been.  I started at a college station in Kitchener, Ontario while attending a Broadcasting program.  I got my own show called The BackStage Pass and started interview bands.  I think I got really lucky because George Stromboulopoulos sat down with me and really gave me insight into interviewing and within the first year of the show Third Eye Blind, 3 Doors Down, Simple Plan, Sam Roberts & BB King all sat down with me for conversations.

A couple of years passed and I got the opportunity to intern in Los Angeles at Indie 103.1. Sadly the station is no longer around, but it was one hell of a learning experience. Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols did the afternoon show; Dave Navarro,  Matt Sorum, Danny Masterson (aka Hyde from That 70s Show), Henry Rollins and other celebrities all had their own shows on the station.  I only had a temporary work visa so the States booted me and I came back to Canada.

I got a job offer in Windsor/Detroit at 89X to do the overnight show on the weekends. So Friday afternoons I would make the 3 hour drive from my hometown of Waterloo to Windsor and record 18 hours of radio and drive back.  My salary barely paid for the gas it would take every week, but I knew it would lead to bigger and better things which it certainly did.

The Program Director at 89X was leaving and moving to Calgary to start up a brand new radio station from the ground up.  I guess he saw something in me cause he asked me to help him put the station together.  It was quite possibly the best learning experience for someone in the business fresh out of college.  To start a station from the ground up taught me everything that I know about radio. For one it didn’t take the 2 months I had expected to get everything ready.  I moved to Calgary in October 2006 and we didn’t launch until March 2007, a full 6 months later!

In the 2 years since FUEL launched I’ve accumulated over 250 interviews with some of your favorite bands, all of which can be streamed here.  I’ve engineered over 100 sessions from bands coming by the studio to record their songs for FREE DOWNLOADS.  I’ve hosted countless events, found love, and am currently working on a TV chat show similar to The Hour.  Not sure when the TV show will be ready for public consumption but it’s definitely in the works.

Here’s an interview with Hawksley Workman that I recently did:

Part 1:

Part 2: