 Bill Wax - XM Radio Interview by Terry " Gatorman" Lape Photo by Marilyn Stringer I met Bill Wax, who is the “Proprietor of Low-Fi's Bar and Pool Hall” in the heart of Bluesville, during my recent trip to Memphis. Memphis is located in the western part of Bluesville and of course Chicago, where I hang my hat, is in the northern part. My good friend Robert Nighthawk Tooms handled the introductions. This meeting occurred while attending a Blues Showcase at the legendary “Rum Boogie” in Memphis. The showcase was held during the past Blues Music Awards. I found Bill Wax to be a real genuine individual. I bugged him for an interview and here it is. Don’t forget to say hello to Bill Wax when you stop in at the bar and pool hall. Enter via the front door marked “XM Radio”. Blues Blast: Why the Blues? Bill Wax: I don’t really think I choose the blues, they choose me. I grew up right outside of Washington DC and had access to great black radio stations…WOL, WOOK in Washington, and WEBB in Baltimore. I was exposed to Soul and R and B very early and although I also dug Rock and Roll, it was the R and B that keep calling me back. I started to check out the artists I heard like Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and others and fell in love with the sound. I used to go to the Howard Theatre in DC when I was in high school and when I saw the music live I was hooked. Blues Blast: Besides the radio do you play any other instrument? Bill Wax: I play discs and records. I never have played an instrument. After all these years, I think that has helped me be a better programmer since I have approached the music as a fan not as a musician and most of the audience are fans so it helps me keep in touch with how the audience responds to the music. Blues Blast: Tell me a little about your radio background. How has it changed since you first started? Bill Wax: Jeez I have been doing radio seriously since 1978. I did a show while in college in 1968 but it was in 1978 when I started volunteering at a community radio station in Columbia, MO., KOPN, and I was hired to be the Program Director in 1979. I have been involved with radio pretty much since then. I was Program Director at KBOO in Portland, OR. from 1983 to 1985 or so. I was the producer for Pacifica Radio at the Iran-Contra Hearings and that evolved into me being the Executive Producer of National Programming for Pacifica Radio which lasted for almost 10 years. During all this time I always had a Blues or R and B radio show on whatever local community radio station was located in the same town I was. I eventually began doing a daily Blues show in Washington DC on WPFW, one hour at lunch time Monday – Friday. It was while I was doing that show that XM Radio heard about me and then heard the show and offered me a position developing and then being the Program Director of Bluesville. I have been with satellite radio since then, now going on 10 years. The changes have been huge. When I started we played records and ran tapes now we play audio files and files from a computer and I have not seen tape or records for 10 years. There was a great deal of creativity in radio when I first started and how it seems that there is a lot of monkey see monkey do, so if someone does something that is popular is it just copied everywhere. There also was room for regional music and radio so that if you drove across the country you would hear different bands and music from region to region, now it all sounds pretty much the same. Programmers had a great deal of freedom to pick their own music and now it is mostly researched to death and dictated to them by a corporate office. Those are a few of things I have seen change in commercial radio and even to some degree in public radio too. Blues Blast: Do you have a radio mentor? Bill Wax: I would say some of the jocks I heard on radio growing up were mentors in the sense I learned something from listening to them…Bob Terry – The Nighthawk, Soul Finger, Mr. C – Carroll Hansen. When I returned to DC in the late 1980’s there were two men doing radio on WPFW, who I continued to learn from – Jerry “The Bama” Washington and Nap “Don’t Forget the Blues” Turner. I use one of Jerry’s ideas on my shows today and call it “The Wash Cycle” since one of Jerry’s nicknames was Wash. It is playing all the versions of single song done by different artists in one set. Honestly whenever I listen to other programmers on the air I am always listening for things I can incorporate into my programming. Blues Blast: What do you like most about your job and of course what do you like the least? Bill Wax: Well there is a lot to love in what I do today. I get to program a 24/7/365 blues radio channel that is heard all over North America. I have so far been given almost complete freedom to choose the music and the feeling for the channel. I have been lucky enough to become friends with musicians like B.B. King and Buddy Guy. Last year I did 40 one hour shows with B. B. and had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him to record the shows at his house. The channel is popular enough that it seems to help the artists out there either by helping sell new music because of our air play or announcing their gigs and helping get folks out to shows. Also because of the digital rights act we are paying real money to artists for their air play on B.B. King’s Bluesville. I have had the opportunity to feature musicians who were known locally or regionally but not nationally and we have helped them become known in other areas of the country. On top of all of this I get paid to be the Program Director and host so I can make a living from doing this. As far as what I dislike- I work long hours usually 7 am to 6 pm five days a week and one day on the weekend for another 4 to 6 hours. I wish I had a staff so we could do more specialty programming. Blues Blast: I ask the following question to help understand the health of the blues. How many listeners listen to your show? Bill Wax: We have somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million listeners to the channel each week. Blues Blast: There has been a lot of talk over the years about the blues dying and some have already buried it, what is your take on that subject? Bill Wax: I think that is just plain bull hockey. The Blues are not dying. They have never been a big profit making industry, so I do not understand why folks think they should be now. I admit it is tough out there being a blues musician or record label but the music is still growing and will continue to do so. If slavery and Jim Crow could not kill the music then the current economic climate won’t either. There are blues musicians older and younger in just about every community here in America and Canada and also throughout the world. They might not make their whole living from playing the blues but they continue to play the music. Blues Blast: This may be a very difficult question for you to answer; do you have a favorite blues artist? Bill Wax: I have artists I love and they are many. Some are current and some have past. If I was stuck alone somewhere I would not want to be without Louis Jordan, Dinah Washington and Buddy and Ella Johnson. Blues Blast: How do you foresee the genre 100 years from now? Bill Wax: Well this is the type of speculation that I am not really good at, but I would guess there will still be acoustic blues and electric blues and they will played on whatever new instruments are dreamed up over the next 100 years. I also would guess that there will still be traditionalist; who will continue to play the blues on the same types of instruments we are using today. I would also guess that there will still be folks debating whether the blues have died or are dying and then others who keep the music growing by playing and appreciating it. Interviewer James "Skyy Dobro" Walker is a noted Blues writer, DJ, Master of Ceremonies, and longtime Blues Blast Magazine contributor. His weekly radio show "Friends of the Blues" can be heard Saturdays 8 pm - Midnight on WKCC 91.1 FM and at www.wkccradio.org in Kankakee, IL. For other reviews and interviews on our website CLICK HERE. | 
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