Founders of WXXO – XRDS.fm Bill Bowker and Charles Evans with Bill’s grandson and musician David Luning
WXXO – XRDS.fm now on the air in Clarksdale, the Birthplace of the Blues.
At 12:35 PM on Saturday, November 19th, WXXO, went ‘On the Air’ and launched Clarksdale’s 24 hour blues and roots radio station, known as XRDS.fm. The station broadcasts from Downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi at 88.1 FM, and is streaming on www.internet-radio.com/station/xrds/, as well as iTunes and TuneIn Radio. The station features Blues and Roots music, including artists from the Mississippi Delta and the Mississippi Hill Country, with a healthy dose of R&B and Americana.
It’s the mixture of this music that makes the listener aware of the way that all of this music is connected, and that it all started with Blues” says Bill Bowker, Program Director. “Our concept is to make music fans around the world realize how special Clarksdale is to Blues music, and make them to want to experience Clarksdale in person.”
Bowker and Charles Evans visited Clarksdale with Bluesman Charlie Musselwhite thirteen years ago and fell in love with the town and its people. Bowker, long time radio personality, blues and roots concert promoter and the host of ‘Blues with Bowker’, has been a fixture on Northern California radio since 1979. Charles, a blues loving developer from Santa Rosa, California, acquired several commercial properties in Clarksdale, including the Delta Wholesale and Hardware Building, featured on the cover of a Charlie Musselwhite’s ‘Delta Hardware’ album, and The Clark House, a bed and breakfast located in the former home of Clarksdale founder, John Clark (www.clarkhouse.info).
WXXO – XRDS.FM is a low power non-commercial station, owned by Radio @ The Crossroads, which incorporated as a Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation in 2011.
A year ago The Delta Bohemian® published “Broadcaster Bill Bowker Fired Up About Clarksdale” talking about his dream for a radio station in Clarksdale. Now it is a reality! WXXO – XRDS.fm.
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- Founders of WXXO – XRDS.fm Bill Bowker and Charles Evans with Kathleen McCullam
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- Charles Evans in Clarksdale WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Bill and Lavonna Bowker at Clarksdale White House – WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Founders of WXXO – XRDS.fm Bill Bowker and Charles Evans with Bill’s grandson and musician David Luning
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- Chilly BIlly and Magical Madge with Charlie and Henri Musselwhite and Charles Evans WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Bill and Lavonna Bowker with Chilly Billy WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Bill Bowker – WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Stan Street, Charles Evans, Henri and Charlie Musselwhite WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- With The Bowkers at the Clarksdale White House WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Bill Bowker and Charlie Musselwhite – WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Charles Evans meeting Sparky Reardon in The Grove at Ole Miss WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- The Bowkers, The Musselwhites, and Charles Evans WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- The Bill Bowker family at the DBGH WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- Magical and Chilly Billy with Charles Evans WXXO – XRDS.fm
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- The Bill Bowkers at a party at the Clarksdale White House – WXXO – XRDS.fm
This is great news.! Thanks to all involved.
Thanks for commenting here on The DB, Andy!
Hello Bill, I’m a Sonoma County native and while we have never met, I have been listening to you since the KVRE days. Moved up to Sequim Washington a year ago. Radio up hear is next to non existent. Only a couple worth listening to and they come from of our friends up north. Was on the internet looking for some good tunes and ran across you in Ol’ Miss. Nothing like this exists, even out of Seattle! Keep it up!!!
Thanks for commenting, Ray! We agree that Bowker along with his good friend, Charles Evans, has created a unique and very cool radio feed that is resonating with locals in Clarksdale as well as folks like yourself! I’ll let him know you responded!
Come visit us in Clarksdale!
Stumbled in to radio xrds.fm feed and found cool blues radio station. I’m a Swedish Blues enthusiast talking and playing blues on a local radio station in the south of Sweden. So I’m always looking for new blues music to play on the radio. So XRDS come in handy. Please continue the good work.
Thank you for commenting! That is so cool you tune in from Sweden! Keeping the blues alive!
Tuning in from Albany Australia, been a convert ever since me and my wife, Kate visited Clarksdale last May and stayed at The Riverside for 4 nights! Loving the music, keeps us up late! Thanks.
Thank you for staying connected, Gary, and for commenting!!
Greetings from Sweden, I love your station. Even though the blues is very much alive and well in Sweden, since I stop broadcasting my radio show in 2016 we don’t have a blues station in Sweden. By the way have you listen to any Swedish blues. If not listen to a guy Sven Zetterberg, he is called the Swedish Little Milton. By for now and keep up playing bluesmusic.
Thank you for commenting and for listening to XRDS.fm. Will check out Zetterberg! We have many visitors from Sweden visit and stay with us. Maybe we will meet you one day!