Last week we brought you news of Heather Mandich’s new radio program Bluegrass Downunder produced in Australia and broadcast into the USA on www.worldwidebluegrass.com. It seems that another Aussie presenter is having success with the US market. Mike Kear’s radio show Music from Foggy Hollow has now expanded its USA reach right into the heart of the Appalachians. Mike tells us that his show is now airs twice a week in prime time on WNRV in Narrows/Pearisburg, Virginia. This station covers an area of the bluegrass heartland that includes Galax, the site of the famous Fiddlers Festival. Mike says his show now claims more than 100,000 listeners a week worldwide, more listeners than Sydney commercial station 2SM has in its peak time.
Mike tells us that Music from Foggy Hollow has a new releases bluegrass format. This means that 80% of the show is made up of music released in the last 6 months. In addition a special place is kept for bluegrass from outside the USA to take in music from Europe, South America, and of course Australia and New Zealand.
Having the show played on WNRV is pretty scary, considering many of the artists I play, come from that neck of the woods. To put it into context; imagine if someone in Scotland did a radio show about AFL Football, and a Melbourne commercial radio station picked it up. It’s a lot like that. Sadly, Australian bands don’t seem to be as eager to promote their music on radio as the American bands are. It’s very difficult to get Aussie bands to provide their music to play. But I’m very eager to play local music. I think it’s just as worthwhile as the American music, and the listeners in the USA love hearing their music sung with different accents. – Mike Kear
Mike’s show is now heard live and on the web on Hawkesbury Radio in Sydney, 6 times a week in Washington DC on the famous WAMU and 6 times a week on the internet on their 24hour internet service at bluegrasscountry.org.
Full details of the show are at the show’s own web site,
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