About Us

The Blues Alley Radio has now been streaming 24/7 for almost 11 years!!

The station is one of 12 currently under the umbrella of Scorpion Radio Group, Inc. founded by on-air personality and media entrepreneur, Bob Steele, in 2011. After almost four decades of radio broadcasting in major markets up and down the eastern seaboard, Steele realized the future of his beloved media was shifting towards web-based mobile and smart phone apps.

Bob Steele

From the beginning, as Steele laid plans for what was to become Scorpion Radio Group, Inc., he knew he wanted to work with his life-long friend, college roommate and Blues aficionado, Bill “Big Dog” van Elburg, to develop a Blues station playing every style of Blues: from the earliest field hollers and work chants, to Delta, Memphis, Piedmont, Chicago, Texas, West Coast – and everything in between. Big Dog doesn’t believe in simply covering the better known hits of the past and present. His philosophy is to go deep, look for the obscurities, root out the influences, and see how the music evolved and where it is today. He is committed to providing a platform and programming that allows Indie Blues artists – both established and emerging – to be heard by an appreciative world-wide audience. 

Big Dog, a former member and President Emeritus of the now defunct Natchel’ Blues Network, a Norfolk, Virginia based 501-C-3 Blues society, collected and up-loaded over ten-thousand songs to establish the original on-air library to launch the station in July of 2013. This library has grown since then to include over thirty-thousand songs and continues to grow with the monthly inclusion of new releases by current Blues artists and bands as well as the addition of old classics and rarities as they are discovered and aquired.

Big Dog

Don’t be shocked by what you may hear while listening to our great station. While we play every style of Classic Blues, we also play some early R&B, Blues Rock, Acid Blues, Jazz Blues, Gospel Blues (or Blues Gospel) and pride ourselves on going for the really deep cuts. Our de-facto Blues “Bible” is The Grove Press Guide to the Blues by Frank John Hadley. Big Dog’s well-worn copy is a first edition printed in 1993. This book is a great resource and has served us well in selecting the music we play and also in validating our own long-held views regarding the nature of Blues music. What we hope to ultimately illustrate and share with our listeners is the interrelatedness between these various musical styles, and the very personal expression of these by the individual artists. Keep on Bluzin’ and keep the Blues alive!