[1] The first broadcast of King Biscuit Time was on November 21, 1941 on KFFA in Helena, and featured blues artists Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) and Robert Lockwood, Jr. Williamson and Lockwood played live in the studio and were the key musicians in the original studio band, the "King Biscuit Entertainers".
Other musicians who joined the original band were Pinetop Perkins on piano and James "Peck" Curtis on drums.
KFFA was the only station that would play music by African-Americans, and it reached an audience throughout the Mississippi Delta region.
The popularity of the program and its reach into the untapped African-American demographic gained notice and spawned a host of imitators.
Levon Helm, the late drummer and vocalist for The Band, credited King Biscuit Time, and in particular, James "Peck" Curtis, for inspiring his musical career.
[11] This publication soon transformed into a nationally distributed blues magazine published and edited by Mike Beck, along with Grammy-nominated writer and producer Larry Hoffman who served as staff contributor and editorial advisor.
As time passed, the list of other contributors were to include John Anthony Brisbin, George Hansen, Sandra Pointer-Jones, and Donald E. Wilcock, the latter serving as managing editor.