Big Red came to 93.7 K-Country in 1994, but his radio days began long before that.  His career began when he was just 12 years old in West Virginia, where he was born.  He grew up watching his father work at the local radio station as a morning show host, and then as station manager.  Red set his sights on a career in radio starting out as a nighttime disc jockey at the same station his dad managed.

He wasn’t always known as “Big Red.”  Once upon a time, a man named Rick Brooks donned the airwaves.  It wasn’t until a former manager told him that nobody would remember his real name that he considered a change.  That same manager told him he should go by “Big Red,” since he had flaming red hair and was a tall drink of water at 6’3” tall.

Big Red moved to Florida in 1982 and spent many years in Orlando as part of the legendary Ron Bison morning show.  He made the move to Ocala and K-Country and has been North Central Florida’s afternoon companion ever since.

Red says it’s highly unlikely he would ever leave Florida because he loves all of the fishing options here.  You can often find him saltwater fishing in the Gulf of Mexico off the Cedar Key Pier or throwing a line in one of our many beautiful lakes and rivers.

Big Red is also an accomplished musician continuing to regularly play bass with his local church band.  Fun fact about Red: his band once backed Tejano country artist Johnny Rodriguez when he played at The Barn in Sanford.

When he’s not playing bass or fishing, he’s behind one of his many camera lenses.  Big Red took up photography as a hobby a few years ago and has become quite the photographer, capturing local scenery as well as Nashville artists who are passing through K-Country.

With George Strait, Garth Brooks, and Randy Houser as just a few of his favorite artists, Big Red has a lot of inspiration to draw from when it comes to his own music, and his knowledge of country music is so vast that K-Country found the perfect home for it: The Saturday Night Gold Rush.  That’s where you’ll find Big Red telling some amazing stories about the artists he’s met throughout his career.

Big Red sums it up pretty simply, “I love playing music, I love working here, and I love reading about country music artists.”

Listen to Big Red weekdays 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on 93.7 K-Country!