Ambience News, March 2010

Following the 23-year reign of Susan as the knowledgeable and gracious host of Ambience on Sunday mornings, Ambience is now being brought to you through the courtesy of the Ambience Team. The Ambience Team consists of four staff members who share an interest in ambient music, and who enjoy keeping the tradition of Sunday morning ambient music alive on WWUH. The members are Dave DeMaw, 30-year staff member of WWUH and former host of The Greatest Show From Earth, who filled in for Susan on many occasions during her Ambience years; Mark Time, who was a staff member of WWUH for several years during the late seventies and early eighties and who recently returned to the station; Larry Bilansky, who also hosts his own Friday Evening Classics show, "The 20th Century Limited" on WWUH, and Dave Cyr, the team's newest staff member, who joined the WWUH staff in December of 2008 after listening to the station for 30 plus years. The schedule for the Ambience Team is as follows:

On months with four Sundays:
1st Sunday: Mark Time
2nd Sunday: Dave Cyr
3rd Sunday: Dave DeMaw
4th Sunday: Larry Bilansky

On months with five Sundays:
1st Sunday: Mark Time
2nd Sunday: Dave Cyr
3rd Sunday: Dave DeMaw
4th Sunday: Mark Time
5th Sunday: Larry Bilansky

These four hosts bring a wide variety of sounds to the Ambience audience, as each has his own musical leanings and show style. We hope our listeners are enjoying the new mix! If you have any comments you'd like to pass along to any or all of the Ambient Team members, please send an email to wwuh@hartford.edu, or phone your comments in to the WWUH listener line, at 860-768-5913.

In this issue of the program guide, we hear from Dave DeMaw, who provides his focus and approach to Ambience ...

Music has influenced me since the earliest days when dad played boogie woogie on the piano and entertained the family with his 78 rpm record collection. My father later worked at WATT-AM, a small town radio station in northern Michigan where conservative tastes dictated that records with non-commercial content were discarded. Many of these unwanted records passed to my hands; everything from the whacky sounds of Spike Jones to the frenetic bass work of Charles Mingus. There was a never ending flow of unique rock, blues, jazz, and novelty songs that lived only in the confines of my room.

Listening to AM broadcast stations on a crystal set, and later on my first 6-transistor radio opened the wonderful world of air personalities and the endlessly repetitious top 40. At WLS in Chicago there was the infamous Dick Biondi. WOWO in Ft. Wayne was another big gun AM station that rocked my sensibilities.

photo: Doug DeMaw (on right) at WATT-AM

In 1975 I entered the University of Hartford as a mass communications major and quickly migrated to WWUH with its many eclectic, free-form shows. WWUH was a bubbling, creative vat of delicious sounds and blurred musical boundaries.

I assumed the controls of The Greatest Show From Earth when host Mark Persky left for his first commercial job in radio at WBLM in Maine. My weekly broadcast soon featured progressive rock, electronic, ambient, space, fusion, world, and avant garde sounds. Sunday night had become a place and time to experiment. In 1984 I moved out of state for a couple of years. Mark Delorenzo not only replaced me, but he continues to host the Greatest Show From Earth for 26 years.

Since 1986 I have been an alternate for Susan's Ambience show. Last year she stepped down as your regular host and passed the duties to four staffers; Mark Time, Dave Cyr, Larry Bilansky, and me, Planet DeMaw. Each of us brings varying tastes and styles, but we share Susan's enthusiasm for ambient music on Sunday mornings.

Thank you WWUH and all listeners and supporters of our non-commercial radio station. I continue to learn from the many dedicated show hosts as well as from knowledgeable listeners. Being a community volunteer at WWUH is one of the most rewarding facets of my life.

Join us for Ambience on 91.3 FM
each Sunday morning
from 9 AM to 1 PM