We're excited to present 2 Great LIVE DJ SHOWS to Celebrate our 15th Year of Broadcasting on June 21st and 22nd, from 4 to 6 pm Eastern.

But how did this all begin? Well, I was born in 1963... no wait, lets move forward a bit. In 1983, I began hanging out with a band called State Of Shock. We had an investor who staked us to go record an EP. Through the process of pressing and releasing a vinyl record, I knew I needed an outlet to play this record on the Radio!

Well, I was 19-20 years old at the time, and knew nothing about the music industry. But I was smart enough to know that I needed to get this album to all the radio stations in the St. Louis area. All the commercial stations said no, but one station, KYMC in Ballwin, Missouri said yes. They even said I could become a DJ, and that's what I did.

KYMC was owned and operated by the YMCA of Greater St. Louis. It was one of their Youth Programs, and for 25 bucks a month, several hundred kids over the years discovered how to become disc jockeys, and learned how to operate a non-commercial radio station. Many of those kids went on to great careers in Radio, Media, and the Music Industry. Me, being a band manager with a record to promote, jumped at the opportunity. This is where I learned shameless self-promotion.

KYMC was great, because we played "Alternative" music. The songs that people fondly look back upon as "80's Music" was our programming. We played U2, The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Fixx, INXS, The Church, The Smiths, and so many incredible bands that were virtually ignored by commercial radio at the time. The soundtrack to films like Donnie Darko... well that was our daily playlist, every day.

"Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "How Soon Is Now" still reverberate throughout the cosmos on signals generated on our 100 watt tower. No one else was playing that kind of music in St. Louis in the early 80's, and that's where I learned my love for Indie and Alternative music.

KYMC and State Of Shock were the launching points to my 40 year career in the music industry. I discovered CMJ (College Media Journal) and began shipping State Of Shock records to College Radio stations all across the country. I taught myself how to be a Radio Promoter, and started making a living in the industry.

As a professional, my 4th paid project was the debut Tracy Chapman record. I helped take her to #1 on the College Radio charts, before she broke into super stardom. I was a part of a once in a lifetime phenomenon, something I've been trying to recreate ever since without nearly as much success.

I got to tour manage Big Mountain in 1992 and 1993 on their first tour, just before and during the release of their #1 hit cover of "Baby I Love Your Way". That was one hell of a year driving up and down the mountains playing Reggae Music in Montana and Utah and Colorado in the late winter and early spring. We also played the I-5 corridor from Seattle to their home town of San Diego over and over and over. Talk about an adventure!

After that tour, I started my own radio promotion company, Relax Productions in 1993, and at one point had 11 people working with me in an office in Columbia, Missouri. We worked for Warner Brothers and Hollywood Records (Disney) and Universal Music Group, all before they became parts of bigger conglomerates in a now bygone era of selling physical media.

We also worked for a ton of indie labels (before they all sold out to the majors), and plenty of indie bands that hired us directly, like The Kings out of Canada. We promoted "Switching to Glide/This Beat Goes On" in the 90's. In 2023, they submitted their song "Nowhere To Go But Gone" to us, and is getting spins on Hot Wax Radio today!

We charted acts like Buck Pets, Goldfinger, Headstones, The Hunger, Dweezil Zappa. We worked on promotion projects for Robin Trower, Todd Rundgren, Carl Perkins, Katrina and the Waves, and Michael Penn. We also promoted hundreds of other bands over the years who's success did not gain widespread notoriety. This is the way it is in the music business. For every 1 Tracy Chapman, there's 100,000 other great songwriters and musicians that just never get noticed.

In 2000 and 2001, I got to tour manage Robin Trower, carrying his guitar into every gig for 128 shows. In those years when I wasn't touring, I was doing web site design and development, trying to keep the music industry at bay while I made a more steady income. But once you're in the music biz, it has a tendency to suck you back in.

In 2003, at the age of 40, a friend of a friend needed a DJ to work at one of his clubs... a gentleman's club called Eye of the Tiger in Columbia, Missouri. Thus began the greatest six year mid-life crisis any human male has ever had in the history of humanity.

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, I launched IRMG Radio (Independent Radio for Multiplayer Games) after discovering Second Life in 2009, and have been broadcasting in world and online since June 21st of that year. Music is everywhere in SL, especially live performers of every imaginable genre and talent level. But Radio in Second Life is largely commercial radio streams. I wanted to offer SL residents an alternative to the mainstream, and created a quality radio station that played independent music.

In 2010, I moved to NYC to live with a friend who was booking and managing bands, while I began doing Radio Promotion projects again. I went to Burning Man with friends in 2012 promoting a Compilation CD, and switched the station's name to Relax Free Radio. Through Radio Free Burning Man, I got to DJ on the Playa to 60,000 people listening on their car stereos and portable radios for a week. That was another amazing adventure.

I also started a then weekly, now twice monthly program called The DJ Trick Show, where I played the latest indie music submissions I received, to a live audience both online and in Second Life. I get to interact directly with my listeners as I spin music, to see their reactions to songs in local chat live. I've built up a good following over the years, and It's quite thrilling to see people discover the same great songs that no one else seems to be paying attention to.

Finally, in 2017, I changed names once again to Hot Wax Radio, taking the name from one of my earliest programs on IRMG Radio called the Hot Wax Review. With Relax Free Radio, that same show was called the Hot Wax Podcast. Both of these shows were a direct steal from a show at KYMC called the Hot Wax Countdown, which was a weekly "Top Hits" show. Everything grows from the roots you establish when you are young. Hot Wax Radio is as much a tribute to the spirit of KYMC, as it is a platform for today's independent recording artists.

Allow me to make one important point... I do not record my Live DJ Shows, ever. I present 16-20 new songs twice monthly, and compile the songs in an order that is coherent and entertaining and ephemeral. Nothing is permanent or lasting. You have to be there in the moment, listening. Sure, you'll hear the songs on the radio stream as they play in their automated rotations after they've debuted. But the experience of The DJ Trick Show can only be enjoyed live, in real time.

Which brings us to July 21st and 22nd, 2024, where I'm going to spin 4 hours of the very best songs I have collected over the last 15 Years of Broadcasting. This is the hardest assignment I've given to myself in a 40 year career because, "how do you choose from so many great songs?" It'll be as big a surprise for me as it will be for you.

If you have read this far, I encourage you to Listen all the time, right now, using the links provided below, or on the Main Page. You're also encouraged to link up with us on Facebook and Instagram. But most of all, you are encouraged to seek out the bands and artists you'll hear on HotWaxRadio.com, as they are independent musicians creating songs for the passion of art and music. The passion of art and music is why this station exists, and why I do the things I do. Anyway, what was the question again?