Conwell Is A Jock Who Really Rocks (Billboard - 2005)

Conwell Is A Jock Who Really Rocks
by Phyllis Stark

Billboard Magazine | July 2, 2005

Tommy Conwell used to be a rock star. Now, he plays them on the radio. The one-time leader of rock band Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers--who recorded two albums for Columbia Records--has been the midday personality on active rock WYSP Philadelphia since 2003. 

But in the 1980s and early '90s, Conwell was a local guitar hero and one of Philly's most promising native sons. 

Conwell, now 43, began playing music professionally at age 20, when he was a student at the University of Delaware. In 1984, he formed Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers, who quickly built a following playing at Philly-area clubs and campuses. Locals lined up around the block to see the blond, spiky-haired rock god and his band perform their high-energy, sweat-drenched sets. 

Such was the band's popularity that when a contest was held in 1987 for a free concert at a local high school, area teens sent in more than 11 million postcards. After a label bidding war, Conwell and his band signed with Columbia and released their major-label debut, "Rumble," in 1988. That album was followed by "Guitar Trouble" in 1990. 

In those heady years, the group got radio airplay and MTV exposure and appeared on the American Music Awards and on talk shows hosted by David Letterman and Arsenio Hall. But "Guitar Trouble" marked the band's swan song, and the beginning of the end of Conwell's music career. In 1993 he formed a new band, a punk rock/blues outfit called the Little Kings, who released two albums, including 1997's "Sho' Gone Crazy," on a tiny, independent label. 

By then, Conwell saw the writing on the wall, as both his career and his hair started to disappear. He went back to school, received his degree and became an elementary-school teacher. "I always said, 'When I'm not sitting at the table in the music industry anymore, I'm not going to hang around begging for crumbs,' " he says of the career change. He taught at an elementary school for five years before deciding that teaching was "entirely too much work for my lifestyle." 

He then began selling fencing for a friend's company. In 1999, Conwell was still employed outside the music business when Infinity's WYSP tapped him to host its Sunday-evening local-music show, "Loud and Local." "With him being a former rock star in Philly, it was a natural fit," WYSP VP of programming Tim Sabean says. 

Four years later, the station ran a contest to find its new midday jock. Conwell auditioned and was chosen by the audience to fill that role. Sabean says Conwell's local connection is part of his appeal. "He talks about Philly and can relate to Philly." As an added bonus, Sabean says, Conwell is "recognized on the street from his rock-star days." 

One advantage Conwell's past has given him is that he is totally comfortable at the many public appearances he does for the station. "I know what to do with a microphone in front of a live crowd," he says, noting that standing before an audience is hard for some jocks but has been his "bread and butter for a lot of years." 

Conwell continues to host the hourlong weekend program "Loud & Local," a part of his job he especially enjoys because he has complete creative control of the show. 

As a former Philly musician, his main goal for "Loud & Local" is to give exposure to bands for whom that kind of airplay means so much. "I try to make them all feel like rock stars, because I know how good that feels." 

He also knows what the flip side feels like--when radio gives an artist the cold shoulder. During his major-label days, Conwell and his band visited hundreds of radio stations while on tour, and with each visit, he says, "you never knew what you were going to get. You might get treated like the Rolling Stones or you might get treated like a nuisance." 

So when musicians visit his station, Conwell's rule is simple: "You need to be sweet to them." 

Having tasted life in the major leagues, Conwell has no regrets about the twists and turns. "I've been lucky my whole life--from having the good fortune I had to make records on Columbia and tour the world, then that goes away and this [career] pops up. I'm on the No. 1 rock station in Philadelphia--the station I grew up listening to." 

Asked what is appealing to him about his radio career, Conwell, who still performs sporadically cites a new kind of creativity and notes that "the hours are great." But mostly, he confesses, "I like being famous." 

In fact, Conwell admits that making the transition from rock star to third-grade teacher was extremely difficult. 

"When I went into teaching, it was time to get over myself," he says. "There was a lot of ego deflation that needed to occur, but it was great for me. Some of the best lessons I learned were in that time period." 

That experience made him appreciate his newfound notoriety much more. "When it's taken away and then given back, that's when it's really the sweetest."