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DJ Cerphe From page 1 Grateful Dead and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. Most of his conversations with them are recounted in Cerph’s Up.
Moving on But Colwell’s career at WHFS came to an abrupt halt in 1977, when the station’s owner fired him. The reasons are a little murky, but Colwell says the station owner didn’t like the way he was promoting artists on the air. The firing of the popular DJ made headlines in both the Washington Post and Washington Star. “I felt terrible. It was my first and only job for eight years. Getting fired shook my faith in radio,” Colwell said. WHFS itself went off the air in its rock
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N
format in 2005 when it abruptly changed to a Latin music format. But Colwell went on to spin records at numerous Washington stations. He landed on his feet at WAVA for the next five years, where he helped the station transition from soft rock to a more album-oriented rock format. Listeners have also heard him on DC101, WJFK, WARW and WVRX. In the last decade or so, the Internet has reshaped the listening landscape. Streaming music from around the globe means that listeners now have seemingly infinite choice at their fingertips if they tire of the same FM music playlists. Since 2009, Colwell has had an online show, “Cerphe’s Progressive Show,” at Music Planet Radio that airs in both the mornings and evenings at 7 and 10. He plays lesser-known classic rock tracks as
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Surprisingly clean living Fans might be surprised to learn that in an industry rife with drugs and hard living, Colwell doesn’t imbibe. He’s also a vegetarian and meditates. Between playing soccer when he was younger and having asthma, Colwell said he never had an interest in drugs. “I think many listeners found me disappointing in person because they had in their mind that I was ‘Cerphe, the party guy,’” he said. “I’ve been this way for over
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well as new music by favorite artists, such as Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt. He also tries to mix in some local musicians like Todd Wright, Stilson Greene, Patrick Thornton, Kim Pittinger and Jon Carrol, since his shows, while available worldwide, focus on Washington. “The songs I play aren’t dictated by a corporate music executive a thousand miles away, so it’s much like my time at WHFS. I can play and say what I want. It’s spontaneous, improvisational and freewheeling,” he said of his online show. Beyond radio, he helps with fundraising events, such as one for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He recently worked with Sting and Paul Simon, raising $1.2 million for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington. He’s also a member of the Global Advisory Committee at Earth Day Network.
four decades. That’s why they call me the Guru of Tofu, Sultan of Soy, Vicar of Vegan, Maharaja of Meatless!” Colwell said he enjoyed unspooling the years as he recounted his adventures for the book, which he wrote with coauthor Stephen Moore, who plays in the Bethesda, Md., rock cover band the Razors. The idea for the book took shape during a 2013 reunion with fellow WHFS DJs, which led to the genesis of a documentary film, Feast Your Ears, about the station. The film is still in production. “I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m fine with the changes in the radio biz. That super-creative, freeform underground format that was WHFS has pretty much vanished,” he said. “Streaming radio and what we do now on MusicPlanetRadio.com is making music more exciting again for the adult audience, the way we felt about it 25 or 30 years ago.” Listen to some of Colwell’s interviews with rock musicians at http://talkplanetradio.com/cerphes-audio-vault. Listen to Music Planet Radio at http://musicplanetradio.com, or download its app to your smartphone, free from iTunes or Google Play. Colwell and Moore will be speaking about and signing Cerphe’s Up on Dec. 9 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Tryst Gallery, 312 E. Market St., Leesburg, Va., and on Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose bookstore, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.