Torey "South Side" Malatia

If you follow This American Life or Sound Opinions, as I do, you can't miss the hosts' de rigeuer gently mocking shout-outs to producer Torey Malatia. I happened to grow up hearing Malatia as a DJ himself, and in an entirely un-humorous context: During the early 1980s he was the voice of KHEP, the classical music station in Phoenix, where I was such a junior-high nerd that I actually taped some of his broadcasts by placing my cassette player on top of my clock radio. I have no idea what Malatia is like to work with, but when I think of him on KHEP, announcing Mozart concerti in dulcet tones to Reagan-era retirees tooling around the desert in air-conditioned towncars, gentle mockery seems only fair.