Bob Perkins' first radio gig at WGPR-FM in Detroit, 1964. Bob Perkins has been a fixture on Philadelphia's airwaves for 50 years. Its not the same. You know, its magic that Ive been around that long and people have that much confidence in me. The once well-known jazz, Have you ever discovered that a famous person once lived very close to you? King agrees. In addition to his job as jazz host, BP writes numerous columns and commentaries on jazz for local publications in Philadelphia. Copyright 2022 RadioInsight / RadioBB Networks. His older brother had introduced him to the music of Duke Ellington, which sparked a lifelong love of big band and jazz music. Sunday Jazz Brunch with Bob Perkins airs from 9 AM until 1 PM. Or Tony Bennett singing My Foolish Heart accompanied by pianist Bill Evans. Last Update. I was a war baby. His knowledge of jazz programming was instrumental to a significant increase in weekday Jazz listener-ship and a doubling of the Sunday Jazz audience for his time slot. Music has brought us through some very challenging times.. Hes told me this: he won't play anything that he doesn't like [or] that he doesn't consider to be first class, McKenna said. And Ive been a newsman, editorial writer, disc jockeyI guess just about everything with the spoken word in radio. And to have that kind of confidence in a guy whos just sitting around playing music [laughs], thats pretty good. BP brought the GM back for the first time in more than four months his longest absence from the Philadelphia airwaves in 50 years on a Thursday night in December, followed a few days later by his Sunday show at 9 a.m. What he will bring to the microphone in a neat control room on Cecil B. Moore Boulevard just west of Broad Street is something his colleague Bob Craig describes as a style that is very, very warm and very personal and very loose. I know Ive been very blessed. You dont know whos listening, how many people: could be one, could be 10,000. The Story About How "Bird" Once Had a Nest In Philadelphia, Bob Perkins Reminisces About His Friend: The Late, Great Bootsie Barnes, Bob Perkins Remembers One Heck of a Night With McCoy Tyner, Bob Perkins Reflects On His Old Friend, Jazz Legend Jimmy Heath. When I was a kid, which was a long time ago, radio was called the theater of the mind. There was a person named The Shadow. Ive got high mileage on my odometer, Perkins wrote. We listened sometimes to WGN in Chicago that was like 650 miles away. If theres any good thing about thisand theres very little good about itits the fact that maybe families are getting together again and eating at the dinner table again, in the kitchen or living room, and doing things together again. Scroll down to see recent playlists. One of the most familiar voices on Philadelphias airwaves, BP is also an elder statesman of the citys jazz community, cherished by listeners and musicians alike. He currently hosts from 6 pm to 9 pm Monday through Thursday, and from 9 am to 1 pm Sundays. Change has come to radio, music, listeners, and listening habits. Thanks! He makes it interesting and inclusive for everybody.. (Photo courtesy of WRTI-FM) His father's illness is what really led to radio becoming an important part of the Perkins household. Perkins, 88, has been at the station since 1997 and has a media career that has spanned nearly six decades. They had hired me for all the wrong reasons in the first place. Later, in the mid-80s, Perkins hosted a WDAS-AM jazz show that mixed in Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee with jazz artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Joseph V. Labolito. PhillyVoice Staff, Monday through Thursday from 6-9 p.m. and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sundays. ), I remember telling my friends about it, McKenna adds. Perkins has been ill and off the air for a few months but will make his return in the first week of January. Jazz host Bob Perkins in his office at WRTI. Music, said BP about the GM. The late teen years. After a longtime gig at WHYY, he joined WRTI in 1997. In mid-December, as he planned his return to the airwaves, Perkins was worried that some physical effects of his stroke a few fingers that werent obliging might compromise his technical performance in the control booth. Perkins' jazz show has been broadcast Monday through Thursday from 6-9 p.m. and from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sundays. Michael Tanenbaum BP and Father Time have been having a continuous battle over the last several years and Im trying not to let him win the battle! Jazz radio legend Bob Perkins, 88, will retire in June from his full-time role as a host at Philadelphia's WRTI-FM. In 1969, WDAS offered him a news and editorial position and asked if he might be interested in moving back to Philadelphia. I wondered to myself, could I get hired for two jobs in one day?, I went upstairs in the building where the radio station was located and I met the general manager, Perkins continued. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. What makes history so important is it has to be true. TEMPLE UNIVERSITY Jazz-Classical WRTI/PHILADELPHIA evening host BOB PERKINS is stepping away from his weekday 6-9p (ET) show on JUNE 30th. Liked by Joe Bob Perkins. I program most of the music on the station, said Maureen Malloy. [3] One of his well-known sayings is "This is BP with the GM!". But I mimicked what I thought the great guys Id grown up with would do, and I got away with it for years., READ MORE: Talking all that jazz with WRTI legend Bob Perkins. The music that appeals to BPs old noggin is what he calls the melodic stuff with no expiration date, most of it recorded decades ago. