They said he couldn’t do it, but Bruce Cutler, blind from birth,
wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Instead, since 1992, he’s been producing one-hour Country and Gospel radio
shows in his home and sending them weekly over the Internet to radio stations
across the nation, where they now air in New Mexico, Texas, West Virginia,
Wisconsin, New York, Connecticut, Oregon, Florida and Indiana.
He does it for the love of music and the Gospel and to prove the nay-sayers
wrong, he said.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all my life,” he said, “and everyone
said I couldn’t, that I’d never amount to anything, because I can’t see.
I kept poking at it and learning, then proved them wrong.”
Playing traditional country, bluegrass and Gospel music of independent and
major artists, Cutler said he does the older stuff, designing each show to
feature the music of one artist. If he’s interviewed that artist, Cutler
includes it. Otherwise, he researches the artist and provides information
about him or her.
“I’ve interviewed some of the legends from the 1930s, 40s and 50s,” he
said.
His first interview was at 3:45 a.m. in 2000 with Johnny K, now a member of
the DJ’s Hall of Fame and a disc jockey for WSM radio in Nashville, at that
time.
Cutler’s shows are a different style.
“It’s music with a message, real life, real living, traditional
country,” he said.
Born on a farm in Waverly, he had cataract surgery at 13 months. From as far
back as he can remember he was always fascinated with the radio.
Last year, the United States Association of Gospel Entertainers and Musicians
honored Cutler with an award, then in his honor, named the award the Bruce
Cutler Radio Servant Award and asked Cutler to present it to a friend of his
in Tyler, Texas this year, which he did, then interviewed the recipient for
his radio show.
Because of his shows, his name is recognized in Nashville, where both he and
his wife, Connie Lea, a Country Gospel singer, were interviewed on WSM in
2008.
Blinded as an infant, when her optic nerves were burned away by an incubator
in 1951, Lea said people’s attitudes toward blind people are more of a
challenge than being blind.
Having sung most of her life, she has backed up singers on the Old Opry stage
in Nashville and in 2006, made her first CD at God Child Records in Nashville.
She’s had chart singles, coming in on the Country Gospel Music Guild Top 80
at number 58 in August 2004; number 56 in October 2004; and number 54 in
November 2005. Last year, she sang at the Wayne County Fair, where she has
been asked to perform again this year.
“I like to sing country music and I love the Lord,” she said. “It’s my
way of getting his message out.”
Locally, she sings at Woodlane Church in Newark and volunteers once a week at
the Wayne County Nursing Home, where she plays the guitar.
Her second CD will be available by June.
Lea and Cutler met as youngsters at Overbrook School for the Blind in
Philadelphia, then became reacquainted in 1972, when both were taking courses
through the Albany Association of the Blind. They’ve been married 35 years.
“And they say blind people can’t do anything,” Cutler quipped.
Where to hear “Country Roots” and “Gospel Doings”
For a complete listing of radio stations that broadcast Bruce Cutler’s Do It
Right Productions, visit
www.doitrightproductions.net.
Awards received by “Gospel Doings”
Was nominated out of 1,500 shows worldwide, for Radio Show of the Year in 1999
and 2002 through 2006; was the recipient of that award in 2000 and 2001; was
awarded the Dave Hall Award for Excellence in Radio and Recording by the
Country Gospel Music Guild in 2003 and 2004.
Bruce Cutler was in the top 10 for Radio Personality of the Year in 2001 and
in the top five in 2002; was a recipient of Excellence in Radio in 2002;
awarded the Stars Thanks in 2004 by the Christian Country Music Association;
and awarded the Radio Servant’s Award in 2009 by the United States
Association of Gospel Entertainers and Musicians.
For more information, visit http://www.doitrightproductions.net/
or e-mail dirp650@verizon.net.