The platform at the front of the sound stage at the front of WJCT's sound stage was bathed in rotating colors from the lights above. The large curved screen behind it displayed why everyone was there: to celebrate 25 years of "Electro Lounge" and its founder and host, David Luckin. The crowd ranged from listeners in their 20s to seniors, some dressed up, some in business attire and others more casual, a group as eclectic as the music the show plays.
On Sept. 16, Luckin recorded that week's episode of "Electro Lounge" in front of a live audience.
Luckin, a Jacksonville Beach resident since 1983, helped plan the celebration. He said he realized the anniversary was coming while going through a stack of papers at home and finding the date of his first show: November 2001.
"I look at this whole thing in a way that I am so privileged to get to provide alternative entertainment to the community," Luckin said after the event. "Nobody plays what I play."
A journey, not a playlist
Luckin builds each show around a wide mix of jazz, reggae, downtempo electronic and vintage soul, threading it together the way a reporter threads a story. He might open with George Gershwin and Fred Astaire, work through Duke Ellington or Bob Marley, and close with Fleetwood Mac.
"I'm always trying to take people on a journey," he said.
He starts a show in one place and tries to end it somewhere else, often with a deliberate curveball. After an all-electronic hour, he said, he might close with Ruby and the Romantics. Recently, he ended a show with Duke Ellington's "The Mooche," recorded in 1928.
His musical roots go back to childhood. He said the first song he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, around 1965, was "I Hear a Symphony" by the Supremes. Decades later, Supremes member Mary Wilson visited the station and signed his record.
Luckin's path to WJCT started long before he had a show of his own. He began sharing music at age 12, when he bought a Cannonball Adderley record through a mail-order club without knowing who the musician was, and his brothers started calling him "Dave Jazzman." He studied music in college for a while before switching to journalism, a shift he now calls fortunate rather than a compromise.
That combination shaped the two jobs he wanted as a kid: reporter and DJ. He spent about 20 years as a news photographer, working alongside police and at crime scenes, before joining WJCT and landing the radio slot that became "Electro Lounge." He still sees both halves of his career as the same work: telling a story, on the air or behind a camera.
The program began in 2001 as "Night Flight," a one-hour space-music show on Saturdays from 10 to 11 p.m. About a year in, Luckin said, his friend Tony Allegretti told him he had lined up sponsors, and the show expanded to five nights a week under its current name. Allegretti has been part of the program since the beginning and drew its original artwork.
Today, "Electro Lounge" airs Saturdays from 10 p.m. to midnight as part of a block of WJCT music programming.
Why it Matters
Luckin said what stays with him most is that people listen. Some listeners have written to tell him the show helped them through hard times.
"It's not about me being on the radio," he said. "It's about you at home getting some relief."
That relief has taken many forms.
One listener wrote that the show helped her survive the aftermath of leaving a violent marriage. She concluded her comment with, "Thank you so much for your show, and for putting your voice and music choices on the air. In many ways, it's part of what helped me through."
Another listener described discovering the show as a young adult and waiting each night for it to begin, later using an app to track down songs she heard so she could listen to them again on her own time. She said the program introduced her to music from around the world and became a soundtrack during a stressful period of her life, one she now remembers through the songs rather than the difficulty itself.
Other listeners praise the show on its own terms.
One described Luckin as "the fearless captain of The Electro Lounge on 89.9 WJCT, serving as the official arbiter of exquisite, eclectic, soulful, funky, jazzy, electronic, genre-bending coolness. While the rest of us are arguing about what's hot, David is over there introducing us to what we'll be talking about six months from now." The listener added, "In a world that occasionally loses its musical compass, David keeps the needle pointed due north."
A WJCT Family
At the event, WJCT President and CEO Karen Fagan presented Luckin with a framed poster from the night. She said she remembered driving home after her first election night as a station reporter and listening to the show.
"I just thought, what is this cool place where I get to work?" she said.
Fagan said Luckin made mix CDs for everyone at the station and has an eye for talent. She said colleagues have told her he recruited them or encouraged them to try new roles.
"He's really like family to everyone here," she said.
Wayne Hogan, a sponsor of the event, said the program has been "a real service to the community" over the years.
Former colleague Melissa Ross, who now works in Mayor Donna Deegan's administration, presented Luckin with a proclamation from Deegan declaring Sept. 16 Electro Lounge Day.
"There's no one more deserving than you, my friend," Ross told him.
As for what comes next, Luckin said he intends to stay on the air as long as his voice holds up and people keep listening.
"I hope we get a few more years," he said. He plans to stay on the air as long as his voice holds up and people keep listening.
