Tune in on Sunday nights from 7 – 10pm for the finest in contemporary, guitar driven electric blues. It’s Hot!

Not counting the Animals, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Cream, Savoy Brown and other “blues based” rock and roll bands he listened to growing up, the blues first found Ted Todd in 1971 when a friend brought over the monumental John Lee Hooker album “Endless Boogie.” The passion, the drive, the altered state!

As a founding and Board of Director’s member of the Inland Empire Blues Society, Ted has a deep love for the blues. He currently is the editor of the I.E.B.S. monthly newsletter, “Inside Blues,” as well as the organizer of their events such as the annual “Blues Cats for Kids,” “Empire Awards” and many others like “Axe Attack,” “Harp Attack,” “Wild Women of the Blues,” and “The Spokane River Acoustic Blues Fest.” Ted also books traveling national and regional blues acts here in Spokane, such as “Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Blow-Out,” which featured Mark Hummel, Lee Oskar, James Harman, and James Cotton.

He has hosted many blues shows and events for such luminaries as Susan Tedeschi, Little Charlie & the Nightcats, Tommy Castro, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy.

Ted has M.C.’d for a number of events such as The Sunbanks Blues Festival, The Joseph Bronze, Blues & Brews, The Ritzville Blues Festival, Blues For Food, Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival, Hot August Nights, and many more.

He has been a judge in the Guitar Center “King of the Blues” competition, and the “International Blues Challenge” (I.B.C.) competition.

Ted’s goals are simple: support and promote the blues. One of his favorite ways of doing this is by co-hosting Blowtorch Blues on 98.9 KKZX with his friend Brion.

Brion Foster has a long background in radio, and has recently joined Ted Todd as co-host of Blowtorch Blues on 98.9 KKZX-FM!  

 I was first introduced to blues music by his older brothers, who played a lot of albums by Canned Heat, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, BB King, Mayall's Bluesbreakers, etc.  Being primarily a hard rock/heavy metal fan & musician (a Bassist) in his early teens, Brion realized how important blues was to his own music, and how the 3-chord, 1-4-5 blues structure was evident in a lot of his favorite "Heavy" bands.   

In the late 70's in West Texas, Brion began to show interest in blues-oriented rock music, and has played in numerous blues bands since those days, including his current band HOODOO UDU.

In the early nineties, Brion was involved in two low-power fm radio stations in the mountains of Ferry County, WA.  Brion was responsible for many duties at one of those stations: DJ training, producing three different nightly shows as well as working a full board shift all day five days a week.  

Brion also did a three hour show at a station in Curlew, Washington for a couple of years before moving to the Spokane area to attend college courses in 2001, where he started producing.