KUNV’s self-taught ‘blues doctor’ has no reason to feel down

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 | 2 a.m.

When Brian “The Blues Doctor” Spencer isn’t pitchin’ the blues, he’s often pitchin’ baseballs.

Spencer hosts the long-running program “Nothin’ but the Blues” from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturdays on KUNV 91.5-FM.

But the deejay also coaches a Little League team and plays on an adult baseball team on Sundays.

If he’s not on the diamond or sitting behind the microphone at the KUNV studio, Spencer spends as much time as possible with his family.

“Family is the most precious thing a man and a father can have,” says Spencer, 38. He and his wife, Lisa, have two sons, Shane, 8, and Andrew, 5, and a daughter, Taylor, 4. “I just suddenly lost my father three weeks ago and if it wasn’t for my wife, I would not be getting through it.”

“The Blues Doctor” discovered the blues in Las Vegas.

Spencer was born in Vandalia, Ohio, and worked for Delta Air Lines in Dayton, Cincinnati and Newark, N.J.

“I started out working on the ramp, loading and unloading planes — luggage and freight,” he says. “Then I went to cleaning planes and was transferred to Cincinnati, where I did everything, including reservations.”

Delta began cutting back and Spencer and his wife decided to move to Vegas in 1995. “We were just tired of the Midwest,” he says. “We wanted something different.”

Lisa Spencer worked as a chef for Harrah’s for 13 years. When the company cut back last year, she took a job in sales for Le Chef Bakery.

Brian Spencer worked for a landscaping company, a bowling alley and a liquor store before landing a maintenance job for Harsch Investment Properties.

“I was never much into the blues till I moved to Vegas,” he says. “I met a guy working maintenance in the apartment complex where we lived and he turned me onto the blues.”

Spencer, who’s not a musician, fell in love with the music.

“It’s the original American music,” he says. “It’s the one thing that America can call its own.”

He read a lot of books and listened to a lot of music. “I taught myself all about the blues, and I created a monster there.”

He began listening to “Nothin’ but the Blues” and KUNV and started talking by phone and e-mail with the host, Alan “A.J.” Lipsky.

“One day he invited me on the program,” Spencer says. “Then I became part of the program. We became a team.”

They did the show together for about three years, and Spencer took over when Lipsky left eight years ago. He flew solo until last year, when Earl “The Duke of Juke” Bostic became his co-host.

“I mix it up quite a bit,” Spencer says. “But I’m only on four hours a week. I could do four hours a day, easy. I try to mix it up the best I can with the time limit that I have.”

These days Spencer is excited about two big changes at KUNV — a new studio and streaming on the Internet.

The station is broadcasting from a studio in an office complex at 1515 E. Tropicana Ave., a few blocks from UNLV.

“KUNV is moving back on campus in August, and it’s going to be all digital — top-of-line stuff,” he says. “They have built us a really nice facility” in Greenspun Hall.

A couple of weeks ago the station began streaming on the Internet, which has expanded the fan base of “Nothin’ but the Blues.”

“It really broadens the whole world,” he says. “We did it once before, a few years back, and we got responses from places like Spain and Australia.”

The economy is having an effect on the listener-supported radio station, Spencer says.

“We survive on donations from the Las Vegas community,” he says. “The last pledge drive was not the greatest. Another one is coming up in April. We hope to do better.”

He says “Nothin’ but the Blues” isn’t in any danger.

“My program always seems to do well,” Spencer says. “It’s one of the more popular shows on the weekend.”