African Airwaves

Doug Paterson became involved with African music with his first visits to Africa in the mid-70s. Doug’s love of music was of a giving sort. He was driven beyond spinning the albums of the music he loved and worked on many records and compilations, including Kenya Special and Nairobi Beat, to name just two. He also wrote extensively about East African music during his lifetime.

In 1991 he hosted his first radio show at KSER in Everett. In 1993 he went to KBCS and started The Music of Africa show. Doug was also a long time employee at KUOW where he engineered numerous recording sessions. 30 years is a long time to give to community radio, yet somehow as listeners and fans it wasn’t even close to being enough. As KBFG’s volunteers were organizing our station Doug signed on to host Afrian Airwaves and he introduced us to staff at KUOW who said they’d be happy to share some of their old equipment. As it turned out COVID hit and we never did aquire gear from KOUW. Sadly Doug passed March 14, 2022 but lives on with rebroadcasts from his radio program’s archives here on KBFG.

Hans Kelstrup became interested in tropical and African music while doing entomological research in Brazil and South Africa as part of his PhD studies.