Bob has been a bluegrass fan from the days of the Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs TV show he watched while growing up in his native North Carolina. While on Navy active duty in the Washington DC area, he discovered Gary Henderson’s shows on WAMU. During the late 1970’s, he called in with the correct answer to one of Gary’s bluegrass trivia questions and won tickets to a bluegrass event. Thus began a friendship with Gary that led to meeting Les McIntyre, Lee Michael Demsey, Bill Foster, Mike Kelly, and others at WAMU and Bluegrass Unlimited.

Bob became the engineer for Stained Glass Bluegrass with Red Shipley in 2002. Beginning in January 2007, Red began sharing his microphone with Bob. Upon Red’s retirement in September 2007, Bob became the natural successor to Stained Glass Bluegrass and the show’s third host, which had begun in 1974. He features several old hymns on the program each Sunday.

Bob continues to play rhythm guitar in local bluegrass and old time music jams. He’s emceed concerts for Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, the Isaacs, J.D. Crowe and the New South, Dale Ann Bradley, Dry Branch Fire Squad, the Lewis Family, the Steep Canyon Rangers and Blue Highway.

He likes to interview bluegrass artists and has brought you programs featured on WAMU’s Bluegrass Country with Pete Wernick, Melvin Goins, Jamie Dailey, III Tyme Out, David Parmley & Continental Divide, Larry Sparks, Laurie Lewis, Carolina Road, the Circuit Riders, and several others.

When time permits, he’s always working on the backlog of interviews with some of the top bluegrass artists. Be on the lookout for those. Bob is a member of IBMA and documented the history of Stained Glass Bluegrass in an articled published in the January 2005 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited.