Nick DiBiasio / Host

Music became the center of Nick’s universe when he was 9, on February 9, 1964, while watching The Beatles’ first performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He bought his first album, ‘Meet The Beatles’, the very next day, and has been a serious collector ever since. He’s also attended hundreds of concerts around the globe, from the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein to Frank Zappa & The Mothers, and everything in between.

Immediately after graduating high school, Nick bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder, began stringing songs together to tell a story or to set a theme, and gave the mixtapes to friends. In the late 70’s, he took a course in recording techniques and began work as a sound engineer for several Rhode Island bands, playing his mixtapes between live music sets. In 1994, Nick was a guest DJ on Providence classic rock station WRX to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Beatles’ Ed Sullivan performance.

He joined WICN in 1996 to host the Saturday edition of Against The Grain and an acoustic show, The Contemporary Café, featuring live in-studio performances by local and internationally known artists such as Eric Andersen, Jon Pousette-Dart, and Peter Tork of The Monkees and many, many more. In 2006 he combined elements of both shows to create My Back Pages. After taking a brief hiatus in 2007, he returned to host Against The Grain in June 2008, and now also hosts World Rhythms. 

Nick is also a member of The Zimmermen, a music group that celebrates the music of Bob Dylan every May at Patrick’s Pub in Providence.