Curt Schieber

“What a long, strange trip,” indeed.  Then again, this 30-year host of the Invisible Hits Hour is as old as three of our youngest staff—combined.

Curt’s story began with a jolt when his family moved three-year-old Curt to Mexico City and stayed there until he was nine.  After graduating from Findlay High School, and then Kent State, he left home for a brighter future in Columbus.

First came cleaning toilets and then, Water Beds ‘N Stuff.  His career path may have begun, though, when he went to work for Schoolkids Records in 1975 and Peaches Records & Tapes in 1976.  He bought Schoolkids in 1980 and founded a local record label (No Other Records) that released recordings by Ronald Koal & the Trillionairs, the Beetkeepers, Royal Crescent Mob, and Scrawl.  He also started a concert wing (No Other Presents) that produced more than 300 national shows at Stache’s, the Newport, and other venues.  And he owned a used record store (Used Kids).

In 1988, bankruptcy forced him to reinvent himself as an arts writer and editor for The Dispatch, Columbus Alive, Dialogue Magazine, and other publications.  In January 1991, he stumbled into a gig as a radio-specialty-show host (at first, with Bill Eichenberger of The Dispatch) just a few months after CD101 went on the air.

When Curt’s not crowing about music, he can be heard pontificating about his other major passions, including beer (his book “Columbus Beer: Recent Brewing and Deep Roots” was published in 2017) and Formula One racing.  Along with his race-fan wife, Curt has made around 20 trips to the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis and Austin and to the Canadian GP in Montreal.  Still on the bucket list:  the Belgium GP.  Oh, and he is likely the only guy you’ll ever meet with tattoos of both Miles Davis and Duke Ellington.