Bob Perkins, still with the good music, is being honored at Montco Jazz Fest

Though he’ll be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Montco Jazz Festival on Thursday for his legendary broadcasting career, Bob Perkins would prefer to discuss other lives and other achievements.

At 90, a year and a half after retiring from the Philadelphia airwaves, the beloved DJ still has stories to tell. Far from slipping into a well-deserved retirement, the radio personality known for his slogan “BP with the GM (Bob Perkins with the good music)” has been amassing a collection of short biographical sketches that he’d like to share in the form of two-minute vignettes.

Seated at the dining room table in the Wyncote apartment that he shares with his wife, Sheila, Perkins rifled through a stack of printouts and eagerly launched into a few quick snapshots: Henri Christophe Dickerson, the first African American and openly gay winner of the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding contest; and legendary jazz drummer Philly Joe Jones’ lesser-known past as one of the city’s first Black trolley car drivers.

Perkins hopes that one of his former employers — prior to his quarter-century spinning jazz five nights a week on WRTI, his mellifluous tones could be heard broadcasting on WHYY or WDAS — would be interested in spotlighting these fascinating profiles.

“I’m glad somebody still remembers me,” he said, humbly deflecting attention from the forthcoming award. “I hope that somebody would like my input to get these stories on the air.”

But it’ll be Perkins’ own inspiring story that will be the focus on Thursday night, as Temple University celebrates him at its Ambler Campus, kicking off the third-annual Montco Jazz Festival, which runs through Sunday.

The Lifetime Achievement Award presentation, by renowned trumpeter and Temple director of jazz studies Terell Stafford, will be followed by a performance from saxophonist Josh Lee and his big band, the Extended Family.

In addition to leading his own band, Lee tours with the Count Basie Orchestra and is an on-air host at WRTI, where he was mentored by Perkins. “I didn’t realize until I sat in on one of his shows for the first time how much his choice of music shaped my taste in jazz,” said Lee, who grew up outside of Philly listening to BP with the GM five nights a week. “So much of what I love is based on the music that Bob Perkins played every night.”

The Montco Jazz Fest takes place at dozens of venues across Montgomery County this weekend, and is the second curated by Philly vocalist Joanna Pascale. She based her selections around the theme of “legacy,” which, for her, made Perkins an ideal honoree to launch the festivities.

“Bob Perkins has fostered generations of incredible musicians,” said Pascale, who had once nervously called the station to ask about a record that Perkins had played and was greeted with warmth and knowledge.

» READ MORE: The 10 best jazz concerts coming to Philly this fall

“His love for the music was so infectious,” she continued. “He was always generous with information, and all those lessons that I learned, all the music and the artists that I discovered through him, I’ve taken and passed on to my own students.”

After nearly six decades in broadcasting, Perkins still marvels at the fact that he ever made it on air. While others may credit him for his wealth of knowledge, his intimate familiarity with the music’s history and its leading figures, and that familiar, sonorous voice, BP himself still sees himself as a kid in South Philly raised by a radio-obsessed father.

He chuckled as he recalled recording himself playing his favorite records or reading news stories from The Inquirer, then comparing the tapes with his idols.

“I just think about how fortunate I was to have a father who knew radio backward and forwards, and a brother who loved jazz,” Perkins said. His earliest memory in life is accompanying his brother to Fay’s Theatre in West Philadelphia to see the bandleader Lucky Millinder. Jazz and radio became the twin passions that coursed through the rest of his life.

He broke into radio in Detroit in 1965 at a small Black-owned station, then returned home in 1969, where he was appointed editorial director at WDAS. His voice was a staple of the local airwaves from that day until April 2023, when he signed off from WRTI for the last time. He quickly followed that up with a short-lived podcast, Stay Tuned with Bob Perkins.

While he admits that he misses the radio, Perkins has no desire to return full time. After surviving a stroke in 2019, he relied on assistance in the studio. In 2022, he pared down his schedule from five nights a week to a single four-hour Sunday shift. Still, as he approaches his 91st birthday in December, it’s clear that he still has the instincts of a veteran broadcaster.

“I don’t have the voice that I used to have,” BP admitted. “After 58 years, I’ve got a right to be worn out. But I’ve got all these stories, and I think that’s too valuable to let go.”

Montco Jazz Fest, Sept. 19-22, Multiple venues across Montgomery County. Information and tickets at https://bit.ly/3TyV5aP