Roth, Rhymes with Goth

“My first day back was actually the day after my birthday, October 25,” says Robin Roth. “It was the most wonderful birthday present I could have asked for.” Roth, a local since the age of 15, returned to 91X FM in 2010. She’d worked there before, hosting shows for close to 20 years.

“I got the phone call. You know,” she says, “the phone call where they ask you back.” But as to who it was at 91X who made that call, Roth says, “It’s a secret.”

How has the on-air gig changed from back in the day to now? “The social networking aspect,” she says. “Less people are calling on the phone, and more people are on Facebook and Twitter and emailing requests for music.”

Roth, who lives in Rancho Peñasquitos, was away from the airwaves for a brief time, but she never stopped spinning in clubs. “You name it,” she says. “I’ve deejayed it.” One of her residencies of nearly five years is Club Ascension. “That’s monthly at the Kava Lounge.”

Then, there’s Pussy Galore at the Whistle Stop, for female bands and DJs, though, Roth laughs, “I have had men dress up in drag who have deejayed before, but that hasn’t happened in a long time.”

Roth also hosts and deejays for the goth-industrial Club Sabbat on Saturday nights at the Flame in Hillcrest. Is that whole spook-rock thing making a comeback? She asks if the question is in reference to the popularity of Twilight. No. Then, she says, “I don’t think goth ever went anywhere.” She laughs. “I’ve been a part of that scene, and others, for years. To me, goth never went away.”

Roth turns the interview around and asks what a reporter thinks goth is. Music and fashion, right? “Yeah. That’s what most people think it is,” she says. “Art, music, fashion,” she says. “It’s all of the above.”