With over 20 years of experience in the music industry, Rob Bleetstein’s passion for radio can be traced back to his New York metropolitan area roots and progressive stations WNEW/FM and WLIR/FM. An exuberant live music fan and live tape collector as well, it was Rob’s connection with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Grateful Dead that lured him to the Northern California, where he immersed himself in the sounds of the legendary KFAT/FM while attending San Jose State University and working at Record Factory, preparing him for what would become an ongoing journey in the music biz.

His first radio gig was as a DJ and Music Director at KHIP/FM, which had risen from the ashes of KFAT. A move to Nashville for a year found him at Bug Music publishing and doing his eclectic country programming on the AM dial.

Traversing through the worlds of record promotion and management led to tours with Robert Earl Keen and Junior Brown and a short stay in Austin, Texas. Settled back in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rob approached the respected radio trade publication The Gavin Report in late 1994 with the concept of creating a new alternative chart for country music, thus called Americana. He remained the Americana editor there and oversaw the influential and highly memorable In The Pines Americana Retreat in the woods of New Hampshire in 1997.

Upon exiting Gavin and anticipating the digital revolution, he then consulted for Liquid Audio before hooking up with David Grisman and his Acoustic Disc label to handle publicity, promotion and marketing. Rob is also the archivist and webmaster for the New Riders of the Purple Sage (www.nrps.net) and has produced five live CDs from the bands’ recorded concerts for the Kufala label.