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2O2 4 – 2O2 5 GU I D E to Y E L LOW S P R I NG S 71 ceremony that it’s unusual for the annual VIDA to be given to an artist who doesn’t work with physical media. In the past, the VIDA has gone to Sandi Sharp and her “walk-by” fine art exhibit space on Winter Street, the now-deceased Alan Macbeth for his brickwork and artistry at the Oten Gallery, Tim and Kelly Callahan for their rock sculptures, and others. “For the most part, we look at the creation as something physical, something we can hold,” Wamsley said, again read- ing Kirk’s statement. “In thinking in terms of a creator who can influence and impact others in magnificent ways, this has been and is ‘Clean’ Gene Lohman.” “I’m honored,” Lohman said at the ceremony. “I really, really am.” THE MAKINGS OF A MUSIC MAN Lohman was born in Provi - dence, Rhode Island., in 1946, into a family he described as being “somewhat neutral” about music. His father was a physicist — “and a pretty damn good one, too” — and his mother was preoccupied with taking care of six children. As such, Lohman’s parents were often too busy to bother with music. However, Lohman said he learned much later in life that his father would occasionally find time to enjoy classical music — Ravel and Debussy, in particular — and his mother would secretly tap her toes to the big band tunes of the day. Little Lohman wouldn’t find his passion for music until he and his family moved to Arlington, Virginia. There, he got his first exposure to pop music from “Your Hit Parade,” “The Ed Sullivan Show” and other TV programs that featured live musical performances. “Along with the rest of the world I saw Elvis perform on Ed Sullivan [in 1956],” Lohman recalled. “It just amazed me.” But the real turning point for Lohman was when he was bed ridden with measles as an 11-year-old. To keep his mind busy, his mother got him a little table radio. “I started tuning around and, for the first time, heard the rhythm and blues,” Lohman said. “I was hooked. Looking back on it, that time basically recharted my whole life course.” Seeing the joy that little radio gave his son, Lohman’s father eventually helped Lohman upgrade to a bigger Magnavox console radio with a 12-inch speaker and controls to modulate bass and treble. From his Arlington home, Lohman was able to pick up five regional R&B sta - tions — one in Annapolis, one in Washington, D.C., and three in Baltimore. “I was in seventh heaven, man,” Lohman said with a grin. “When I came home from school, I’d listen to those sta- tions all night. I’ve always said I got my education through four-letter words. WLAC, WEBB, WOOK and others.” For the next five years, Lohman plunged headfirst into the soulful power of R&B, the rollicking energy of rock ‘n’ roll and the finger-snapping verve of Motown. Ray Charles, James Brown, Bobby Bland, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters; the teenaged Lohman loved them all. ONWARD, TO YELLOW SPRINGS Beyond his parents’ liberal leanings, it was the co-op pro- gram that attracted Lohman to Antioch College in 1965. “It just made sense to me — getting an education that would lead me straight into a career,” he said. Although he never officially declared a major, waffling between studies in paleon- tology, earth sciences and communications, Lohman still pressed ahead in his own per- sonal musical education. He said that in the mid-’60s, the culture and music scene at Antioch, and in Yellow Springs, was jarringly different from the southern surroundings he was used to. “It was very much the jazz and folk revival era in Yellow Springs,” Lohman said. “Rock ‘n’ roll and R&B were kind of looked down upon — which is crazy because that was the golden age for that stuff. So when I came here, I some- times thought, ‘What the hell am I doing out here in all these cornfields?’” Invariably, Lohman still found a way to enjoy “his” music. Lohman learned that by pressing his portable AM radio up against the metal struts in the windows of the coffee shop — often referred to as the “C-shop” — the entire room would act like a giant antenna. “Sometimes it’d work, sometimes it wouldn’t,” Lohman said. “Every night, I’d try to listen to this legendary radio station out of Nashville called WLAC. It went all the way up to Canada, so it came in clear as a bell here.” It didn’t take long for his antenna trick to pique the attention of others. Soon the community man- ager of the college suggested to Lohman to start DJing in the C-shop on a regular basis. 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