Hello,
I host two programs on WQLN FM, Erie, PA, 91.3 FM. The first is called
"Bop 'n The Blues" and it airs on Friday nights between 8 and 10. The
second is "Jazz Ballads & Blues" and it airs on Sunday nights between 7
and 9.
WQLN is a 35,000 watt public radio, non-commercial station that serves
portions of northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania, southwest New York,
and southern Canada and that streams to the world on the internet at
www.wqln.org.
Bop 'n The Blues first aired on WQLN on May 19, 1995. Since then, every
Friday night, the show has boarded the listener on the mythical Blue
Train for a two-hour ride along the big-city boulevards and the
back-country roads of the blues. Along the way, you'll hear the raw
backwoods blues of Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, and John Lee Hooker
contrasted with the polished urban sounds of LeRoy Carr, BB King, Stevie
Ray Vaughan, and Robert Cray.
Our Blue Train also tracks gospel, rockabilly, doo wop, blues-based
jazz, swing, and even some plain old rock and roll from folks like Little
Richard, Fats Domino, and Elvis Presley.
Cut to the basics--and completely contrary to your preconceptions of
the blues--the show features joyous, danceable music to fuel your TGIF
party.
Sunday night's survey of modern mainstream jazz, "Jazz Ballads & Blues,"
spotlights great instrumentalists like Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, and
Horace Silver, and great vocalists like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald,
and the Four Freshmen. Every week, those great artists, and many more,
including jazz's newest stars, play and sing everything from jazz
classics and Broadway and Tin Pan Alley ballads to the twelve bar blues.
Here is some information about me:
I've been an attorney for 36 years. I'm from Erie, and I moved back
here in 1972 after attending law school in Washington DC and working for
several years at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Shortly
after moving back to Erie, I became an assistant District Attorney for
Erie County and served as such for several years before becoming a
full-time private law-practitioner.
Josie and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on November 7th.
We
have no children.
When my program started, and over the years since then, Josie made for
me a bunch of delightful promos for the show based upon our real life
experiences (her fascination with bingo; the confusion over the name of
my show--Was it "Bop 'n The Blues" or, as many thought, "Bob and The
Blues"?; Josie's order to me to "come straight home" after the show;
etc.). Anyway, I haven't been running those promos much lately because I
have been concentrating on running the promos for all the other jazz and
blues shows on WQLN, which shows deserve much greater notoriety.
Besides her promos, Josie's help to me and WQLN comes from her
willingness to participate, on my show, in every membership drive that
we've had since my program began. She has an exceptional radio voice and
a great conversational style that I wish that I had. Consequently, our
fund-raising success on "Bop 'n The Blues" is due in great part to her
efforts.
I put together my show on a weekly basis by myself. The format for the
show is mine, for better or for worse. I'm sure Josie has her own
opinions about the music I choose and about the format of my show, but
she's too busy (she's President of a local title insurance company) to
more than occasionally make her views known.
In the early 1980's, I began hosting a jazz program on WQLN called "All
That Jazz" on Friday nights at 8pm (my current day and time) pursuant to
a request from Paul Brown for volunteers. He scheduled a meeting at
which I volunteered to host the Friday night version of "All That Jazz"
(it ran Monday thru Fridays). I volunteered on a Tuesday night, as I
remember. He startled me by telling me I would host my first show in
three days. He showed my the broadcast board and I nearly had a heart
attack. He said, "You'll have no problem, you'll do just fine," and I've
been trying to reach those goals for more than 20 years.
In 1995, the first host of a WQLN blues show ( a professor from Edinboro
who called himself, I believe, "Dr. Blues) took a teaching position in
the Baltimore area. I had previously told director of radio, Tom
McLaren, that if a choice
time-slot opened up (I was then hosting "Jazz Ballads & Blues 'Round
Midnight" on WQLN at--you guessed it--Saturday midnight) to let me know.
Tom called me and told me of the good news and the bad. I was to be the
new host of the Friday night blues show, but, on the other hand, he knew
I knew nothing about the blues. Well, I took the gig and I've managed to
stay one week ahead of my listeners ever since.
When I was growing up (I was born in 1944) my mother used the radio to
entertain and keep me quiet. I heard the big bands, I heard swing music,
I heard all the big band singers. I know the lyrics to most all of the
great American popular songs. As I grew, I listened to shows like "The
Green Hornet," "Big John & Sparkie," and "Inner Sanctum", all movies for
the mind, and I became more devoted to radio. Later, I heard Bill Haley
& The Comets, Elvis, and Fats Domino and fell in love with rock and roll
(which I now know to be the "blues").
My one true love, which remains so to this day, is jazz. But I've been
having an exciting affair with the blues since I first heard Elvis sing
"Hound Dog."
The blues, to me, is party music for the walking wounded. Those who
suffer much want to thumb their noses at their sources of pain by dancing
and pretending, at least until the music stops, that it "doesn't bother
them." And the pain stops while they're stomping their feet, waving
their arms, and shouting at the top of their lungs to the sounds of a
rhythmic electric guitar responding to the thump of a stand-up bass.
So, there you have it, music that gets you up and dancing and that
salves your soul. How could you not love it?
Best wishes,
Al Lubiejewski
WQLN FM
402 West 6th Street
Erie, PA 16507