Rob
Reinhart-Acoustic Café
“What it’s about for us is watching the
career path of indies and following the trajectory of songs,” offfers Rob
Reinhart, creator/host of one of roots music’s prime syndicated radio shows,
“Acoustic Café.”
Growing up in Ann Arbor, MI, he became hooked on
Detroit’s WRIF as well as Canadian rocker CKLW, booming its way down out of
Windsor, Ontario. Could that, we wonder, have something to do with the fact
that he began his own radio career before he even got past high school? Of
course, his first air gig was at the University of Michigan, and he landed the
job by claiming to be a U. of M. student. He got away with it for a year a
half before he was found out and “fired.” (Heck, that’s about as long as most
radio jobs last for full-fledged deejays.) But all was forgiven when he
finally matriculated into Michigan, and he wound up back on the Wolverine
airwaves.
Originally a straight-ahead Midwestern rock fan,
Rob started his paid career at a rock radio station (WIQB) back in ’82, but
over time the rock scene wore thin. “When I turned 30, much of the rock music
started to make less and less sense.” Somehow, he couldn’t quite hang in there
with aging rock stars singing about teen-age girls, and the like.
Although he didn’t consider himself a “folkie,”
he did find himself leaning more and more toward singer-songwriter
acts—Crosby, Stills & Nash; James Taylor; etc.—who were becoming ancient
history in the rock arena. When he convinced management at the rock station
that there was an audience out there for acoustic, singer-songwriter music, he
was given the go-ahead to do a Sunday morning acoustic show. But management
just didn’t get it, and after about a year, they pulled the plug on the show
(you might say his acoustic show was unplugged). On the bright side is the
fact that “Acoustic Café” ultimately grew out of that show. Throughout ’94 he
pre-taped the music and by ’95 the show was a reality.
Rob also has a background in radio
voiceovers, spot production, and comedy syndication. He is married, and likes
to spend whatever “free time” he might discover with his two young children (5
years and 5 weeks).
“Being from the Midwest,
myself,” he points out, “roots music meant—to me—Midwestern rock and maybe
Chicago blues, but to somebody from Memphis or Miami, roots music would be
different.
“Roots Music depends very
heavily on where your roots are.”
Acoustic Cafe
“Acoustic Café” can now boast of about 60 (commercial and
non-commercial) stations in the U.S., with several foreign stations on
board, as well as the Voice of America, which broadcasts the show three
times a week, worldwide. And that doesn’t take into account the 200,000
visits that the show’s archival website gets every month. Not too bad for a
show that was cancelled by management.
The cornerstone of the show is Rob's strong commitment to indies. "We
like to get people on the show just before they get a major record deal," Rob
says, "and then follow the career. We also like to trace the evolution of
songs. Those
are usually the most interesting stories we tell."