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance. WRTI. The general manager told me one of his announcers would be leaving in a few days and I could try out for his job. A few Philadelphia artists were sprinkled into the evening, including Perkins longtime friend, saxophonist Bootsie Barnes, and vocalist Phyllis Chapell, who dedicated her latest album to BP. Language: English Contact: WRTI-FM 1509 Cecil B. Moore Avenue, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19121 Website: http://www.wrti.org/ Email: Bob@wrti.org Episodes Someone can think of something and express it in a musical form and without hitting any sour notes and make it sound melodic, where you can tap your foot or you can close your eyes and dream on it. The great alto saxophonist and jazz icon Charlie "Yardbird" Parker was only 34 years old when he died in 1955. In turn, news reporters from WDAS would report via radio, in Detroit, about what was happening of importance in the city of Philadelphia., The management team at WDAS liked my work very much, and one day they asked me the question, Do you want to come home and work in Philadelphia radio? That petered out, but I was still at WHYY playing jazz music and loving it. I enjoy it. I think hes been very good to all the local jazz musicians who have recorded music, McKenna said. And for 50 of those years he's been on the radio to the, Our very own "BP with the GM" shared his story, going back to childhood, with a large audience at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia on Feb. 22, 2019. Thursday marks the end of an era at 90.1 WRTI-FM, with longtime jazz DJ Bob Perkins signing off from his final weeknight shift after 25 years at the station. Once Mom made transition, I decided to go for it, and so I packed my bags, and I was off to Detroit. So when I came back I got these emails saying, Oh, were glad youre back. I save all my emails. Last edited on 21 February 2023, at 01:44, promotes the subject in a subjective manner, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Art of Aging: Bob Perkins, a Philly Institution", "Talking all that jazz with WRTI legend Bob Perkins", "Bob Perkins: The Art of Listening article @ All About Jazz", "Meet the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame's Class of 2017", Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia website, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bob_Perkins_(radio_personality)&oldid=1140642424, This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 01:44. It comes out of the head, out of the heart and out of your soul. They offered me a job and I accepted. Ive gotta find something else to do, he said. From 1988 to 1997 he hosted a well-known jazz program on Saturday nights on WHYY-FM before moving to WRTI. I went downstairs at the same building, and told the insurance company, Im here to quit a job I never started. Leaving out the door of the insurance company, the man who had offered me a job selling insurance said, Do you know what theyre going to pay you up there? My father must have been listening to radio from the very start. He is a jazz program host and DJ for WRTI. He throws in a four-hour show on Sunday mornings for good measure. He currently hosts from 6-9pm Monday through Thursday, and from . It was typically BP in tone. Mr. Perkins owns 88,692 shares of Targa Resources stock worth more than $6,747,687 as of February 16th. Or when times are not tight and everythings loose? BP with jazz pianist McCoy Tyner at WRTI in 2015. In 1969, his hometown of Philadelphia beckoned him back with a gig at rhythm-and-blues station WDAS, where he worked for the next 19 years. Perkins spoke about the evolution of radio. How is someone out there feeling? But he played the radio, that was his only salvation from the pain. You can never know. And people do forget. Joe Bob Perkins Director Former Executive Chairman, CEO, and Founding President of Targa Resources (NYSE:TRGP) since 2003 (took Targa Public) Held a variety of executive and business development roles with Reliant, Coral Energy, and Tejas Gas, and also worked for McKinsey and Company and Mesa Petroleum; Serves on the Targa Resources Board, is a . Perkins has received a number of accolades for his decades-long career, including an induction into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2003. Perkins had a five-year relationship with The Philadelphia Tribune, where he wrote commentary on government, society and public affairs. Previously, Bob was a Board Member at Jazz Bridge and also held positions at Data Site, Unisys, WDAS Fm. Twitter: @WRTImusic Language: English Contact: The host entered the Philadelphia radio world in 1967 with WDAM, where he served as a news and editorial director. I said yes, he said. My father just loved to have the radio on. Ive met a lot of good people, a lot of entertainers, musicians, and politicians along the way. Not doing anything heroic. I guess along with fast food came fast everything fast cars, fast thoughts, fast relationships. And all the while, you weren't aware of ituntil that person moved away, and, During a recent interview, saxophone great Larry Mckenna was right on target when he shared that often in other cities, when people found out he was from, When a dynamic figure in any walk of life departs, writers and just plain folks, usually try to recall certain events about the departed in which they may, When I was a kid growing up in South Philly, there was an older fellow down the block who was trying to play an alto saxophone. [1] His radio career began in 1964 in Detroit, Michigan. "[4] He is also an accomplished radio news journalist and a First Call Master of Ceremonies for regional jazz music events. Discovery, curation, community, performance, preservation. He went on to work for WDAS and while in Philadelphia, [2] in 