First time ever I heard the blues my mother was driving me
through the woods. I was going to see a cool concert, Jefferson
Airplane with The Who coming on first. Both those groups would go on
the next day to play a festival called Woodstock. However, opening the
show for those two bands was a gentleman named B.B. King. A seed had
been planted.
I became involved in radio during college, working on the 10 watt FM
station as a news broadcaster, DJ and program director.
My moment of blues epiphany occurred on a Friday night in August of 1987.
I was trying to find something different on the radio that was not the same
old classic rock or the alternative music of the time. Surfing on the
lower left hand of the FM dial I came across blues playing on this hard to
tune-in station. It was Don O’s show and he came on the air asking for
help on pledge drive the next week. So began my full-scale immersion
into the blues scene in Dallas along with a long relationship with KNON.
I did my first show on KNON in February 1996. As fate
would have it I was filling in on a pledge drive show. At that time
blues programming was only one hour a night on Monday thru Wednesday
evenings with longer hours on Thursday and Friday. During that
February 1996 pledge drive the blues did well financially and shortly after
the current Monday thru Friday, 6 – 8PM block of Texas Blues Radio was
created.
I became host of Wednesday night Texas Blues Radio in
September of 1996. I enjoy doing the show 44 weeks a year. The
other 8 weeks are pledge drive weeks. Just as those weeks are not fun
for you, the listener, they are not fun for the on-air people. But
pledge drive is a necessary evil because paid pledges from our listeners
cover about 80% of KNON’s expenses. S o please, help us out as often as you
can with as much as you can afford.
My interest in blues covers all types of blues music. Every week I
try to play a few pre-war (that’s World War II) songs, a few songs on
recently released CDs, some tunes by artists that will be performing live in
North Texas during the coming week and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Well, this little narrative is starting to approach JMAC lengths so, in
closing, thanks to everyone for listening, thank you for your phone calls,
and thank you to those of you who have paid pledges or who have volunteered
on the phones during pledge drives. It is your support that helps to
keep KNON community radio and Texas Blues Radio on the air!
You can send me e-mail via
.
KNON's Texas Blues Radio
Last Website Update:
Wednesday September 09, 2009
