David Alert estimates he has about 400 records in his personal reggae collection.

That number is impressive when you consider that it doesn’t include the wealth of LPs, tapes and CDs that have been sent to him by bands looking for airplay on his weekly radio show, “Reggae Street.”

“My collection of reggae music had grown to about 200 albums after high school,” the 46-year-old Alert says. “I had been playing music to my friends, but I never heard it on the radio. So I finally approached WVPE-FM (88.1) in ’83 (about creating a reggae show).”

It’s taken two radio stations, at least three time slots and a little help from some friends, but this week marks the 25th anniversary of Alert’s “Reggae Street,” which can currently be heard from 10 p.m. to midnight Saturdays on the University of Notre Dame’s WSND-FM (88.9). To celebrate the milestone, Alert is promoting a series of reggae concerts throughout the year, including Saturday’s show with the Ifficial Reggae Movement at South Bend’s Anchor Inn.

Known to friends and listeners as “Reggae Dave” and “The Originator,” Alert says his sister Mary first exposed him to the music.

“I grew up listening to Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead — music that had political or social meaning to it,” Alert says. “My sister had visited Jamaica in the mid 1970s and brought back ‘Bob Marley and the Wailers Live in England’ and ‘Funky Kingston’ (by Toots & the Maytals). Whether it was protest songs or calling for unifying peace, I heard the same message in reggae.”

He put that message on the air in April of ’83, learning the controls from friend Tom Conway, who also helped co-host the show in its early years and contributes to The Tribute as a correspondent.

Alert didn’t waste any time using the new platform to attract regional bands to the area.

A month after starting “Reggae Street” on WVPE, Alert booked his first band to play his own 22nd birthday party at a VFW post in Elkhart.

The band, a group of Ethiopian college students studying in Chicago, had car trouble, but eventually made the gig when an elderly white man in an RV offered to drive them to the show.

“I remember the guy stuck around and even offered his RV as a dressing room,” Alert says. “They spent the night at my mother’s home and a friend of mine drove them back to Chicago the next day.”

That band, Dallol, would eventually tour with and later back Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers during the 1980s.

They are just one of a number of reggae bands that Alert has booked locally. He credits Chicago-based band Tony Bell & Kutchie for helping raise reggae’s profile locally, and is perhaps most proud of booking the legendary Jamaican group Burning Spear, fronted by Winston Rodney.

“You cross your fingers and hope for a good turnout,” Alert says. “There are going to be some nights when you’re going to take a hit, but I’m not out to make a bunch of money. Money has never been the motivation. I just love the music.”

“Reggae Street” made the jump up the dial in 1986 when WVPE opted for more syndicated programming, leaving Alert without a station. He called WSND the next day.

“When I called, they said they were supposed to have some guy doing a reggae program and he never showed up,” Alert says. “They said, ‘If you want it, you can have it.’ I went from 88.1 one weekend to 88.9 the next. I don't think anybody even noticed.”

The one thing Alert says most people don’t realize is that he doesn’t collect a paycheck for his on-air time. His position at WSND is voluntary, and he has a day job working as an inspector at I/N Kote in New Carlisle.

“When you are giving up your Saturday nights for a community service at a radio station, it takes a little effort,” he says. “Certainly, I could have been doing other things.”

Alert has been able to take off the occasional Saturday, getting friends to fill in for him. The past few years he has recruited co-hosts Happiness Kapalamuli and John Pangani, aka “The African Teacher.”

“I was a DJ in Malawi, so I started doing that here,” Pangani says. “I kept seeing Dave at my shows. He said, ‘Would you mind helping me on radio?’ At first, I said no, because I didn’t have any interest. I kept seeing him and he kept insisting. Now it’s gotten into my bones.”

During the past 25 years, Alert has seen a lot of changes in the local reggae scene. He says reggae bands were consistently featured during the 1980s at the old Headquarters Lounge, the former Center Street Blues Café and Mitchell's Indiana Club.

He also regularly booked bands at The Madison Oyster Bar when it was on Madison Street in the 1990s. He says crowds diminished in the mid-to-late ’90s, but Alert has started to see reggae’s resurgence in the past couple years.

He says he’s had more callers to “Reggae Street,” the shows he’s booked at the Anchor Inn have started to see better numbers, and the annual South Bend Reggae Festival, produced by Pangani, is now is entering its fourth year.

“He’s very amazing,” Pangani says. “He’s been giving up his Saturdays all these years. It’s not common. He’s worked so hard to keep reggae in this area.”

Alert says he’s just now starting to see just how far his effort has reached.

“A number of people who started out listening to the show have had children now,” Alert says, “and now I discover it’s their kids who are listening and calling the show. It’s a good feeling.”

Staff Writer Jeremy D. Bonfiglio:
jbonfiglio@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6244