1997, he joined WRTI-FM Temple University Radio. Temple Now: How do you choose the music that you play? Am I going to capture their imagination today? If you, WRTIs Bob Perkins joined the 2016 Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame class on October 19th. But then hed also play Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, John Coltrane, and Bird. (The last being the nickname for the brilliant bebop jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. Maybe its one of the high points in their life. Bob Perkins at home at WRTI-FM studios. Mr. Perkins in 2006. He has earned well over forty different honors and awards from major government, artistic, journalistic and community organizations. Black Music Month means heritage, he said. Targa Resources 20 years . I stayed there for about a year and a half, but I was hungry to do news in radio, so I needed to move on. They don't think that it's accessible to younger people. Classical music and jazz public media. Courtney Blue, KLN '12, hosts Late Evening Jazz, The Jazz Request Show and Nouveau Jazz Showcase. I had WDAS and WHYY, doing all of those things simultaneously for about 10 years. Perkins was born on December 6, 1933. They can take you away. Domain Insight 2/27: The First Audacy Atlas Divestiture Will Go To. When Bob Perkins was growing up at 19th and Gerritt Streets in South Philadelphia during the Great Depression, his father, Deforrest, was stricken by arthritis at age 39 and could no longer work at his job as a freight elevator operator. It seems like our attention spans are so divided in this new age of technology. I like melody. Detroit was wide open. Over the last 20-some years, BP with the GM has become an icon of the Philadelphia airwaves, holding down a prime, three-hour early evening time slot Monday through Thursday on WRTI. Im just about 90% recovered and the letters that they sent, it was embarrassing to me because of the flattery that they gave me. 1054. I got a job working at a Black-owned insurance company, Great Lakes Mutual, in Detroit. Lets have fun; lets have a beer. I got on the payroll, and Ive been there, ever since. Perkins's CEO profile on Targa Resources's website states that he has both an engineering and a business background when it comes to his education. At 90.1 FM. It was always in the back of my mind, like a latent dream, that maybe one day, Id get into radio.. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, she has studied piano, voice, guitar, saxophone, and music theory at Granoff and Settlement Music schools, and PCPA - now University of The Arts, and continues private instruction with her husband Leon Mitchell - composer, arranger, vocal coach, and musical director of The Philadelphia Legends of Jazz Orchestra. 1 photo. Jazz also captivated Perkins at a young age. [citation needed], Perkins started his radio career in Detroit over five years, from 1964 to 1969. Bob Perkins reflects on his memories of Philadelphian tenor saxophonist Sam Reed, who passed away earlier this month.. I was weaned on radio. Do you have any anecdotes about BP you'd like to share? He later joined WHYY with a weekend jazz show before landing at WRTI. In this new age of music streaming, where a service like Spotify uses neural networks, big data language analysis, and artificial intelligence machine learning techniques to winnow songs that are channeled down a high-tech digital assembly line to listeners, Perkins relies on a soft, squishy computer that he admits is a bit more unreliable since his stroke and which he refers to in his characteristic parlance as the old noggin. In other words, he plays what he knows and likes. 1101 W. Montgomery Avenue We would listen to the great John Facenda out of Philadelphia and to other great broadcasters from other cities. Bob in the mid '60s - a seasoned veteran on the job for one year at WGPR in Detroit. She was 81.Bob Perkins recalls how, Tommy Potters name wouldnt get much attention in jazz circles these daysunless the gathering were comprised of musicians and jazz fans with, WRTI Your Classical and Jazz Source | Beginning in June, he will end the weekday program and continue with the Sunday broadcast on90.1 FM. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2003. Thursday marks the end of an era at 90.1 WRTI-FM, with longtime jazz DJ Bob Perkins signing off from his final weeknight shift after 25 years at the station. [1] His radio career began in 1964 in Detroit, Michigan. His last weeknight show on WRTI is Thursday, Jun 30, from 6 to 9 p.m., but he will continue to host Sunday Jazz Brunch from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Im the only one thats doing this thing on regular radio and I enjoy very much what Im doing, and the feedback that I get from people who enjoy it. Jazz radio host and South Philadelphia native Bob Perkins, a mainstay on Temple University's public WRTI-FM station, plans to significantly scale back his hours this summer. He fell ill around 1940 with rheumatoid arthritis, and was forced to leave his job as an elevator operator. Jazz host Bob Perkins in his office at WRTI. Partner Tupper Lake Partners 2021 - Present 2 years. I guess I couldnt help but love radio, because from the time I was a little boy, radio was very much a part of my day every day growing up in South Philadelphia.. He loved radio programming, and since I was the last kid at home, we listened together to all the great voices John Facenda and Edward R. Murrow anything that was on the radio, from Jack Benny to the Philadelphia Athletics games. June 30th and loving it long time ago, radio was called the theater of the on. Years, from 1964 to 1969 like to share positions at Data Site Unisys... 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