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This October, Shannon Wiberg, the record selector known to her fellow diggers and music lovers as DJ Action Slacks, celebrates 30 years of hauling her headphones and crates of wax to bars, clubs and wedding venues around the Northwest. And as the milestone approaches, she has been taking stock of her time slugging it out in this still very male-dominated industry and decided that, in addition to marking her achievements, she wanted to prioritize supporting the next generation of female and LGBTQ+ DJs.
“I want to share as much information and skills as I can now that I’m at this point in my career,” Wiberg says.
To set that in motion, she held a skills-sharing workshop this past May at Speck’s Records & Tapes (8216 N Denver Ave., 503-495-3455, speckrecords.com) to help budding DJs (particularly those who want to spin 45s, Wiberg’s format of choice) learn the nuts and bolts of cuing up records, blending tunes, and keeping a set moving forward. What helped nudge Wiberg into this new role as teacher was a message she received from a woman from the Oregon Coast who wanted to be shown the ropes of DJing but could find no one in her hometown to assist.
“I thought, this is a great opportunity for me to do that thing that I’ve always wanted to do,” Wiberg says. “I decided to try to make it a workshop so I could show as many people as possible in a setting that would feel nonjudgmental because so often that is the fear for women specifically—and not just the fear but the actual experience of being treated like you’re an idiot.”
While only a handful of other hopefuls showed up at Speck’s, they all got a great crash course in DJing, starting, as Wiberg says, “with the basics and explaining everything down to the minuscule details. I’m not assuming anyone’s knowledge.”
The first workshop might not have generated the turnout Wiberg was hoping for, but, she says, everyone who took part was excited for the hands-on training, and it was a positive enough experience that she may be booking more workshops in the near future.
“Part of the reason I’m doing this and my Respected LadyLand show,” Wiberg says, referring to her XRAY radio show (xray.fm/shows/respected-ladyland) that highlights a different female artist each week, “is to be a corrective for me because of repeated terrible experiences in the industry. If no one is going to give credit to women and acknowledge women, I will.”
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2025 here!
