Jim Cagney
Jim Cagney (PJ) Bio:
Born in 1956, I grew up on the north side of Chicago. My father was a Chicago policeman; my mother
taught high school. The grandkids, including my two daughters, called my father Pa. My grandkids call
me PJ, short for “Pa Junior,” which is now also my KAFM radio name.
I didn’t experience the Chicago Blues scene much, having never lived there as an adult, but my
enjoyment of music came early. I was as dedicated to Puff the Magic Dragon as little Jackie Paper.
Using my paper rout money, I’d buy a new 45 from somebody like the Beatles or the Rascals, and wear it
out.
My grandparents had a lakeside cabin in northern Wisconsin, which I still visit. I worked at a gas station
in the northwoods for five summers starting at age 15. One summer (probably 1973) my sister’s
boyfriend left his copy of the Allman Brothers Eat a Peach at the cabin. Soon thereafter, with a
collection of around 250 albums, I was listening to my five or six Allman Brothers records around half the
time. I still regard Eat a Peach, and At Filmore East as the apex of music, and one of the true joys of life.
I graduated from Colorado State in 1978. In my junior year I took a class called Arid Lands Geography,
and participated in a field trip to Canyonlands, which hooked me on the Colorado Plateau. There was a
full moon that week, and the Marshal Tucker Band song about watching the moon hiding in the Desert
Skies stuck in my head for the entire trip. That trip, and that song, eventually resulted in me living in
Grand Junction, and naming my radio show Desert Canyon Music. I play that song on my guitar as much
as any other tune.
I met my wife Kim at a Bureau of Land Management field camp south of Rock Springs Wyoming in the
summer of 1979. Thirty-seven years and six Wyoming and Colorado towns later, we ended my career in
Grand Junction - and stayed here. I fell in with a group of friends who hike the incredible Desert
Canyons around here. One morning in 2015, I told one of the guys I was glad we hiked on Wednesday,
because I enjoyed listening to Billy Joe Lonesome on my way to meet up with the group. He replied
that he was having a beer with Billy Joe Lonesome that very afternoon, and asked me if I wanted to
meet him. Indeed, I did. Mike (Billy Joe) told me that KAFM was always looking for programmers, so I
contacted Coach and have enjoyed being part of KAFM ever since.
Born in 1956, I grew up on the north side of Chicago. My father was a Chicago policeman; my mother
taught high school. The grandkids, including my two daughters, called my father Pa. My grandkids call
me PJ, short for “Pa Junior,” which is now also my KAFM radio name.
I didn’t experience the Chicago Blues scene much, having never lived there as an adult, but my
enjoyment of music came early. I was as dedicated to Puff the Magic Dragon as little Jackie Paper.
Using my paper rout money, I’d buy a new 45 from somebody like the Beatles or the Rascals, and wear it
out.
My grandparents had a lakeside cabin in northern Wisconsin, which I still visit. I worked at a gas station
in the northwoods for five summers starting at age 15. One summer (probably 1973) my sister’s
boyfriend left his copy of the Allman Brothers Eat a Peach at the cabin. Soon thereafter, with a
collection of around 250 albums, I was listening to my five or six Allman Brothers records around half the
time. I still regard Eat a Peach, and At Filmore East as the apex of music, and one of the true joys of life.
I graduated from Colorado State in 1978. In my junior year I took a class called Arid Lands Geography,
and participated in a field trip to Canyonlands, which hooked me on the Colorado Plateau. There was a
full moon that week, and the Marshal Tucker Band song about watching the moon hiding in the Desert
Skies stuck in my head for the entire trip. That trip, and that song, eventually resulted in me living in
Grand Junction, and naming my radio show Desert Canyon Music. I play that song on my guitar as much
as any other tune.
I met my wife Kim at a Bureau of Land Management field camp south of Rock Springs Wyoming in the
summer of 1979. Thirty-seven years and six Wyoming and Colorado towns later, we ended my career in
Grand Junction - and stayed here. I fell in with a group of friends who hike the incredible Desert
Canyons around here. One morning in 2015, I told one of the guys I was glad we hiked on Wednesday,
because I enjoyed listening to Billy Joe Lonesome on my way to meet up with the group. He replied
that he was having a beer with Billy Joe Lonesome that very afternoon, and asked me if I wanted to
meet him. Indeed, I did. Mike (Billy Joe) told me that KAFM was always looking for programmers, so I
contacted Coach and have enjoyed being part of KAFM ever since.
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