It’s tough to come up with something new and original to write on about a guy that’s starred on a hit reality TV show, holds the world record for the worlds longest on-air broadcast, and has literally been frozen in a block of ice. But Stephen Meade, better known by his radio moniker “Willie B,” has a side that he thinks people tend to ignore because of all the crazy things he’s been involved with over the years. I recently had a conversation with Willie where we discussed everything from his current projects in the music industry to what gives him inner peace as a human, and if there is one thing I took from the conversations, it’s that Willie is one creative dude.

 As the morning DJ on 106.7 KBPI (a rock station in Denver, CO), Willie has certainly had his share of exposure to the music industry. But aside from getting to pick and chose the music we hear on the air everyday, Willie says the best part of his job as a DJ is having the ability to develop and help new artists. “Helping young musicians and up and coming artists get seen and recognized is the best.”

But what many people think of a radio DJ, they probably envision a cocky loudmouth that puts on a show for a few hours a day. But Willie takes a different approach to his work than most. When I asked Willie is he was a different person on the air than off of it, he simply said, “What you hear on the air is what you'll get off the air.” Willie’s personal life is consumed by the show, he says, and there isn’t much of a transition when he has to go on air. That’s refreshing to hear, especially considering the amount of superficial and non-genuine personalities that exists on our air-ways and on television.

Willie thinks that a lot of people don’t recognize how much creativity and imagination goes into his job everyday. He doesn’t just walked up to a desk with bullet points in front of him every morning. Willie is the program director for KBPI, and that requires a ton of creative brainstorming. “I love being creative and coming up with ideas and ways to express things to listeners. The best thing I bring to table inst’ what I do on the air, it is creating fun and entertaining things that people will want to be listening to and involved with.” And there is no denying that Willie has been involved with some creative projects. His station is famous for the crazy contests and events that are put on for the good people of Denver—“My life is the show, and every day is different. I do not follow a formula.”

The creativity that listeners get to experience on a daily basis most likely originates with Willie’s love of cars. In fact, Willie’s very first memory is sitting in the tail gate of a pick-up truck watching his dad race his ’57 Chevy down the drag strip. Once, as Willie tells it, there were two ’57 Chevy’s in the same race. When one of them crashed, Willie thought it was his dad’s car, and that scares the living daylights out of him. But since that day, Willie has had an undying passion for cars and working on them. He began working on cars at a very young age, and he’s “had a wrench in [his] hand ever since.”

Willie says he’s the “happiest guy in the world” when he gets to drive around in his 1970 Dodge Charger—which is his dream car. Working on cars and being in the shop is where Willie finds his peace, and where he escapes. “It’s a time where I don’t have to be entertaining or charismatic,” Willie says, “I can just relax and be me.”

Nothing makes him and his fellow car buddies happier than being able to show off their hard work. Just to hear someone say “that’s a beautiful car” means the world to car people, according to Willie. “All the kicking and cursing just disappears when you get to put your baby on display and get other people to talk about it.” Spaceblues, he says is the perfect place for car people to be able to do this. It will be the “perfect” online venue for people like me to get people talking about cars.

He’s pretty adamant that there is a need for an online realm where artistic people can share and collaborate. Speaking of his involvement with music, Willie says that “When you’re talking to people and sharing ideas, you find out that you share a lot of interests with people who you never though you would have.” Willie believes that musicians and other artist “need a good outlet for the creative mind to go explore what suits them...there is a need for a site like Spaceblues right now.” He also notes that “some aspects are fulfilled by other sites...there is nothing solely for the artist.”

“Artists and creative minds need a way to express themselves without any sort of restraints or controls...they need free expression, and an arena to make those type of expressions. There are very few outlets where those expressions.”

Willie doesn’t consider himself an artist, but I’d beg to differ.