Big Kev and Mike Farris
I bet your asking…
“Who the heck is Big Kev? He’s all over your station and we don’t know who he is.”
I guess you could say Big Kev was there at the birth of United Musicans Radio. You could also say he was there at the birth of Americana music as well. Ya he’s been around that long.
Besides being a DJ and a radio personality for years, Kevin Ploghoft has been traveling the path of many music lovers. He finds music he loves and digs deep to find out more. That path has led him to be an expert on many aspects of music, but particularly on the artists “inside” the music — and the music “inside” the artist as well.
His early music memories include watching the Johnny Cash Show on TV and seeing artists like Linda Ronstadt, Tony Joe White, and Kris Kristofferson, just to name a few. The Johhny Cash show featured many folk–country musicians that would have a big-effect on his musical tastes, such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Merle Haggard, James Taylor and Tammy Wynette. It also featured other musicians such as jazz great Louis Armstrong, who died eight months after appearing on the show.
Currently Big Kev is DJ and Music Director at WLVR in in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
How Big Kev Got Started
After going to the Recording Workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio, to learn the basics of recording engineering, he started by doing some radio shows — metal, classic rock, and sports — at Montclair State College on WMSC-FM in Montclair, New Jersey. He was there from 1986 to 1988 while he was also an intern for Alan Holmes at WNBC in New York City, before they sold off the radio division. Then he did voiceover work and character bits on WMCA in NYC. He was also the music director for WPDQ-FM in Freehold, New Jersey, doing rock radio and broadcasting to the Jersey Shore in 2001. .He loved the fun and freedom he had there!
Then, from 2001 to 2007, he became music director for WLVR-FM in Sergeantsville, New Jersey. It was a classic country station that his pal Fred Boeing started, to turn into an Americana station, and he brought him in to help. In those five years, they made WDVR one of the top stations in the Americana format.
While at WDVR, Burr Beard asked him if I would like to do a show on his station, WXLV-FM in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and help do for them as he did for WDVR. He was officially named Music Director of WXLV (Roots 90.3) from 2007 to 2011, when the signal and tower was sold to a religious network.
What Does He Do Now?
Big Kev is now the music director for WLVR-FM 91.3 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he started doing programs in 2010 before he left WXLV. His anchor show, “The Roots Rock Revolution,” is broadcast every Saturday morning 9 a.m. to noon ET.
He also has two programs on the Wildman Steve Radio Network. The “Big Kev Show,” which airs Wednesday evenings at 9 pm ET, as well as “Ameri-Kinda Weekly,” which is sanctioned by the Americana Music Association and is a weekly recap program of the Top Ten and Most Added albums of the week from the AMA Radio Airplay Chart. It airs on Saturday afternoons at 4 p.m. ET and rebroadcast on Monday evenings at 10 pm ET. “Ameri-Kinda Weekly” also airs on WLVR Monday mornings at 9 am ET.
Thoughts On Where We’re Going
Big Kev also has some thoughts on where radio and the music business is going too. Here’s what he had to say…
I hate to say it, but its broadcasting to the graveyard. The demo for our listeners is aging along with a lot of the core artists.
I do see a lot of great upcoming talent out there, don’t get me wrong, but this is radio we are talking about and not the music. As you know, radio stations need to make money and its already a hard sell. Of the 80 reporting stations to the AMA chart, over half are considered Triple A stations. Except for a handful of terrestrial stations, I’d say eight that are Americana stations, the rest are part-time programming or internet only. The industry doesn’t want to spend money here anymore because there is no money to be made. It’s a niche market and a station would make more money being the fourth-rated rock station than being the only Americana one. You have to have an adventurous spirit if you like this music because it ain’t easy to find. When you do find it, support that local station that plays roots-type music, because pretty soon it won’t be there and you’ll have to buy a laptop or iPad if you don’t listen through your phone already.
Streaming is the way of the future — people can select what they want when they want it. To paraphrase Patrick Henry, “Give me convenience or give me death.”
We hope he’s wrong. We think great music will always find a way to get through. We hope you believe that as well.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts below.
