Arriving in 1984, Catt Sirten ventured to Mobile to help establish Mobile’s 92 ZEW radio station, and has since developed a deep understanding of the city’s unique music culture.
Although a native southerner, Sirten has traveled across the nation to learn and develop the skill he now possesses of being a radio personality, and in 1984, Sirten finally sunk his roots into the city of Mobile.
During his first visit to Mobile in 1982, Sirten was out listening to a local band when he was astounded to hear the band’s song choice. An up-and-coming musician at the time, Dean Friedman’s song was being sung. As a radio personality, Sirten comes across a lot of musicians, musicians you may have never even heard of, musicians like Dean Friedman, whom he was a fan of. In that moment, at that bar, Sirten knew there was something “special” about Mobile. “Mobile has had a progressive radio station that introduced music that people didn’t hear any place else,” said Sirten.
Once he finally moved to Mobile, Sirten was working with The ZEW and playing tracks he was sent from all over the nation. Sirten explained that, although the embezzlement scandal of the mid-80s led to somewhat of a “blackballing” of live music in the city, the radio business in Mobile continued to thrive.
While local music was just starting to become big in Mobile, the local radio stations were making waves in the record industry nationwide. Mobilians were listening to music that was only being played in a few other cities.
“People in Atlanta, people in Nashville, they don’t know the music people here in Mobile grew up with,” Sirten explained. “Mobile is a very interesting place, because of that.”
This ultimately drew attention to numerous artists we all know and love today such as Tracy Chapman, Melissa Etheridge, Bruce Hornsby and Dave Matthews Band. Sirten explained the process that got us to that point, saying, “Mobile has always been a very unique music market at how open-minded people are to a lot of different kinds of music. Rock, country, oldies, urban music. But, eclectic music, the record industry loved it. We broke so much [records] music because we would try it.”
The combination of various music styles, also known as eclectic music, was a developing music trend in Sirten’s early years in Mobile. The more the local radio stations played this revolutionary style of music, the more successful these artists became. For Mobile, eclectic music became the norm and is what the general public began to crave. Although eclectic music is popular today (and the term is hardly used now), before, in the 1980s, this style was just beginning to appear in the music industry.
As Sirten has watched the growth of the local music industry over these past few decades, he has continued to be involved in the local entertainment industry. Along with hosting the radio show "Radio Avalon" and, actively, hosting "Catt's Sunday Jazz Brunch" every Sunday on 92 ZEW, Sirten has also delved into the television and photography realm of the Mobile area. Sirten also continues putting together his "Brown Bag" concerts, a series of weekly concerts that take place for nine weeks during the spring and fall months in both Mobile and Daphne.
You can tune in to 92.1 to experience Sirten's Jazz Brunch show from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. every Sunday for a taste of classic jazz music. If you're looking to learn more about Sirten's successes you can visit his website, http://www.radioavalon.com/catt.asp.
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