B.B. King To Host XM Radio Show

Blues music legend B.B. King has come full circle: beginning in September 2008, King will be hosting a radio program for XM Radio. King's program will feature favorite blues and gospel songs hand-picked by the guitarist; King will also share stories from across the six decades of his lengthy and acclaimed career. In honor of King's upcoming show, the satellite radio network is renaming their dedicated blues music station "B.B. King's Bluesville" (XM 74).

When King moved to Memphis in 1948 to pursue what would become a storied career in the blues, he landed a job with radio station WDIA, performing his own music and spinning blues and R&B platters for listeners. Originally dubbed "The Peptikon Boy" (an alcohol-based elixir competing with the better-known Hadacol), King would later adopted "Beale Street Blues Boy" as his on-air name, shortening it to "Blues Boy," and, finally, "B.B." The following year, King cut his first sides...in the nearly 60-years since, B.B. King has released 50 albums, won 14 Grammy™ Awards, and been inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of the Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

We'll be eagerly anticipating King's return to the radio to hear what tunes the blues icon has to share!

B.B. King photo courtesy Geffen Records