Dave Antoine Brings Breathe Deep to The Roots

Dave Antoine will be the first to tell you that he is not a radio person.  Retired from the University of Illinois Springfield, he primarily worked in the television department as a director/producer, production coordinator, and eventually the studio manager.  Thankfully, his primary hobby has always been music: lots of albums, hundreds of CDs, and enough cassettes to build a blast wall. The radio bug didn’t bite him until later in life, 1999 to be exact, when he was offered the opportunity to host a show on 88.3 WQNA, a community radio station in Springfield, Illinois.  He remained there for 19 years until the station was closed down and the broadcast license was sold.  Undaunted, Dave and a fellow exiled DJ tried their hand at running their own internet radio station when USA 1 Rock became available.  After 4 years of hard work and some success, Dave decided to walk away and do what he liked best, just listening to music.  Fortunately for us, one of the first things he did was discover The Roots, become a regular listener, and sign up for a membership.  When a recent station announcement went out for additional DJs to host a show, he decided to throw his hat into the ring and has never looked back (which is a good thing because most of his requests required overtime to track down).

Breathe Deep will air every Thursday at 8 pm and is always available on The Roots Archive Player. And Dave says, that’s all you really need to know about him.

Synopsis for Breathe Deep

Breathe Deep (from epilogue of “Nights in White Satin”) is a weekly, record crate-infused, auditory journey channeling the pathos of KAAY’s Beeker Street, WXFM’s Triad Radio, and Early KSHE (when human DJs still wandered the station hallways).  The emphasis will be on heavy music and, in particular, hard rock.  Lots of deep tracks, lots of obscure bands, and even a hit or two (or not).  The playlist will primarily consist of ’60s and ’70s rock. Still, it will also spotlight two of my favorite musical genres: German rock, which accounted for over 10% of all rock sales worldwide (even though it barely made a dent in the US) and guitar-driven, alternative rock (like many of the bands that performed at Mississippi Nights or Cicero’s in the 80’s and early 90’s).  Educating the audience with a bit of background on the music is an essential, value-added element (especially the lesser-known artists), but always keep it brief, conversational and most importantly let the music speak for itself.