105.9 The X midday host Abby Krizner has connected her life to music in multiple ways

WXDX program director and midday host Abby Krizner doesn’t seem to remember a time in her life when music wasn’t an integral part of it, whether she was playing instruments or playing records.

That’s probably not too surprising to those familiar with Krizner’s on-air work hosting and curating alternative rock music for 105.9 The X or her work as a guitarist and vocalist for the new wave centric, heavy pop rock band Tiny Wars.

Growing up in Dunbar Township and then Shaler, Krizner, 39, describes her childhood as “pretty sedentary and it was all music. I was obsessed with Elton John. I was like, ‘I will marry Elton John someday.’ ”

She started playing piano by ear when she was 5 on an upright piano her grandma had in her basement.

“I think she had waited a very, very long time for a family member to finally want to play,” Krizner said. “I could figure out a little bit at a time and then my parents took me to see ‘Cats’ on Broadway and then I learned how to play all these songs from ‘Cats.’ And then they said, ‘you should take lessons.’ ”

By age 7, Krizner was taking lessons but she said it was tough because she didn’t have an interest in reading music.

“I thought what I was making up was closer to what I wanted to hear than what was on the paper,” she said. “So, I found a couple of piano teachers that loved that, they thought that was really cool and would be like, ‘Yeah let’s do rock n’ roll songs and, yeah, let’s do ‘Funeral for a Friend’ by Elton John and let’s rock it out and see what happens.’ ”

And one could say the idea of rocking it out and seeing what happens has pretty much been Krizner’s approach to her life and career ever since.

After encountering a teacher who only wanted her to play classical and was frustrated by Krizner’s lack of desire to read music, she eventually decided to move on from piano. Krizner started playing drums but only kept at it for a short time before she took up the guitar — which proved to be a perfect fit.

“At that point I was fully into classic rock. My dad took me to a KISS concert” — when she was 15 — “and I was like, ‘I’m going to do that now,’ ” Krizner said.

“That” began with her forming a band with her Shaler High School classmates, who performed both original songs and covers, and still reunite for annual jam sessions. Their children, including Krizner’s 7-year-old daughter Edie, have also become friends and enjoy hanging out together while their parents play.

“Our kids playing together is just the sweetest thing that could have happened,” she said. “Watching how much we’ve all grown up as people but also that our kids seem to like each other is just one of the most wholesome things that’s ever happened in my life.”

As Krizner’s interest in making music grew, so did her interest in being on the radio, especially the station a lot of Pittsburgh area kids grew up listening to — WDVE.

“My alarm used to be ‘DVE every morning, even as a kid. I used to laugh at bits and I wanted to make my dad laugh. I was doing it for my parents as like a constantly needing-attention kid,” Krizner said. “I wanted to do the morning show on ’DVE because they used to do voices. I wanted to do voices and I liked the idea of doing comedy bits and doing funny skits and things like that. I loved the comedy aspect of it. I wanted to ham it up.”

But music came first in her life.

“I think the first thing was, if I could just be a musician, that would be amazing. That would fill my cup.”

Before she started college and went into radio, Krizner went on tours to North and South Carolina or a Detroit/Chicago loop with what she called her “punk metal” band.

“But when we would come back, I would get really, really depressed because it was over,” she said. “I would get so bummed when we would be done that I had to figure out some way that if this (band) doesn’t work, that (performing) is still connected to me somehow. It somehow has to be a part of what I’m doing or else I’m just going to be miserable.”

But realizing that didn’t stop her from taking what turned out to be some really bad advice from an advisor while she was majoring in communications at Duquesne University.

“I had a conversation with one of my advisors who really steered me the other way (from radio),” Krizner said. “I think they were trying to spare me. They said ‘radio is an extremely difficult and competitive industry to go into. There’s not a lot of turnover and it’s just not a smart bet. And you seem to be really interested in psychology and that’s a field in which you’re doing well. I think that is a better path.’ ”

It wasn’t.

Krizner changed her major to psychology and made communications a minor. After graduating she became a drug counselor at a methadone clinic for people who are addicted to opiates.

”While I was there, there was no sunlight and it was very difficult work, especially if you’re younger and don’t have the life experience that half your clients have had,” Krizner said. “It just made me completely depressed and all I kept going back to was that I screwed up and I let somebody talk me out of this thing I knew I loved.”

Krizner got back on the path that was right for her and went to graduate school at Duquesne and eventually got her master’s degree in multi-media technology. She received an opportunity to run the student station on campus, WDSR. And especially beneficial to her was the chance to do an internship with WDVE around the time the music director for WXDX, also owned by iHeartMedia Pittsburgh, was leaving — and a weekend air shift was opening up.

Then, Krizner got the best advice she could have hoped for. After recording an audition tape for the on-air job, she was told it wasn’t very good. And why.

“It was me doing an impression of what I thought a male (disc jockey) would sound like on the X,” Krizner said. “I was doing exactly what they do so I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t connecting.”

She met with the person making the hiring decision and pressed for an answer.

“He said ‘The problem is that when you’re in front of me, you’re really bubbly and you’re energetic but when you’re on tape or a CD you don’t sound like you at all. I want people who are themselves and bring some energy to the station.’ Best note I ever got,” she said.

So, Krizner recorded another audition and got hired.

Spend any time around Abby Krizner and it’s easy to understand why someone would want her to be her authentic self.

While conducting an interview on a recent July afternoon after completing her midday shift in the basement studio of the Robinson Township home she shares with Edie, fluffy white cat Theo and her husband Joe, she made her guests feel at home with her bubbly personality. She put on a fresh pot of coffee and sat back, looking comfortable in pink slacks and a black tank top with “Support your local Beautiful Losers” written on the front while sharing jokes and anecdotes.

Now in her 14th year at WXDX, where she has been program director since 2021, Krizner’s leadership has helped make the station fresh, exciting and one of Pittsburgh’s radio success stories.

Meanwhile, she continues to play guitar and sing background vocals with Tiny Wars. The band dropped a new single called “Neubad” on July 14. It’s described as a driving punk anthem and an ode to lead singer Sue Pedrazzi’s hometown in Basel, Switzerland. The release of the single will be accompanied by a video shot in Switzerland. August 18 marks the debut of “Hopeless Place,” another single featuring Perdrazzi and Krizner’s tight harmonies.

“I’m Abby’s biggest fan,” Pedrazzi said. “I have the utmost respect for Abby because she is a person that is constantly wearing 5 billion different hats and somehow finds a way to be a rock star, a mother, a program director, a wife, and a really good friend. She just finds ways to make things work and puts all of her time and passion into things. It’s very inspiring to me how driven she is.”

And for now, Krizner says she has no plans to slow down anytime soon, especially when it comes to her work at WXDX.

“As long as they let me, I can’t imagine doing anything else. This was the dream,” she said.