Though Connecticut has a strong country music fan base, it certainly doesn’t trend toward the roots of America’s first genre—especially not with a younger audience. However, University of New Haven (UNH) student and Guilford High School (GHS) grad Joe Markowski is building a “country” wide following with his radio show on the institution’s station, WNHU. Joe says his love of country music comes from his parents, who were fans of the genre. Joe fondly recalls tinkering with his dad in the family garage while listening to old-school country songs.

“I have always loved music, but country music specifically was from my parents. Their favorite music was country artists like Alan Jackson. Whenever Alan Jackson would come on the radio, I can remember my dad and my mom saying, ‘This is our guy!’ My family is into fixing old cars, so me and my dad would be working in the garage, and he would put on an old Alan Jackson CD, and we would be working away on cars listening to country, and I guess that’s where it started. It gets in your blood.”

Joe graduated from GHS in 2022 and started at UNH last year, looking to major in communications and public relations.

“I’m a student at the University of New Haven, and the show is done from the studio on campus, WNHU,” says Joe. “It’s great that the school has such tremendous facilities. We have our own building, and the station broadcasts for a little over 30 miles, and I think we reach as far as Killingworth and up toward Danbury.”

Joe says a career in radio would be ideal, but changes within the industry, which has all but removed DJs from programming, makes that decision a hard one. According to Joe, his mentor, renowned former WPLR and ‘80s and ‘90s icon DJ Bruce Barber, related to his take on the change in radio, which has been transformed by advancing technology.

“I’m studying communications. It’s difficult to say what that might translate into. I would love to have a career in radio, maybe with SiriusXM or something along those lines. But Bruce Barber, who is kind of like my mentor, he was telling me, ‘Joe, back when I was doing it, everyone was listening to radio, but not anymore.’ In the early 2000s, it started changing; iTunes started coming around, and then streaming services became so popular, and radio just simply is not as popular as it was. As far as a career in radio, I’m not quite sure yet,” says Joe. “But my career also has a concentration in public relations, so I can go and work for a company as a PR guy.”

However, Joe says, his first love will also be spinning roots country music for his listeners, who, due to technology, he can now reach across the country. Joe says his fans appreciate his selections of more roots country music rather than today’s trend toward a more pop sound that almost all “country” radio now focuses on.

“We broadcast nationwide over the internet. Folks can go to www.wnhu.org, and that is where many of my listeners come from. I’ve really been trying to promote that,” says Joe. “I’ve gotten emails and messages from people who say they listen from California or from North Carolina. It’s amazing how people gravitate toward the country music I’m playing because you just can’t really hear that on the radio anymore,” says Joe.

America proudly boasts its unique contributions to music; blues, jazz, and rock, but all of those styles were born out of America’s first musical creation, country. An amalgam of British drinking songs and African, Irish, and British instrumentation, combined with the young colonies growing independence, country music helped inspire every genre that came after.

Joe says the “every man” aspect of the tunes he spins inspires him personally and why his interest in the style means so much to him.

“I really love that traditional sound. Today when I listen to country music, it sounds like pop or rap, which I like, but not as much as the traditional artists; it’s just different. Traditional country music is written by the everyday man, who probably didn’t even know they were going to become a country star. They didn’t even want that. When you think about artists like Merle Haggard, who was in prison, and when he saw Johnny Cash, he said, ‘Man, that’s what I want to do when I get out of here.’ You think about an artist like Alan Jackson who was a carpenter; he was a mechanic, so many odd jobs before he was able to make it,” says Joe. “Country music tells the story of these people, and that’s what makes it so relatable to anybody who listens to it. I think that there’s probably a country song that every person can relate to. I like to feature George Straight, Clint Black, George Jones…As far as female artists, I play Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, Loretta Lynn, Pam Tillis, Barbara Mandrell…I play everybody who really has that traditional sound.”

Joe says he feels a duty to try and keep that sound alive for listeners and fans. Despite the corporate oversight that all radio genres now must bow to, the college radio allows Joe the freedom to play the songs he likes and to broadcast those deep cuts that music fans listen for.

“At stations today, the DJs can’t really pick the music they want to play. They play what they get paid to play. Wherever the most money is, that’s what gets played, and that’s why a lot of traditional country gets left out,” Joe says.

Joe plays guitar himself and also plays on his show. He also brings in regional artists to play live on his show and is looking for local businesses to sponsor his show.

Joe’s show broadcasts every Tuesday from 3 to 5 p.m. on 88.7 WNHU or nationwide on www.wnhu.org. For more information about Joe and his show, visit www.wnhu.org or www.joemarkowski.com, or email him at joesnashvillesound@gmail.com.