Acoustic Alternatives- Sundays- 6am – 10am
John Bommarito grew up in Warren, MI and got the bug for radio while listening to WPHS at Cousino High School as a kid. All of his siblings played some sort of instrument, John, the youngest, played the radio.
John’s first job out of high school was the first ever paid employee at the legendary record store, Record Time (East Detroit/Pointe and Roseville locations) in the spring of 1985. While working there, he was also attending classes at Oakland University and began his mobile DJ service (which he still does).
After a short stint at OU’s radio station WXOU in the mid 80’s (that’s he’s pretty sure no one heard), there was a long gap before radio came back to him. While attending classes in round two of college at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, John was introduced to the non-commercial radio station next door at Henry Ford College in 2002. A spark was lit and he was off and running, following the dream of his high school self.
John served as the volunteer folk music director at WHFR from 2002-2011 and during that time was hired to the staff of ann arbor’s 107one (WQKL-FM) in 2005.
When the pandemic made him a COVID casualty as a result of necessary budget cuts in Ann Arbor, John immediately turned to a YouTube playlist format to continue spreading music around to fans of the singer/songwriter genre. The show he used to do at WHFR was called Acoustic Alternatives and it was reborn as a playlist on April 26, 2020. It got a one year reboot on the airwaves at WHFR when they hired him to be their Operations Manager in July of 2021. That ended when WEMU recruited him to be their Digital Operations Specialist, which is what he does by day M-F.
In the fall of 2020 Grove Studios in Ypsilanti approached John about doing a podcast in their studios. Reluctant at first, the podcast has been a source of joy for John. It’s a musical exploration and conversation with some local and national (and occasionally International) recording artists. Guests have included Jeff Daniels, Brian Vander Ark, Glen Phillips, Laith Al-Saadi, Heywood Banks and many others.
And that bring us to Radio Cobra Detroit. Jamie Flanagan brought the idea about adding John to the team and now once again, Acoustic Alternatives has a radio home.
Expect to hear the kinds of artists you see at listening rooms across the country mixed with acoustic songs from some of the same artists you hear on Radio Cobra Detroit.
https://johnmbommarito.wixsite.com/johnbommarito/acoustic-alternatives
