Friday Night Blues on the Bear: DJ Rick Bates Brings the Blues to KBHR

Adding to the roster of special KBHR Radio programs, including “Fowler’s Fish Tales,” the “Big Bear Motor Sports Report” and “Tuned In on the Bear,” this week KBHR introduces “Friday Night Blues on the Bear.” The blues program, which will air each Friday evening from 6 to 7pm, will be hosted by local Rick Bates, who is director of the Events Resource Office of Big Bear Valley and has had a long career in music. As Bates tells it, “We’re going to kick off the weekend with ‘Friday Night Blues on the Bear,’ which will be an eclectic variety of blues, from classics like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker to newer artists on the scene—and I’m planning to play some rare outtakes and B-sides from my personal collection, which includes 30 years in the business.” Bates years in the industry include bringing the Open Sky Music Festival to Big Bear (from ’95 to 2003) with wife Nancy Meyer, with whom he also represents jazz and blues musicians such as Otis Rush, Lurrie Bell and Ernie Watts. In his years of artist management, Bates also handled the careers of John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Los Lobos, Hüsker Dü and the Violent Femmes. We invite you to join KBHR on Friday evenings for “Friday Night Blues on the Bear”; you can also visit our online programming guide for info on other features here on 93.3 FM. As blues DJ Bates says, “This looks to be a lot of fun, as blues music is a perfect antidote to the work week doldrums.”