Because the radio might not be a priority on Friday nights, it’s likely that the two best radio shows available in the WRUR/WITH region have yet to even enter your radar. But tuning in to 88.5 or 90.1 between 6 p.m. and midnight on a Friday to spend your night with Scott Wallace and Doug Curry will be worth your while.
Rejuvenation (6:00 to 9:00), hosted by Scott Wallace in Rochester, covers the Soul and R&B of the 60s and 70s. The show is speckled with familiar tunes and artists like Al Green, Aretha Franklin, the Four Tops, and Labelle, to keep the skeptics tuned in, but Wallace largely steers clear of the hits we know and love, exposing lesser known tracks of the genre. Rejuvenation is what no Spotify playlist or playlist-generated “radio” can bring you. Wallace digs up material of the genre that hasn’t withstood the decades that Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” has. He brings to life Motown artists’ intriguing covers of unsuspecting songs like Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” obscure covers of well-known Motown originals, little-known B-sides of stars as legendary as Otis Redding, and music that is altogether rare. He keeps it alive, and it’s a treat. Wallace adheres to the show’s theme, wide enough that it doesn’t sound like a broken record, but narrow in a way that WVBR’s Vinyl Departure, for example, doesn’t satisfy.
At 9:00, Scott Wallace checks out, leaving Doug Curry’s deep, seductive voice and blues expertise to host DJ Blacks & Blues (9:00 to midnight). The show begins with its theme, Wynonie Harris (known as Mr. Blues) singing his own “Mr. Blues is Coming to Town,” an upbeat track with a hint of soul: a smooth transition from Rejuvenation. From there, Curry covers all the subgenres of blues, from its origins in Lead Belly-esque Delta blues to B.B. King’s more approachable urban, electric blues. Sometimes he’ll play pre-rock-‘n’-roll urban blues of the 1940s, a kind of early rhythm and blues that can be difficult to come by. He plays boogie-woogie of the 30s and jump blues of the 40s, and he knows it all. Curry has been hosting Blacks & Blues since 1982; the man has clearly been seeped in blues, and understands it in a way that he translates to his listeners, purveying the genre upon us with mastery. He demands full attention; solitude, even. Curry knows blues historically on a national level, but also Rochester’s historic blues scene with a personal level of authenticity that is truly special to witness. To stay up late (I recommend in the kitchen) immersing yourself in the blues and Curry’s voice is an experience worthy of sacrificing plans.
I also recommend Salsumbo, on WVBR (93.5), Saturdays, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.