Scholar, writer and editor Dick Spottswood hosted WAMU’s first ever bluegrass show, a half-hour experimental program which launched in July 1967 and which broadcast for seven years. He began his current program, The Dick Spottswood Show, in 1985.

“A Washington native, Spottswood earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in Library Science from Catholic University. He began his career as a librarian for the Montgomery County Public Library system.

Spottswood was one of the founders of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine in 1966, and is currently a contributing editor. He has written for that publication and many others over the years. He has also edited and annotated numerous recordings, including the 15-record set Folk Music in America for the Library of Congress, and served as a consultant to Time-Life Records.

Spottswood compiled the seven-volume Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, this was the first major discography produced in America that systematically examined the vast body of recordings made by immigrant groups. The set was published in 1990 by the University of Illinois Press, which is currently preparing a second edition of the work.

Also coming up is the publication of Country Music Sources, a book begun by Gus Meade and completed by Spottswood after Meade died in 1991 without finishing the work. Spottswood produces compact discs for several companies in the United States and England, as well.

Spottswood’s lifelong interest in ethnic music is evident to all who hear his program, which explores the aesthetic convergence of music from many traditions. “Since I have yet to develop a potent radio personality, I’m fortunate to have some great music to do the job,” Spottswood says. “The Dick Spottswood Show focuses on the era between the world wars, when a lot of music was still relatively unindustrialized, and sounded on record much as it did in homes, churches, small dance halls and village squares.”