“I grew up listening to bluegrass music and in particular WYSO. WYSO started bluegrass in 1972 with a program still on today called “Rise When The Rooster Crows,” said Wright, now one of the hosts of the 6 to 8 a.m. Sunday program.
Wright also hosts the “Down Home Bluegrass Show” from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday nights.
“As a kid growing up, we always had bluegrass music on at home. My dad and mom are from the heart of bluegrass in eastern Kentucky ... I am from a musically talented family on my mother’s side. Most everyone played an acoustical instrument,” said the son of Garlin and Linda Wright of Fairborn.
“We traveled to bluegrass festivals in the summer and I was able to meet bluegrass artists up close. After going to festivals and seeing live bluegrass, I knew I wanted to play as well. At age 10, my parents bought me a banjo,” the Beavercreek resident said.
“I got an Earl Scruggs long play record and a book telling me how to do the three-style finger picking. I worked for weeks on that technique and today I am a pretty good banjo player.”
Later, his parents bought him an acoustic guitar and he learned to play that as well, finally becoming part of a small bluegrass band, Midnight Express, that played around the Miami Valley in the early 1990s.
A friend introduced him to Jon Castongauy, a bluegrass host for WYSO radio, who helped him make connections with the station. Wright then spent several months training with the station’s seasoned co-hosts.
“I, along with Joe Colvin, Steve Shaw and Reed Jones, host either the Saturday night “Down Home Bluegrass” or Sunday morning “Rise When the Rooster Crows,” he said, explaining that they take turns doing the live shows.
For Wright, a Miami Valley police officer for 23 years, working at WYSO is relaxing and “takes me into another place in life away from the hustle and bustle of policing.”
He loves the “euphoric feeling of making people happy by the song selections I made that day.”
Wright and his wife of 20 years, Laura Berry-Wright, have three children, Holly, 16, Heather, 13 and Evan, 7. Not long ago, when Heather co-hosted a show with her father, he received calls from listeners who “really thought that was great and wanted me to bring her in again. I have talked with her about being my co-host again this fall. Listeners like to (see the) human side of radio hosts.”
Contact this columnist at dsb@donet.com.
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