Ted Redington (aka Reddytone) was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up on the South Shore of Long Island. He graduated from Miami (Ohio) University, in Oxford, OH, where he developed an interest in bluegrass and country music. He moved to Cincinnati, learned to play guitar and mandolin and soon fronted a band called The Reddytones. The band played many venues in the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northern Kentucky area. Ted was asked to produce a two hour bluegrass program on a local public radio station and was eventually able to make the leap into commercial radio, working at stations in Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati and Middletown, Ohio. WPFB AM 910/ FM 106, the once legendary station in Middletown, invited him to produce the Ted Reddytone & Friends Show, unique in that it featured live studio music from bluegrass and country artists, such as song writer, John Hartford; Grand Old Opry’s Johnny Russell, and many other national and local artists. Ted was able to parlay the radio shows into many more band appearances for the Reddytones in the Ohio and Kentucky area, trips to Nashville to broadcast live from the C.M.A. awards, concert ticket giveaways, country music contests, etc. He also played in the Cincinnati band, The Bus Driver Band. Ted currently lives and plays music in Miami Beach, FL. Because of his Cincinnati broadcasting and on stage band experience, he formed this band, The Cincinnati Radio Band, and is bringing it to Miami to perform.
Trina Emig began studying Scruggs style banjo with Vernon McIntyre in 1988. By 1990 she was teaching banjo and touring and performing nationally with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass. She has also played with Kentucky 31, Missy Werner, Katie Laur’s All-Girl Bluegrass band, Ma Crow, Devon Johnson, Skirt and Boots, Will Kimble, and many others. Several of these bands were multi-nominees for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards during her time with them. She also played drums and recorded with the country-swing band, Dr. Twang and the Stainless Steel. Trina is the author of Becoming Banjo Worthy, a comprehensive Scruggs style banjo instruction book, which has both written and recorded instructions. She owns and operates Boopie Recording Studios and has engineered and produced a number of highly regarded CDs. She was also Miss September in the 2016 edition of the internationally distributed calendar, Banjo Babes.
Jim Huey has played with a number of bands in New Orleans and the Cincinnati area having made appearances at the Carter Family Fold, Kennedy Center, West Virginia Mountain Stage, Riders Radio Theatre, Station Inn, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Hugo Oklahoma, and the Wheeling Jamboree. He also appeared with Tim O’Brien, Missy Raines, and Buddy Griffin at Melvin Goins’ induction into the West Virginia Bluegrass Hall of Fame. Jim says, “I started playing the dobro in 1966. One night I tuned in the Grand Ole Opry and heard Roy Acuff’s show. There was a sound, an instrument, that I just fell in love with though I didn’t know what it was. Later I learned that sound came from a dobro played by Bashful Brother Oswald. I bought the first dobro I found but I knew nothing about it. How was it tuned? How do you put the picks on your fingers? So I did the logical thing. I drove to Nashville, found Oswald and asked him how he tuned his dobro. From that point I listened to the Opry and tried to imitate what I heard. Since the dobro had been supplanted by the steel guitar in country music, I began to play in bluegrass bands because they played acoustical music. The dobro is the most interesting bluegrass instrument to me because there are many different styles, tunings, and ways to contribute to a song, particularly in playing backup. I have borrowed {stolen?} from steel players and many dobro players, made up things on my own, and tried to mix it all up to make my own style.”
Jim Gaube grew up with music being a way of life for his entire family. He spent his early childhood singing gospel in the church and sang in choirs all the way through high school. He began studying violin at the age of 9, continuing through high school, and then studied music theory at Grace College in Omaha, NE. His musical career took off in early 2017 when he began playing the upright bass. Since then he has appeared with the band Carter Bridge at the Sugar Maple Festival and with Trina Emig and the Comet Bluegrass All-Stars at the Appalachian Festival. He has also played at the 4th of July celebration at the Ryland Country Club with Harry Sparks and Wayne Clyburn, the VA International Wheelchair Games with John Schneider and Jim Huey, and the Eastgate Brew and View with Ashley Messenger and Laura Hasek. He is currently performing in a new band in Cincinnati called Rivertown Darby with Will Kimble and Trina Emig and continues looking forward to playing gigs with the Cincinnati Radio Band as often as possible!
Laura Hasek was born on the North Coast, near Cleveland, OH, and has been playing violin nearly all her life. She was classically trained as a child, but after moving to Cincinnati she joined the local musicians playing for contra dances. This experience was her introduction to learning folk, bluegrass, and old-time way of fiddling. She also played in various groups led by Malcolm Dalglish and Grey Larsen gigging throughout the Cincinnati area. Then she met the Roadhouse Ramblers with Terry Pender and Brian Buckley and started to learn to improvise, using the music theory she learned in college. She later played with The Flock headed by Dave Gilligan, a prolific local musician and an old friend. During this time, Cincinnati was a very big town for Irish music, so Laura spent many years playing gigs at Mick Noll’s Covington house, Arnolds, Hap’s Irish Pub, and various other venues. Laura is now turning her attention to playing bluegrass/old-time country music with fellow musicians Trina Emig, Jim Gaube, Jim Huey, Ted Redington, and others. Laura met Ted Redington while playing music with Dave Gilligan many years ago and played on Ted’s radio show with Chicken Deluxe, a band with Gilligan, the late Wayne Cooper, Scar Tucker, and others. Laura brings her musical energy and experience to all of The Cincinnati Radio Band gigs.