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Cleveland “Cleve” Warren Baker

June 26, 1958-March 8, 2023

Cleveland Warren Baker was born in Pitt County, North
Carolina. As a child, he spent much of his time between
school, where his father was an educator, and helping
in various capacities on his grandfather’s tobacco farm.
It was here that his lifelong love of the Blues began—
listening to the work songs and field hollers
practised by the farmhands as they primed tobacco
all the day long, and at impromptu musical
gatherings they held weekend nights at the small
country store his grandfather, D.E. Baker, also
owned.

He attended Roanoke Rapids High School,
where he excelled in many extra curricular activities
and sports, including working at the local radio station,
WCBT-AM 1230, beginning at age 15, and playing on the school’s
football team. He graduated in 1976, and earned an athletic
scholarship to North Carolina State University, where he
continued as a fullback.

After college, Cleve returned to the turntables as a disc jockey
at the Roanoke Rapids nightclub Ick’s. That is where he met
his wife, Sharon Leigh Porch. They wed May 6, 1984, and they
welcomed their first daughter, Sarah Christian on September
11, 1985. Their second daughter and Cleve’s youngest child,
Alison Lyndi, was born August 26, 1987.

On March 26, 2010, Cleve launched his passion project, Confessing
the Blues—a 3-hour weekly Roadhouse radio show that played
the best in the contemporary Blues genre, with a special focus on
rising talent. Candid artist interviews added a dynamic level to
the show, and Cleve was a ceaseless champion for up-and-coming
musicians—giving many artists airtime very early in their
careers. The show was internationally syndicated, playing on
over 50 stations in 10 countries worldwide, and enjoyed over
500 episodes in the span of its 11 year run.

Possessed of a wonderful ‘broadcaster’s’ voice, his style and
delivery were genuinely inimitable. Once heard never forgotten

Cleve delighted in the relationships he cultivated as a radio man, and
he found success not only in the studio, but as an emcee and master
of ceremonies for many years at the Big Blues Bender in Las Vegas, NV,
the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, TN, and the International Blues
Challenge in Memphis, among other regional shows and appearances.

He will be greatly missed.

Ian K. McKenzie