HOW ‘WAGON TRAXX’ STARTED

James Coates- I’ve have been a lover of Bluegrass Gospel music all my life. I was raised on this music and spent many hours with my Dad and Uncle listening and trying to play it. Eventually I did learn to play the guitar and bass and since then have played and traveled with numerous groups.

When I was 20 years I totally surrendered my heart and life to Jesus Christ and had a deep desire to serve Him full time. Well, my dream came true in 1989. The full-Gospel church I was attending owned a Christian radio station. This was my first taste of real ministry. Soon, I had a very own air-shift. After four years of vocal training, I felt I was now ready to produce a show.

One afternoon in 1993 while mowing my lawn I was kicking around some ideas for a new show. Then, it hit me; WAGON TRAXX! This title came to me based on the song by the Marksmen; Wagon Tracks. By simply changing the spelling of the word tracks to traxx this changed the meaning of the whole thing.

When the program first aired, we featured a mix of Bluegrass, Country Gospel, and Christian Country. I had tremendous response! One thing I did noticed was 90% of my request was for Bluegrass Gospel. So I eventually changed the format over to ALL Bluegrass Gospel.

One thing that contributes to the success of the program is that Rosine KY, the birthplace of Bluegrass, is in the broadcast circle of listeners. Bluegrass is huge in Rosine, as you can imagine, and we received many calls from Rosine in the early days. Now, we are broadcasting, not only on FM, but Internet.

We believe great things are in store for the program as we honor the Lord Jesus through this great music!

"Wagon Traxx is the longest running Bluegrass Gospel Show in KY!"

James Coates lives in Brownsville Ky.
Wife: Joy
Married: 17 yrs

James is the creator and host of Wagon Traxx. He is in charge of all production and runs the sound during the show. James was saved in 1977 and started working in the ministry in 1989. He was married to Joy on January 3rd 1993. James and Joy have 4 beautiful children: Brenton (16) Kaylin (14) Garrett (12) Cameron (8).

*Favorite Band- Kentucky Thunder
*Favorite Quartet- Primitive Qt.
*Favorite Instrument- Guitar
*Favorite Male Singer- Russell Moore
*Favorite Food- Home Cookin’
*Favorite Restaurant- Cracker Barrel
*Favorite Scripture- Ehp. 1:17-18
*Favorite Book- Ephesians
*Favorite Person in the Bible- Jesus (of course) Paul
*Favorite Country- USA (of course) Ireland
*Hobbies- Spending time with family, playing BIG BASS, voice production and editing, Bible research.
*Favorite Sport- Kentucky Basketball, Golf

James was born on June 25th , 1968.