I am very sad to report to SoulTrackers the death of famed radio disc jockey, Bobby Bennett at age 72. For me this story is extremely personal. Because without Bobby Bennett, SoulTracks would not exist. But more on that in a minute.
Bobby had a brilliant career, most of which was in the DC area, where he was known as “The Mighty Burner” and hosted a very popular show on WOL-AM in the 1970s. It was during that period that he was named Disc Jockey of the Year by Billboard magazine. He later went on to become program director for WHUR-FM before entering the new stage of his career around the turn of the century as the creator of the “Soul Street” station on fledgling satellite radio network XM Radio. He also authored the book The Ultimate Soul Trivia Book and was a virtual encyclopedia on all things "soul."
I am very sad to report to SoulTrackers the death of famed radio disc jockey, Bobby Bennett at age 72. For me this story is extremely personal. Because without Bobby Bennett, SoulTracks would not exist. But more on that in a minute.
Bobby had a brilliant career, most of which was in the DC area, where he was known as “The Mighty Burner” and hosted a very popular show on WOL-AM in the 1970s. It was during that period that he was named Disc Jockey of the Year by Billboard magazine. He later went on to become program director for WHUR-FM before entering the new stage of his career around the turn of the century as the creator of the “Soul Street” station on fledgling satellite radio network XM Radio. He also authored the book The Ultimate Soul Trivia Book and was a virtual encyclopedia on all things "soul."
During Bobby’s time on “Soul Street” at XM Radio, he contacted me. I didn’t know him, but he had seen a few soul music biographies that I had written on David Nathan’s SoulMusic.com website. Bobby asked if I would create a soul music biography show that he would run on Soul Street. I did a couple shows for him, and that convinced me to follow my passion as a writer and to create a soul music information website, where I could honor the same artists that he was playing on Soul Street. So on Memorial Day weekend in 2003, the home page of SoulTracks.com went live for the first time, and the story of this site (now thousands of reviews, news stories and biographies later) began.
I only did a couple of shows on XM Radio, and Bobby and I lost touch. But I continued to listen to his show when I could, and I often thought about the unlikely confluence of events in 2003 that led to the creation of this website that has meant so much to me and hundreds of thousands of other people. And those events began with The Mighty Burner, Mr. Bobby Bennett. For that, and for his long career of bringing joy to soul music fans, I will forever remain grateful.
Godspeed, Bobby.
By Chris Rizik