Respect A Legend: DJ Capt. Kirk

Ronnie Matthews, the head of STARFLEET MUSIC Record Pool, has been in the music business for over 41 years with 25 of that in the captain’s Chair of the world’s most prestigious record pool. Ronnie Matthews was the first DJ’s to do the MIXSHOW and was the one that created and coined the “crossover” music genre; being the first to send the Urban sound to Dance Club DJ’s.

How did it all start? Ronnie puts it best himself:

“I was a high performance mechanic working on a customer’s car & asked him what he did for a living. He said he was a mobile DJs, which was back around 1974. I asked what that was & he got me to go with him 1 night where I helped him setup his equipment in a college gymnasium. I watched him as he was play music as a radio DJ would talking to the crowd as he segwayed between songs. I noticed the girls hanging around him throughout the night. At the end of the night I asked him, do you make any money doing this? He said I made $500 tonight, much to my surprise. From that point on I started to travel with him on the weekends then totally leaving the mechanic’s world. We traveled from Virginia Beach to Memphis Tenn., to Lakeland Florida for the next couple of years, till I got my 1st full time club gig, where the party began. Later in the early 80’s the general manager at Camelot Music can to me to see if I’d be he’s 12”, CD-5 & Maxi-Cassette buyer. He frequented my clubs, so he knew I knew about new music. I started doing mix shows back in the late 70’s at an AM radio station, WRPL, then moved onto WPEG, which back at that time was a Disco radio station, now it’s a big time Urban station. After that came WCKZ, then came WNKS where I decided to get out of radio.”

Spinning Vinyl at the clubs under the name DJ Captain Kirk and to the founding of STARFLEET MUSIC record pool, both names he received the blessings on from Gene Roddenberry’s son. “Well, I’m an old Trekkie. I saw the original Star Trek back in the 60’s & I always wanted to be Captain Kirk. Throughout my early DJing career I had not given a thought to having a DJ name/handle, so when one of the radio stations, WCKZ Kiss-102, asked to do their mix shows, the PD asked what my DJ name was, “DING”, the light went off in my head & DJ Captain Kirk was born. I’ve had a ton of fun with that name, plus it helped spawn my company name as well, Starfleet Music Pool. I have all sorts of items given to me from companies associated with Paramount/Universal, even have a drop by Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod Roddenberry, who is in charge of the franchise now, saying thanks to Starfleet Music Pool DJs. You’ve gotta love it.”

With close to 175 THOUSAND registered DJ’s from AROUND THE GLOBE, STARFLEET MUSIC can claim the title of largest Record Pool in the world. From the Days of Vinyl to being the first in the Pools to send the new Digital Music Format MP3 out to his DJ’s, Ronnie Matthews is the Dance Scene Music Trailblazer. Ronnie has met and worked with some of the biggest names in the music biz from Sylvester, Michael Jackson, P Diddy, Taylor Dane, The Village People, Kristine W , Vanilla Ice and Cece Penniston just to name a few and he continues to do so and has a story to go along with all of them. Ronnie is well respected amongst the other record pools, Record Label A&R Reps and recording artist alike.

A more extensive Partial list is right below

Join UP  at  www.starfleetmusic.com   FOLLOW the CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF DJ CAPT. KIRK @StarfleetMusicP

1. Sister Sledge
2. Chic
3. Change
4. Tavares
5. Gap Band
6. George Clinton
7. Parliament/Funkadelics/P-Funk Allstars
8. Bootsy Collins
9. Sly Stone
10. Kris Kross
11. Expose
12. Dazz Band
13. TLC
14. Pretty Poison
15. 2 Live Crew
16. Babyface
17. Sade
18. Al B. Sure
19. Sylvester
20. Kid N Play
21. Hamilton Bohannon
22. The Fatback Band
23. Kenny G.
24. MC Hammer
25. Tony Toni Tone
26. C & C Music Factory
27. K5
28. Adina Howard
29. New Edition
30. Cameo
31. The Bar-Kays
32. Full Force
33. Charlie Daniels Band
34. General Johnson & The Chairman Of The Board
35. Trammps
36. Earth, Wind & Fire
37. The Spinners
38. The Whispers
39. Shalamar
40. Rick James
41. Evelyn Champagne King
42. Linda Clifford
43. The Commodores
44. Rose Royce
45. GQ
46. Heatwave
47. Stephanie Mills
48. Billy Ocean
49. Vanilla Ice
50. Felix & Jarvis