Hey, hey he's a Monkey

Randy Metcalf Arizona Daily Wildcat The Point's newest DJ, Mike "Sketch the Monkey Boy" Ichimura, a former KAMP DJ, goes out on a limb after winning a spot as co-host of The Point's Morning Show with Kathy Rivers.

These days, Mike "Sketch the Monkey Boy" Ichimura doesn't sleep much. Since landing a coveted spot as co-host of The Point's Morning Show with Kathy Rivers, the 26-year-old Communications Sophomore is far too busy keeping up with school and five or six jobs to worry about attaining adequate amounts of REM sleep. Life as a Monkey Boy may have its rewards, but it can be exhausting.

To those who find themselves tuning in to 104.1 FM between 5:30 a.m.- 9 a.m., Monday through Friday, Ichimura's deep, guttural, born-for-radio voice is newly familiar as Sketch, the over-the-top counterpart to the sassy, straight-shooting Rivers. After a widely advertised search, Ichimura was selected as co-host from a pool of nearly 700 applicants hoping to slide into the DJ booth, slip on the headphones and entertain the morning masses.

"I really think what got me the job is that I said I had the original phone number to the Duke Boys," he says.

While possessing such a sacred string of digits may have certainly worked to Ichimura's advantage in the job quest, it's more likely that his uninhibited on-air persona was what convinced The Point brass to offer him a contract and his own space at the microphone. Since he began reporting for daily duty with Rivers, Ichimura has melded Sketch into a character with an inflated sense of his own hipness and no fear of taboos, a combination which playfully mocks pop culture while smashing holes in the myth of alternative cool. Whether he's convincing large groups of people to sing like drunken idiots in a man-on-the street segment, or launching paranoid tirades about Scooby Doo conspiracies, Sketch is an often fumbling, often funny caricature of alterna-teen culture.

"Sketch is kind of like the typical American father thrown into a mosh pit," Ichimura says. "Sketch the Monkey Boy wants to know what's hip but he's always a week behind. He wants to be cool, but he's really the guy knocking over glasses at your party."

For Ichimura, the road the DJ booth was a long one, a fact which makes his voice and face familiar to many an observant campus dweller. His four years in radio began with a gruntish stint at The Edge in Phoenix, and since then, Ichimura has been involved with nearly every broadcasting endeavor in the vicinity of UA. As KAMP's mobile DJ for the past two years, he's the guy lugging heavy amplifiers and chords to every gig on campus. As a founding member of both Two Strong Entertainment and Triad Productions, he's the guy who shows up spinning hip-hop and "alternative" rock in area haunts. He's also the sole inhabitor of the overnight airwaves as sleeptime DJ for KUAT 89.1 FM. So, if Ichimura happens to be in one of your classes, he's likely to be the guy taking a well-deserved nap in the back of the room.

"If you see me around campus, you might see a scowl on my face. Either I have to go the bathroom, or I need to sleep," he says, adding that he considers five hours stolen between classes and work to be a good night of sleep.

Ichimura is determined not to let the spoils of success corrupt his rather unassuming worldview, though he acknowledges that his new position has changed his life in certain areas. He's no longer simply a figure in the underappreciated world of campus radio, but a bona-fide commercial DJ, a fact with quick implications for his social status.

"It's sort of like I've stepped into a new world," he says, somewhat puzzled. "People treat me a lot differently now. When you meet girls and you say you're on the radio, suddenly it's like, 'Oh wow.' I try not to take myself too seriously. This kind of thing can turn you into a dick or a grateful person."

Opting for the latter, Ichimura hopes to continue simply doing what he does best, sketching out on the radio, like a good monkey should.