Our Story

About Bill Zildjian

Bill Zildjian is a member of the Zildjian cymbal-making family. From his first days working summers as a teenager, he was in contact with the famous drummers who used his family’s cymbals onstage. After the family split the business into two companies in 1981, Bill’s main focus with the new company was “Artist Relations”, where that contact was formalized into marketing, product design, education, and service from the artist’s point of view. Read more…

Genesis of the Drummeradio concept

Modern music everywhere, from simple 5-second commercial jingles, to radio top-ten lists, to the most elaborate compositions, is dominated by the beat. The rich heritage of that beat can be seen in the composition of the modern American drum-set that plays the rhythms we hear: it is the only true American musical instrument and comprises a melting-pot of European, African, Asian, Caribbean, and Pan-American components. The beat in popular music is the same, drawing upon multiple ethnic origins. Moreover, the drumset and the beat are both still rapidly evolving. At present, we are unaware of any radio show that chronicles this evolution in real-time and makes it accessible to casual listeners at the same time.

Drummeradio is not intended to be a formal academic study of rhythm, but it should serve as a useful source document. Bill Zildjian is in a unique position, via his acquaintance with hundreds of important drummers, to be able to aggregate an oral history of this kind. Interviews are preserved in their entirety in podcast format; radio versions are edited to 58 minutes each in order to accommodate broadcast time limitations.

Outside of some very broad guidelines, the music selected by the guests is not guided or influenced in any way by Drummeradio or its members or staff. The result is an eclectic program of music, with rhythm the one common element. Selections on a single show can range from acoustic Jazz to Modern Rock music, Ethnic Folk music to Electronica, Funk to Latin Jazz, Big Bands, or Heavy Metal music. As such, the programming is not designed to fit any standard commercial radio programming format.

Producer: Joel Mann

Executive Producer: Deborah Joy Corey

Mission Statement

Drummeradio’s mission is to create an oral history of rhythm in popular music, as curated and recounted by the most prominent of those who created the rhythms at the time, as well as by those who are still active at the highest level of popular music today. Radio broadcast of this oral history will increase awareness and appreciation of rhythm’s special place in our culture.