If you’ve ever flipped a vinyl to the B-side and found a track that changed your life, you already get what DJ Pennylame is all about. Kayla Krueger lives for the deep cuts, the hidden gems, and the songs that deserve to be blasted through the speakers at full volume.

A self-proclaimed history nerd, Beatles devotee, and former campus radio boss, Kayla’s got music running through her veins. With the mission of bringing the gift of music to everyone, she hosts The Road to Nowhere, a freeform classic rock radio show where fuzzed-out psych riffs, underappreciated legends, and local bands collide in the best way possible!

You can tune into The Road to Nowhere every other Sunday 4-6pm!

Q: You have a ton of radio experience, how did you get started?

It’s a long, weird strange story. I think the best way I can put it is I got involved at the campus radio station at University of Oregon. The radio station there’s actually a community radio station too, so it’s not just students but people from the community itself, so it’s a real diverse group of DJs.

I was there for three years, then I became the program director about six months into DJing. So basically I was in charge of hiring and training the new DJs, coordinating programming and then doing my own radio show on top of that!

It was a lot of fun, and I really love and cherish my Eugene music community, but then I felt it was just time for me to move on. My brother lives in San Francisco, and I always heard great things about the vibrant music scene. I moved here, like, mid-July!

Q: So would you say radio’s a huge part of your identity?

A: Yeah, I would say music is. I also play the guitar for GrrlBand, we’re like an all queer, all female band we formed in Eugene when we were all in school together. It’s been amazing and, like, the band’s still active. I’m actually going up to Eugene next weekend to play a show! So I would say holistically, if I had to put it in one big statement: I just love music.

Q: Did you bring your radio show, the Road to Nowhere, over from Oregon?

A: Yeah so it’s been the same radio show for about four years now. When I was in school, it was a weekly two hour radio show, and I'd done 276 episodes...so I had this huge identity crisis when I moved! Luckily, I found BFF.fm honestly just through the internet and talking to other people in the radio space.

I applied to be a DJ and there was about a month before I heard back. This was back in mid-August when I had just moved, too. No matter what way you cut it, moving is really hard, so I was feeling kind of down and hoping I could do my radio show to give me a greater sense of purpose. I was literally talking to a friend and saying that, when they emailed me saying I was in!

Q: Did the artists you play change when you moved to California?

A: The actual genre and type of show I do stayed pretty consistent. I call it classic rock but it’s a lot of psych rock, classic and a lot of early pop too. I mostly always play local music, which has been consistent with both San Francisco and Eugene because there’s a great music scene there as well.

I just get really involved with whatever local scene is happening and you know, support my friends that play too! One of the major things that has changed since joining BFF is that I can play songs with cuss words and we don’t have to follow the FCC guidelines as closely. That’s something I really love from BFF.fm: I really like having full creative freedom over my show. It opened me up to so much more music.

Q: When and how do you decide on a theme for each episode?

A: I don’t talk too much about my personal life in-depth on air but it really does come from whatever I’m feeling in the week leading up to the show. Like when the election happened, we did an angry woman show because I was feeling really angry. I think you just want to play music that will bring some sort of emotion to people. Ultimately, my goal is just to spread the joy and love for music.

Q: Do you have any favorite memories from hosting the show?

A: Yeah, oh my gosh, I have some great memories with my shows, especially the ones where I play records on air. Those are always really fun because I feel every record has a memory tied to it, so it’s kind of like looking through a photo album.

Q: Where did you get the name, Penny Lame, from?

A: Well, I love the Beatles. Their song "Penny Lane" is phenomenal, and I also loved Almost Famous. I just love Penny Lane in that movie, and it was originally gonna be Penny Lane but I just felt like it wasn’t me...eventually the idea just came together. A lot of people still call me Penny Lane, which is also really endearing.

Q: What drew you to SF?

A: It’s mostly just the rich music history from the city. I was like a huge history nerd, ever since high school. That’s when I really discovered the 1960s and 70s, with American counterculture. So I was really passionate about that point in time and the music that came out of it, I wanted to learn as much as I can. That’s the beautiful thing about music too, it’s all cause and effect. I loved learning about how this person influenced this person who later wrote this album...I just love that side of music.

Q: Are there any BFF.fm DJs you want to shout out?

A: I will say BFF.fm is, like, a really great community organization that I truly believe uplifts the entire community as a whole, not just the music community. It's so amazing to be a part of such a wonderful group of people that all care about uplifting our community. And it's really special, especially, you know, being still relatively new to San Francisco, just to like...kind of immediately be thrown into that is such a blessing, you know?

For the DJs, there are so many. DJ Tone Deaf (Toni Edelman) does Eardrum...she’s actually one of my closest friends from UO and we both did college radio together! I think Trevor does a great show. He's just kind of more punk-focused. And Apple does Baydream, she interviews people a lot on air, which is super exciting! And I love Teresa’s Casually Crying, Kerri with DIG!

Q: Do you have a message you’d like to leave to a volunteer that’s considering joining us here at BFF.fm?

Oh, I would say, totally do it. Don’t overthink it, because radio is really not a high-stress field to enter in. You just have to talk and play music that you like. It can be a little intimidating at first, and that’s natural, but you know...those feelings should be welcomed. It just means that you care.

But it truly is one of the most unique creative canvases for any artist because you get to share stuff you like and curate a radio show. You get to support other artists and uplift other people. That’s the number one reason why I do radio because not only do I get the chance to express myself, but also to uplift other artists and spread love and music. It’s a true privilege.

So I would say, if any of that sounds fun to you, then totally do it.

Tune into The Road to Nowhere every other Sunday 4pm-6pm.