New York radio listeners already know Delphine Blue from either her previous tenure right here at WFUV, her time at WLIR, WBAI, Sirius, Jack FM and eastvillageradio.com, or her own internet station, Little Water Radio.
From the time she learned to do the twist as a little kid, listening to WNEW and Allison Steele on her clock radio, then making her way on the air at Skidmore College, Blue says, “Once bitten by the radio bug, my fate was sealed.”
As a DJ on WFUV, Blue listens to lots of music and finds out interesting things about the people who make the music. “I love the huge selection of music WFUV presents. So many different artists both old and new. For a DJ, being in that sacred space of sharing music with music lovers like WFUV’s members is very satisfying.”
Her two favorite bands are The Cure and The Stones, and she says, “second place is a 1,000-way tie that includes Portishead, Sinead O’Connor, PJ Harvey, John Coltrane, The Buena Vista Social Club, Fela Kuti, Lucinda Williams, Irma Thomas, Teddy Pendergrass, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Fat White Family, Aldous Harding, Lee Fields, Radiohead, Bjork, The Pretenders, Anoushka Shankar, Dusty Springfield, Tinariwen, Angelique Kidjo, The White Stripes, Massive Attack, A Place To Bury Strangers, Black Angels, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Siouxsie and The Banshees, PIL, Wolf Alice, Tom Petty, Bruce!, LCD Soundsystem, Nick Cave and everyone else.
“I am proud to have been a conduit for music to reach music lovers,” says Blue. “I’m also proud to have been a club DJ at a time when there were not many females in that role.”
Her lifetime musical highlights include three music trips to Cuba, a culmination of years of exploring African, Cuban and Haitian artists.
What else do you need to know? “I’m a city girl. I can’t cook. I love ballet. Dog is God spelled backwards (and forwards). The sound of an electric guitar is my religion. Good coffee is a requirement. And Nietzsche was right when he said ‘Without music, life would be a mistake.'”
Though she loves her time on the radio, Blue says her best job ever might have been The North Shore Animal League, where she managed the puppy room. “But I was seventeen.”
