KWVA’s third year DJ and lover of punk, Violet Ashley, known on air as Ms. 45, has been DJing at KWVA Eugene since the fall of her freshman year. 2026 marks the third year of her show “In ‘n’ Out of Grace,” named after the Mudhoney song of the same name.
Ashley grew up in Portland, Oregon, a city with a rich punk scene where she would attend ‘DIY’ punk shows that were entirely organized by artists, and centered community over commercialism. “[They’re] so much more special, I feel like, than regular concerts. So much more intimate,” Ashley said.
She began seeking out punk shows in middle and high school, particularly ones at Speed’s Auto. Not to be confused with the auto body shop a block or so north of the outdoor punk venue underneath the Hawthorne bridge, Speed’s Auto is home to a thriving punk culture with artist organized shows on Friday and Saturday nights – or whenever they feel like performing.
Ashley began dabbling in punk and grunge music around this time and knew she had to see it with her own eyes. “I really wanted to go see this in action,” she said.
While Ashley often finds herself drawn to punk music, she dabbles across the genre spectrum from hardcore and grunge to twee and indie pop, “What I like about my show is that I play all kinds of stuff,” Ashley said.
Ms. 45 never plays the same song twice – or she tries not to at least. When Ashley first started out at the station, she would play all of her favorite tunes.
“But then I ran out of music.”
She now starts fresh each week, carefully reviewing past shows to avoid repeats and creating a new playlist of music she has only discovered in the past week. “It's great because now I'm in the habit of finding music all the time,” Ashley said.
A typical two hours on “In ‘n’ Out of Grace” will take you from Florida emo band, Flowers for Emily, all the way to bedroom indie rockers Frankie Cosmos. Reconciling full throated emo with soft and ‘twinkling’ indie might prove difficult for some, but to Violet Ashley, it’s hardly a challenge.
“I try to make it go from genre to genre because I have a lot of genres in the show, so I try to not make it all choppy,” she said. “In almost all my shows there's some hardcore. There's folk and there's twee and there's punk. I kind of just go by feeling.”
Ms. 45 is stepping away from the booth this fall, but will make her return to “In ‘n’ Out of Grace” early next year. In the meantime, check out some of her old shows on Spintiron.