So I waited…in the weeds and asked him out of the blue in October to co-host my monthly podcast with me in December. Of course, I had to show up and see Jim back in those studios behind the mike where he belongs. I had a glimmer of hope when he accepted an invitation to help co-host a local music marathon on WBWC back in 2019 as part of the station’s annual summer marathon series.
Too much work” so I decided to go outside of my normal comfort zone and press on. It took some work to get Jim to agree to go back “on air” so to speak.
This month’s podcast is the podcast I really intended to do out of the gate. We’ve been in and out of contact over the years, but social media has allowed us to really stay in touch over the past decade which is surprising because the man doesn’t event have a cell phone and I’m pretty sure he hates the concept of digital music outside of the compact disc.
Lend me your ears album archive#
His music archive is incredibly comprehensive and spans the period of time on which the Project focuses, and his encyclopedic mind has forgotten more about the local scene that probably any of us can really remember. I knew immediately when I started the Listen Project that I had to have Jim on-board. Jim stepped away from the local music scene in the 2000’s but his love for NE Ohio music has never wavered. Jim also managed Youngstown, Ohio’s Ivet bringing that band to the verge of a major record deal before the usual rock and roll “influences” caused them to flame out. He served three terms as President of the old Cleveland Music Group, a non-profit organization created in the late 1980’s to promote the NE Ohio music scene at events such as the College Music Journal’s Music Marathon in NYC, the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas and the Undercurrents event held here in Cleveland for a number of years in the 1990’s. Jim also was a contributor and co-host for Inner Sanctum, the Sunday night local music show on the old WENZ 107.9 “The End” when that station played great music. Certainly, my band would not have received airplay without Jim’s belief that we had a good record and his willingness to play it.
Lend me your ears album full#
He hosted hundreds of artists and bands and managed to capture the full richness of the NE Ohio music scene for two hours each week. For over 20 years, Jim WAS the Local Artists Show on WBWC 88.3, Baldwin Wallace College’s (now University’s) radio station starting back when one needed to park a car in the student union parking lot next to the station so you could hear a show. When it comes to the success of the Listen Project (and success is surely a subjective concept here), there is no way that I would have been able to put together and present all of the music from our shared past without Jim Benson.
She met Howard when they formed the Dandelion People in 1990. Ann Marie made her first appearance on the Cleveland music scene as the lead vocalist for the Walk-Ins. This month on the Listen Project podcast Lend Me Your Ears, I talk with Howard and Ann Marie Micenmacher.
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