WROX Radio

03/06/2025

03/05/2025

03/05/2025

It's time for the Chamber to announce details for everyone's favorite weekend in Clarksdale, Juke Joint Festival.

The Chamber of Commerce will be hosting our annual

Dash Down Delta 5K, April 12,2025.

DASH DOWN DELTA 5K

April 12, 2025

Downtown Clarksdale

7 AM - Check In

Get your weekend started right by joining our Dash Down Delta 5K! The race will start at the Cutrer Mansion.

Check in will be 7AM and the race will start at 8AM.

We can't wait to see everyone.

Use the following link to register for the 5K:

https://crossroadseconomicpartnership.com/living-here/dash-down-delta-5k/

03/02/2025

The Anna & Raven Show, on WROX, Weekday mornings 5AM-10AM beginning this Monday, March 3rd! We welcome Anna & Raven to Clarksdale! Tune in to 97.5 FM / 1450 AM for lots of fun, entertainment and good information weekday mornings, on Clarksdale's Legendary WROX!!

02/16/2025

Music Attractions in Tupelo Tupelo, Mississippi, is the birthplace of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, and home to the annual Tupelo Elvis Festival, which draws Elvis fans from around the world every year. (This year’s festival is […]

02/16/2025

Bonnie Raitt has always been vocal about her admiration for Mississippi Fred McDowell. Her deep respect for McDowell's music and his influence on her own work is well-documented. Raitt first encountered McDowell's music in the early 1960s, and she was immediately drawn to his unique style of bottleneck blues guitar.

In interviews, Raitt has often spoken about how McDowell's music inspired her to pursue a career in blues. She admired his raw, authentic sound and his ability to convey deep emotion through his music. Raitt even had the opportunity to meet and learn from McDowell in person, which she has described as a pivotal moment in her musical journey.

Raitt's admiration for McDowell is evident in her own music. She has covered several of his songs and often incorporates his slide guitar techniques into her performances. Raitt's dedication to preserving and promoting traditional blues music is a testament to the profound impact that McDowell had on her as an artist.

02/16/2025

Early Lee Wright, also known as "The Soul Man" was born February 10, 1915 in in Jefferson, Mississippi

became Mississippi’s first black disc jockey when he started work at Clarksdale’s WROX in 1947.

His pre-radio jobs included farming, operating a train, running a mechanic shop, and managing a gospel group, the Four Star Quartet.

Wright hosted many well-known musicians on his radio program, including Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Pinetop Perkins, Robert Nighthawk, and Elvis Presley. In the early 1950s Wright helped introduce a young Ike Turner to radio audiences; Turner went on to host a weekly show on WROX and played live broadcasts with his band, the Kings of Rhythm, and with his wife, Tina Turner. Assuming that listeners knew the music he played, Wright rarely gave the name of the song or artist. He had a very personal delivery, creating a down-home feel to his radio broadcasts. Much of his banter was related to community events, church announcements, and even minor local occurrences: “I want to let you know that some snakes has been seen in the Roundyard neighborhood. The grass has grown up around the sidewalks and snakes has been seen, looking for water. And a man told me the other day, he saw a snake in the street.” All of his announcements were unscripted, and he put his personal stamp on advertisements: “At the M&F Grocery and Market, the aisles are so big that two shopping carts can pass each other and never bump into each other.” Members of Wright’s large audience, which included both black and white listeners, would call into WROX and request blues, soul, gospel, and R&B songs.

Wright’s long, distinguished career resulted in the creation of an annual lecture at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture in the 1980s and 1990s. Every year, the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival in Clarksdale gives the Early Wright Blues Heritage Award to nonmusicians who have helped “preserve, promote, perpetuate, and document blues in the Mississippi Delta.”

Wright retired from broadcasting in 1998 and died of a heart attack on 10 December 1999.