Five years ago, faced with the morgue that is weekend classic rock radio programming, deejay Rick Ballew decided to try something different. On Christmas Day 1996, he took a bunch of Alligator records he just gotten and started his Blues radio show. ‘FOX Smokin’ Blues,’ broadcasting live every Sunday night from 8 until 10 on Charlotte’s WRFX, is now the top-rated weekend radio broadcast in the Charlotte area, with no real competition in earshot. Focusing mostly on the electric Blues artists who inspired rock-and-roll, the show reaches an estimated listenership of 180,000 within a 120-mile radius of Charlotte. And soon that reach may increase substantially. Since receiving word of his KBA word, Ballew has received interest in syndicating the show nationally.
