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BLUES RADIO - KING BISCUIT TIME! - The King Biscuit Time Radio
Show
is the longest running daily radio broadcast in history. First broadcast on November 21, 1941, King Biscuit Time
featured legendary Blues artists
Sonny Boy Williamson and
Robert Jr. Lockwood playing live in the studio. The original band, the
King Biscuit Entertainers, often included boogie pianist
Pinetop Perkins and
James Peck Curtis on drums. The show was
named after the locally distributed King Biscuit Flour.
Pass the biscuits, it's King Biscuit time!
But no one could anticipate the impact this
15-minute Blues show would have on American music. The
broadcast from KFFA in Helena, AR, stretched across the
Delta and reached a generation of Blues artists that
would later inspire the Rock n' Roll revolution. |
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Before
BB King
became a Blues deejay, and long before he became 'The King
of The Blues', he listened to the show. The award-winning
program has aired more times than the Grand Ole Opry, and has
outlasted American Bandstand by at least a generation. On May 24, 2002,
King Biscuit Time was broadcast for the 14,000th time. This appears
to be a record for any radio show ever broadcast. |
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"Being
on a plantation you had an hour off for lunch. So, I would
come out of the field at noon. Sonny Boy Williamson
would come on about 12:15. So, we had a chance to listen to
live music from one of the guys I liked a lot, Sonny Boy
Williamson. And KFFA was the only station in the
area at that time that played music
by black people."
-
BB
King |
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"That was my
show!" says
Levon Helm, legendary drummer for
The Band,
who was inspired to play drums by listening to the program as
a child growing up on the Mississippi. "It was on every day at
12:15.
I could always find 15 minutes. I had time to get off
work, eat lunch, and still get to a radio. I could go back to Habi's Cafe and get a box of milk and three donuts for a dime"
recalls Helm, who would sit in the studio daily and watch the
show. It was the show's regular drummer, James Peck Curtis,
who inspired Helm to take up the instrument. "I would walk down the
street to the bank building and ride the only elevator in
eastern Arkansas, go up to the fifth floor, and
watch King Biscuit Time live.". The staff is committed
to preserving the legacy of the past by promoting the artists
and events of today. This is the team that wakes up every day
with one thought,
'Pass the Biscuits, it’s King Biscuit
Time!' |
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