Tom Lounges
Host of Midwest BeatTom Lounges has been a region radio personality and a music journalist since 1979. For the last 35-years, he has been reporting on entertainment as a weekly columnist and feature writer for The Times newspaper. He was also publisher and editor of the monthly tri-state entertainment magazine ("Midwest BEAT Magazine") for over two decades, he has written hundreds of features for numerous national glossy magazines over the decades, and he wrote "Liner Notes" for over a dozen albums release by Sony Records.
After many years hosting his own shows on commercial radio, Tom switched to public radio 4 years ago, claiming he was enticed by the creative freedom the format offers. Today, Lounges is heard hosting TWO weekly interview programs on 89.1FM - LAKESHORE PUBLIC RADIO of NORTHWEST INDIANA.
Those Lakeshore Public Radio programs are the celebrity interview/music program “Midwest BEAT with Tom Lounges” (Tuesdays at 7pm) and an interview program focused on authors, filmmakers and others in creative arts on the program, “A Look at the Arts with Tom Lounges” (Fridays at 1pm).
Tom has earned special recognition awards for his work in the entertainment field and has rubbed elbows with a virtual "Who's Who" of major entertainment figures and top stars over his 40 years in the music an media industry.
He is president and owner of TOM LOUNGES ENTERTAINMENT, LLC which produces entertainment events, books musical talent and does consultation. Tom has been a guest speaker on music, entertainment, and journalism at various schools and colleges in northwest Indiana and the Chicago areas.
Lounges currently sits on the board of the Lake County Public Library Foundation and heads up the fundraising projects for The Humane Society of Northwest Indiana.
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Each week's program finds producer and host Tom Lounges blending together various styles and eras of the blues -- from the old school legends, to the top contemporary players of today, along with some of the up and young guns deserving to have their music heard. Audiences will hear the guitar greats, the harp blowers, the piano pounders, the singers, and the shouters. Some of club-hopping Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland's regional players also get showcased on this program. -
Each week's program finds producer and host Tom Lounges blending together various styles and eras of the blues -- from the old school legends, to the top contemporary players of today, along with some of the up and young guns deserving to have their music heard. Audiences will hear the guitar greats, the harp blowers, the piano pounders, the singers, and the shouters. Some of club-hopping Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland's regional players also get showcased on this program
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Each week's program finds producer and host Tom Lounges blending together various styles and eras of the blues -- from the old school legends, to the top contemporary players of today, along with some of the up and young guns deserving to have their music heard. Audiences will hear the guitar greats, the harp blowers, the piano pounders, the singers, and the shouters. Some of club-hopping Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland's regional players also get showcased on this program
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Each week's program finds producer and host Tom Lounges blending together various styles and eras of the blues -- from the old school legends, to the top contemporary players of today, along with some of the up and young guns deserving to have their music heard. Audiences will hear the guitar greats, the harp blowers, the piano pounders, the singers, and the shouters. Some of club-hopping Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland's regional players also get showcased on this program
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Each week's program finds producer and host Tom Lounges blending together various styles and eras of the blues -- from the old school legends, to the top contemporary players of today, along with some of the up and young guns deserving to have their music heard. Audiences will hear the guitar greats, the harp blowers, the piano pounders, the singers, and the shouters. Some of club-hopping Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland's regional players also get showcased on this program.
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My guest this evening is California-based blues woman VAL STARR of VAL STARR & THE BLUES ROCKET .Val Starr & the Blues Rocket have shared the stage with the likes of Albert Cummings, Rick Estrin, Coco Montoya, Tommy Castro, EG Kight, EC Scott, Laurie Morvan, and Chris Cain, to name but a few.As a longtime fan of this talented singer/songwriter and performer's West Coast Blues sound, show host Tom Lounges has featured Starr on his radio shows in the past, and is thrilled to be offered the honor of debuting some of the brand new songs from Val's forthcoming album, which will drop in April of 2024. -
Darr is a promising young singer/songwriter from NWI Indiana that popped on my radar about a year ago. She performed 5 songs during tonight's program in between chatting about her music, her family and her forthcoming plans for releasing her music. -
JENNY BOYD is Tom's celebrity guest this evening on 89.1-FM for Lakeshore Public Radio's weekly celebrity interview/music program, "Midwest BEAT with Tom Lounges."Boyd is a former 1960's British "Swingin' Sixties" fashion model, the ex-wife of Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, the former sister-in-law of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and has spent much of her life in the proximity of musical and cultural influencers. Her access has allowed her to interview some of the world’s most recognizable musicians regarding their thoughts about the creative process.Boyd's new book -- "Icons of Rock—In Their Own Words" -- is a compendium that provides an intimate insight into how some the world’s greatest musicians and producers created some of their greatest work. It will be published in the U.S. by Mango Publishing on February 13, 2024.Among the music legends interviewed in her book are Eric Clapton, Julian Lennon, Don Henley, Keith Richard, Ringo Starr, Steve Winwood, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, John Lee Hooker and many others. Songs by artists like Donovan, Graham Nash, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac will be included in this broadcast between interview segments -
Every January, The Times daily newspaper publishes Tom Lounges' personal picks -- 'Tom's Top 10 Regional Albums of the Year" -- culled from the many albums released by artists from the Chicagoland music.Once the list is published in the newspaper, Tom dedicates a radio program to spotlight a song from each of his TOP 10 picks so the public has a chance to hear this great new, locally produced original music. -
NWI music maker JOE MARCINEK stops by the Lakeshore Public Media studio on "Midwest BEAT with Tom Lounges."Marcinek will debut for the first time on radio, songs from his ninth and newest album, "1 RIVER STREET," which is the follow-up to Marcinek's "Dead Funk Summit," which has made Tom Lounges's "Tom's Top 10 Regional Albums of 2023."
