DJ Weez celebrates the 1,000 One Love Music show with a party in Eagle-Vail Saturday
cschnell@vaildaily.com
Anthony Thornton | athornton@vaildaily.com |
EDWARDS — One thousand shows. Two thousand hours. Every week for more than 19 years.
That’s how much Scott Peterson, aka DJ Weez, likes reggae.
Weez — which we’ll call him here since there are plenty of people who likely don’t even know his real name — was surprised when he recorded his 500th “One Love Music” reggae radio show for KZYR The Zephyr. And that was 10 years ago.
“I never thought I’d even make that,” he said.
On Wednesday night, KZYR broadcast Weez’s 999th show. Next week marks 1,000. There’s a big party at Route 6 Cafe in Eagle-Vail on Saturday night to celebrate, complete with a reggae band — Carlton Pride & Mighty Zion. Two reggae DJ’s will perform, including DJ Bloodpreshah, from Denver, who Weez has known for “15 or 20 years” and Dee Jay Soljie, a New York-based artist who is flying in for the party who came highly recommended to Weez.
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The Get High Gallery in Eagle-Vail, a sponsor of the show for a dozen years now, is sponsoring the party and will give away “nearly $1,000” worth of stuff during the raffle, Weez said. Roots RX, one of the pot shops on what Weez calls the “Green Mile” in Eagle-Vail, is also sponsoring the party, which goes to show how much has changed since Weez first started the radio show.
In the beginning, he was almost afraid to play Peter Tosh’s song “Legalize It,” for fear of getting in trouble, “and wow, now we have a retail ganja store sponsoring the party,” Weez said. “Who would’ve dreamed this one up?”
FROM JACKSON TO THE BAHAMAS
Each Wednesday, Eagle-Vail resident Andrew Vidal tunes into the show. Vidal is a native Jamaican who has been listening to the show each week since 1998, when he moved to the area from Jamaica. His native country was so far away, and Weez’s show helped him feel connected to his roots.
“Weez is an ambassador (for reggae music) even though he’s not from Jamaica,” said Vidal who is the executive assistant for the housekeeping department at the Christy Lodge in Avon. “His show is helping people in Jamaica to spread their music and their music is part of their culture.”
The show is broadcast each Wednesday night from 9 to 11 p.m. on KZYR The Zephyr, 97.7 FM. The show is also broadcast in Aspen, Jackson, Wyoming and Sun Valley, Idaho and on the Internet, at live365.com.
“I have listeners all over,” said Weez, who admits he’s gotten a geography lesson over the years, looking up places he’s never heard of where people are listening, such as Reunion Island (east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean).
“My biggest market outside of the states is the Bahamas,” he said. “I don’t know if they play me in bar or where there, but they play me a lot down there.”
So what does it take to present a two-hour radio broadcast each week for nearly 20 years?
“A steadfast dedication to an art form,” writes Tom Genes, a fellow KZYR radio disc jockey about the accomplishment on the radio’s website. “An encyclopedic brain that would make Wikipedia jealous … Every business in this valley has struggled with employee attendance. Could you imagine if you had an employee who not just showed up but completed his weekly tasks on time every week for 19 plus years? Never complaining and never having a guest substitute and even covering his vacation weeks? That’s the kind of person we are talking about.”
CURRENT LEGENDS TO FUTURE HALL OF FAMERS
Weez plays all types of reggae music, including roots and dancehall. This past week was heroes day in Jamaica, so Weez played music from some reggae legends: Burning Spear, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the like.
“I also played John Holt, who just passed away, Dennis Brown, Gregory Issacs and a few artists who will be legends one day, some future hall of famers, like Tarrus Riley.”
Vidal’s favorite reggae tunes are of the roots genre.
“I like roots music, and Weez plays a lot of roots and culture music like Peter Tosh and Burning Spear,” Vidal said. “He doesn’t just play Bob Marley. Some people here in the valley, all the reggae they know is Bob Marley and there are a lot more reggae artists who are really awesome, who I like to listen to. His show rocks.”
That’s Weez’s goal, exposing as many as people as possible to the music he loves.
“Getting the reggae to the people, that’s the mission,” Weez said.
“Reggae is alive and well,” he said. Thanks in part to the “people who love it. There are people out there who love it enough that they make it their mission to spread it.”