DETROIT - October 3, 2002 - Saturday afternoons have long been a special time for thousands of Detroit area listeners to be next to their radios. For 25 years, Larry McDaniel, host of the Arkansas Traveler on WDET 101.9FM,has been entertaining and educating listeners with his passion and infinite knowledge of bluegrass music.

"It's been a lot of fun," said Larry McDaniel of his years hosting the WDET program. "Bluegrass is our music, it's American. It's like blues or jazz. This music is about roots."

Regular listeners to the Arkansas Traveler know that McDaniel's program is about the music, and his encyclopedic knowledge of bluegrass history and artists. The only show of its kind in southeast Michigan, the Arkansas Traveler continues to be one of WDET's most popular music programs and is one of the longest running bluegrass music programs in the country. The Arkansas Traveler can be heard Saturdays from 3 to 5pm on WDET 101.9FM.

"On behalf of everyone at WDET, I want to congratulate Larry on 25 years of excellence and thank him for his dedication to the station and his program," said Judy Adams, WDET program director. "The Arkansas Traveler is the kind of program that is core to the mission of our station, and Larry's work over the years has been outstanding."

McDaniel, an Arkansas native, had early experience as a music host on a U.S. Navy ship, where he had to hang the record player on overhead pipes to keep it straight while it played. Eventually he made his way to Detroit. On October7, 1977, McDaniel opened his first program on WDET with the song, "Knockin' on Your Door" by a group called Old and in the Way. And the music hasn't stopped playing since.

WDET 101.9 FM Detroit Public Radio is a community service of Wayne State University.