O.J. Sikes

O.J. Sikes is a Western music historian and nationally syndicated reviewer of Western music whose work appears regularly in Western Clippings, Rope Burns, the Western Way and on a number of web sites. Beginning in 1982 and continuing into the 1990s, he reviewed Western music, first for Under Western Skies, a film magazine, and then for Song of the West magazine. His articles on Western music and its history, and other Western topics, have also been published in all of these periodicals and in Cowboy magazine, American Cowboy magazine and Classic Country & Western magazine.
    He has written liner notes for a number of CDs, including Gene Autry's 25 Cowboy Classics, Rex Allen's The Voice of the West, the Cass County Boys' Ride Ranger Ride, Monte Hale's The Real Monte and others. He is also a frequent panelist at Western music and film festivals.
    In 2001, he began a radio show, Western Music Time, on the internet (www.BostonPete.com/ojsikes <http://www.BostonPete.com/ojsikes> ). It can be heard around the clock, features music and stories "from the days of the silver screen cowboys," and includes contemporary Western music as well. The show, which is licensed by ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, reaches thousands of regular listeners each week, ranging from office workers to truck drivers, from members of the armed forces on duty overseas to wranglers gathered around a computer in the bunkhouse.
    In 2005, during their 10th annual Will Rogers Awards event in Ft. Worth, the Academy of Western Artists presented him, along with Jack & Voleta Hummel, with the Academy's first John A. Lomax Award for his contribution to the preservation and continuation of Western music. He is currently serving with Johnny Western,  Rex Allen, Jr., Roy Rogers, Jr. and others on the Western Music Association's Advisory Board, and is a member of the WMA's Hall of Fame selection committee.  
    While his promotion of Westen music has been voluntary, for many years he had a "day job" with the United Nations in N.Y., a job that took him to over 55 countries, advising governments on population issues. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, he entered the U.S. Peace Corps and served two years on the high plains in a remote area of Peru, where he met his wife, Elena. In Peru, he developed an interest in Public Health. Upon returning to the U.S. he worked for the U.S. Center for Disease Control, subsequently enrolling in the Master of Public Health program at UNC. After doing pioneering work in reproductive health in small communities in N.C., he worked with UNESCO in Paris, where he helped initiate that organization's work in Population Education, the study of population change and its impacts on families and societies. In 1975, he moved to N.Y. where he became head of the office of education, communication & youth at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). There, he continued to work on population education, sat on the Inter-Agency board of the global Education For All (EFA) program, and wrote dozens of journal articles on education and communication for the World Health Organization, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA and others.
     He retired after 30 years with the UN system in 2001. His son O.J. works in the field of Mental Health in N.J.and son John is a Public Health Communication specialist working with Sirk Productions, a film/documentary production company in N.Y.