Local man plays the bluegrass hits

Fuld shares music collection through online radio show

Tony Fuld’s radio set-up at his house allows him to broadcast through the online bluegrass radio site The Bluegrass Jamboree three nights a week.  Special to The Tribune

Tony Fuld spent more than 20 years on the radio playing bluegrass before a move to Loganville, and the  pandemic, seemed to put an end to his career on the airwaves.

But not so fast, my friends. Fuld found new life on the radio through the internet, where he’s still going strong.

Three nights a week, Fuld is on the air through The Bluegrass Jamboree (thebluegrassjamboree.com), a 24-hour bluegrass online radio station that provides listeners with the music Fuld has built his career off of,  with just one click of a mouse or tap of a touchscreen.

Tony Fudd – Photo credit: Stephen Milligan – the Walton Tribune

“It’s a 24-7 online station,” Fuld said. “There are different guys doing bluegrass online like I do 24 hours a day all week.”

Fuld’s connection to both the radio and bluegrass goes back years, when he spent his career as the host of The Bluegrass Festival, which aired on WRFG 89.3 FM every Wednesday night from 7-9 p.m. from the Atlanta radio station.

Even before that, he’d loved bluegrass, tracing his affection for the genre back to the fifth grade, when he discovered the music, where else, on the radio. He absorbed the music and began collecting LPs anywhere he could, beginning what is now a collection of more than 2,000 bluegrass records, primarily on vinyl but also on tape and CD, as well as live recordings he made over the course of his career working with different artists at festivals and other bluegrass shows.

“I love bluegrass,” Fuld said. “I started to listen to it when I was a teenager. I liked the music and I’ve been collecting ever since.”

But although he loved hosting his radio show — a gig which eventually saw him inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall. of Fame’s Hall of Honor in 2002 — he eventually hung up his headphones when he moved to Loganville, making continuing his show a logistical problem.

“I was on late and having to drive home from Atlanta after 11 p.m. and it just getting too late for me,” Fuld said.

Then COVID-19 hit the nation and it was just easier to stay home.

But Fuld’s desire to share bluegrass with listeners hadn’t abated. He got some equipment to continue broadcasting and began to look for a way to keep hitting the airwaves from his own homemade studio.

“I grabbed a mixer board, some turntables,” Fuld said. “I’ve got a pretty good set-up.”

When he discovered Bluegrass Jamboree, he knew he’d found his new home.

“My program is Vintage Bluegrass,” Fuld said. “I grew up with the old stuff and that’s what I like to play.”

Fuld mostly plays music from his collection, selecting his favorites each night he hosts from his massive collection.

“Most of my show comes from LP vinyl albums,” Fuld said. “On Thursdays, though, I often replay a lot from my old radio show.”

He favors favorite acts and artists like Flatt and Scruggs, the Gillis Brothers and the Stanley Brothers, some of whom he actually met and worked with during his radio days from the station.

“I like the old stuff,” he reiterated. “We’re sharing what I like.”

Fuld’s show still airs late for him, from 8-10 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but the advantage of airing his show through the website is he doesn’t’ have to broadcast live.

“I record my shows when I feel like it,” Fuld said. “Then I just schedule them on the site and they can play while I go to bed, if I like.”

Vintage Bluegrass and Beyond can be found online at thebluegrassjamboree.com, where the site says Fuld’s show  “takes you back to yesterday when the music was simple and the artists dressed for success.”

Fuld said he hopes to find more listeners and expose both the older crowd who already loves the music to his favorites, but also find new listeners who aren’t familiar with the genre to the best of the style.

“Vintage bluegrass is made to last,” Fuld said. “If you like traditional old-time and bluegrass, listen to it.”