Lee Michael Demsey
Host, Bluegrass Overnight
Though his full time job is with iSmithsonian Folkways Recordings, Lee Michael Demsey has been a bluegrass host at WAMU 88.5 for more than 28 years. He can be heard on Bluegrass Overnight and on bluegrasscountry.org.
Lee was born in California in 1953, moved to suburban Washington, D.C., in 1960, and has lived in Maryland ever since. His college years were spent at American University, where he earned a bachelors degree in communications in 1975. Working at the student station as music director, he began to earn a few extra dollars as a substitute engineer at WAMU 88.5.
That led to a fill-in gig as host of the FM station's popular (believe it or not) weekday afternoon drivetime heavy metal and hard rock show, the Rock and Roll Jukebox, of which Lee became the full time host in 1976. At the time, the station's main focus was news/talk and classical music. He also hosted a progressive rock show on the station in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period where the station was also adding more bluegrass programming to its mix. When the station decided to drop its mid-day Big Band program, they came to Lee, knowing of his eclectic taste in music, to see if he'd host a contemporary bluegrass show to be a companion to the popular afternoon drivetime traditional bluegrass show. The show began as Capital Bluegrass, but evolved into The Lee Michael Demsey Show as folk music was added to the mix. The show ran on WAMU 88.5 from 1983-1993. He kept his presence at WAMU 88.5 for the following eight years, filling in frequently on the drivetime bluegrass show, Bluegrass Country.
Lee also also put in time at other stations, including a weekend shift at the area's country station, WMZQ, through the 1980s, as well as a Sunday morning acoustic music show on WHFS in the early 90s, and stints at WTRI and alt-rock WGTB.
Lee serves on the board of directors of the International Bluegrass Music Association and the Washington Area Music Association. He also compiles the Bleugrass Unilimited National Bluegrass Survey, a monthly chart of the most popular bluegrass songs according to disc jockeys all across the country. Lee has done a weekly show for BluegrassCountry.org since late 2001 and recently began recording his shows out of a home studion in his basement.
In addition to his love of bluegrass and folk music, Lee is a 1960s music collector and trivia buff, with thousands of pop and rock 45s and LPs in his library.
