Tom Connelley / Ol’ Foghorn

At WDBX since 1996
DJ on Folksounds, Not Necessarily Bluegrass. Previous show Back 2 Bluegrass

I love the freedom to share anything I want with the audience including my opinions. Most folks probably just want to hear the music, but I think informed and reasonable commentary is critical to counter the fake news that’s out there. So far, I’ve received only positive feedback to my programming. Being able to have live performances in the studio is fantastic! We are unique in that regard. I believe the audience loves to get to know our local artists and hear the stories about how their songs were written. WDBX has such great listener support. It takes a community to raise a radio station!

My first experience in radio was performing parodies live on the air in Little Rock, Arkansas where I’m from. Then I was given the opportunity to have a show one summer on the student radio station WIDB at SIU. After recording a couple of successful television shows on WSIU-TV8, I was asked to host a popular radio program on WSIU-FM when the long time host was leaving. That cemented my love of broadcasting and led me to this brand new community radio station which I was instrumental in helping plan. I attended the first volunteer meeting and landed a time slot for a show that began the first week that the station went full time in March 1996. Back to Bluegrass was the biggest fundraiser of any show for the first ten years. My co-host and I decided to retire the show after twenty years when our sons started playing school sports. We couldn’t do the show along with practices and games and such. I came back to WDBX in November 2023. The following June I was handed the key and the manual to the transmitter processor. Now the station sounds better than ever and we are constantly making improvements to the rest of the facility. It is amazing that this building is 28 years old as of this writing (9/14/24) and we are showing no signs of slowing down! The future is bright and LOUD here at WDBX 91.1FM Community Radio for Southern Illinois!