Radio
Howie Schwartz has had a passion for music and sound since he as a kid, which landed him in the Eastman School of Music playing bassoon. After his time in school, Howie worked as a DJ at a local radio station. He was drafted and continued his DJ career working being the iron curtain in Berlin,...
Markos Kounalakis’ passion for music developed in the 1980’s when he worked at a broadcasting company in Sweden. The radio station had such powerful antennas that the government of the Soviet Union could not jam the signal. As a result, the music Markos played was able to be heard behind the Iron...
Fred Vail was making announcements on a local radio station in Sacramento, California when he was just 12 years old. While in high school, he led the committee that brought bands to the school dances. One such band, The Beach Boys, had just recorded a few songs that were climbing up the charts but...
Robert Hobbs is very proud of his father’s role in music. His father, Revis Hobbs, was a radio engineer for station WSM and later created the r/f switch for radio frequency stability. In 1962, Glenn Snoddy asked Revis to provide the circuit board and box for the Fuzz Tone, an idea Glenn had to...
Billy Butler started in the early 1960s singing with the Merseybeats group, The Tuxedos, having also sang with The Merseybeats and even performed on the same stage as The Beatles. He soon became a celebrity in Liverpool, becoming the resident DJ at the Cavern and working with Bob Wooler. He went on...
Frankie Connor was an original member of the Liverpool based band The Hideaways, which enjoyed success since first forming in 1963. A few of the bands’ career highlights include playing at The Cavern Club more than any other band, recording an instrumental song for a television Timex commercial,...
Bob Brumley was the owner of Albert E. Brumley & Sons, a music publishing company established by his father in 1944. Albert E. Brumley was a gifted songwriter who often penned religious themed songs such as the classic “I’ll Fly Away.” Bob joined the company with one goal in mind, to preserve...
Jim Marks always enjoyed ham radio and often sought opportunities to learn more about audio equipment. He was working as a radio station engineer for Progressive Broadcasting when he heard of an opening at Crown International. He joined the company in 1970 as a service repair technician and his...
John Conlee was not even a teenager when he joined a barbershop quartet in Versailles, Kentucky where his father ran a tobacco farm. He was often heard singing and playing his guitar and decided to try his hand as a musician in Nashville. He moved to the music city in 1971 to work in radio and...
Dan Del Fiorentino is the Music Historian for NAMM who heads the industry's Oral History program. Dan began this special project in March 2000, after having served as the first curator of the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music. Since that time, the collection of video interviews has grown to...