When Marquis Munson was 10 or 11 in Southern California, he had a boom box with a built-in microphone. He’d pretend he was a radio DJ — mimicking Los Angeles hip-hop broadcasting legend Big Boy.
The kid with the boom box eventually got on air. But at first, he was mostly broadcasting in the sports world — he arrived in Nashville in 2019 to take a job with ESPN 102.5 The Game. But when the pandemic hit, like a lot of people stuck in isolation, he started thinking about what he wanted out of his work. And the sports radio world didn’t totally fit.
“It was just like, ‘Man, I’m about to be 30 this year, it’s time for change,’ ” says Munson, who had been writing and broadcasting about sports since his senior year at the University of Alabama. “And so I started looking for that change. And I started to reflect on what got me into radio in the first place.”
The answer was music. “That was my first love,” says Munson, now 31.
Around that time, local NPR affiliate WPLN announced it was launching a music discovery station, WNXP, and was hiring. Munson saw it as a “shoot your shot” moment and applied, becoming one of the first hires at the station as the production coordinator.
Munson felt comfortable with part of the job description, like “building the sound” of the station through features and promos. But he was more nervous about the other half of the job: hosting an evening show from 6 to 10 p.m.
He was coming straight from the sports world, and his previous foray into music radio — a hip-hop show he hosted years ago on the Tuscaloosa airwaves — wasn’t the best experience. “That was probably where I was at my fakest,” he says, describing a forced-cool persona he tried to put on while broadcasting. After all, Munson says, he was an awkward kid who liked professional wrestling and comic books and whose favorite rapper for a stretch was Will Smith.
Even Munson’s years in sports radio forced him to adopt a different persona. Sometimes that world, dominated by white men who expected colleagues and athletes alike to “stick to sports,” was even more restraining. For example, that culture stifled discussions about racial injustice when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during games. But at WNXP, Munson says he’s encouraged to be his authentic self.
“Be your natural self, Marquis,” he says, describing the new attitude he adopted. “You’re not that sports guy. You’re not that guy that was on the hip-hop/R&B station, trying to be cool. … Your voice gets high-pitched when you get excited about music! That’s your natural voice, and so be that.”
That said, Munson is most definitely a hip-hop-head with a strong affinity for old-school acts, spinning A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan and Outkast. (Sorry, Outkast counts as old-school now.) He’s also excited about the Nashville rap scene and helping people discover the great acts in their own backyard. Munson says there’s a lot of depth and variety in the scene, mentioning acts like Brian Brown, Reaux Marquez, Namir Blade, Daisha McBride and more. “And all these artists that I just named don’t sound alike — they’re all different sounds. … The scene here is just absolutely amazing.”
He’s also earned props for how varied his tastes are. When Munson was hired, WNXP’s program director Jason Moon Wilkins said, “Marquis may be the most open-minded music fan I’ve ever met.” Sure enough, his evening slot may feature anything from preeminent rap band The Roots and breakout folk performer Allison Russell to Jack White or Run the Jewels. It comes naturally to Munson, who grew up hearing different kinds of music from family and friends. He’d make mix tapes that might go from ’90s hip-hop to classic blues to heavy metal over the course of a burned CD.
“It was just such a weird mix of music,” says Munson, “and that’s what I like to bring to my show: a weird mix of music that everybody can all enjoy and love.”
Munson seems like he’s having a good time, and he loves it when listeners approach him and talk about music he’s been playing. He’s also earned some previous recognition in the Scene, being named the Best New Voice on the Radio in our 2021 Best of Nashville issue.
“Just picture me as that friend you always pass the aux cord to,” says Munson. “I’m just trying to be your friendly neighborhood radio guy.”
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