Stewart has worked as an overnight announcer for WCVE for four years. This no doubt gave him plenty of time to spin a globe and ponder a radio program showcasing his favorite music from far-flung places. He proposed the idea several times to music director Bobbie Barajas.

Recently, Saturday afternoons were freed-up as the regular program, the Metropolitan Opera, took a summer hiatus. All at once serendipity smiled upon the idea.

Stewart quickly assembled a demo using music from his own collection. Barajas and Station Manager Bill Miller liked it, so they gave Stewart a part of the open time slot, and the World Music Show was born. Only then did he realize that two hours is a lot of air time to fill.

The station had precious little in their world music catalogue, so Stewart ransacked his collection. If you heard his show on Saturday afternoons, you were listening to his and his wife's CD collection.

Stewart's wife had amassed a healthy collection of Brazilian music. He was a little more promiscuous in his tastes, venturing into everything from Japanese pop to the many and varied styles of music from Africa. The internet has been a boon to his search for new music. He explained that even musicians from small obscure countries have websites nowadays.

There are also American labels specializing in music from other cultures. Stewart specifically mentioned the excellent Putumayo series, which includes detailed and informative liner notes to each of its CD's. All this research is like following breadcrumbs strewn across the globe, one leading to another.

Although one of his goals is to highlight music from other cultures, he also recognizes that musical influences are easily transferable. He points to musicians from America who embrace wider influences, such as Oregon's Pink Martini, who blends a lot of European influences into their sound, or New York indie bossa nova band, Mosquitoes.

Established American artists like David Byrne and Paul Simon long ago assimilated music from different cultures into their own work. You might hear them on Stewart's program too.

Stewart hopes that the expanded menu of music venues will mean we see more acts with world influences passing through Richmond. But Stewart also wants to keep it local.

Recently, he featured Virginia musician Susan Gaeta. Gaeta apprenticed with Flory Jagoda, a 2002 National Heritage Fellow. Jagoda has devoted herself to passing along the Sephardic songs she learned from her grandmother in Sarajevo. These songs are sung in an obscure language, Ladino, a curious Judeo-Spanish hybrid. The language and the songs can be traced back to the dark times of the Spanish Inquisition.

Stewart also hopes to bring Richmond's favorite farming band, the Gourd Orchestra, into his world music tent. The show's tag line explains his main mission, "Bringing the world closer to you through music."

He explained, "Even if you don’t understand the words, you might get a better perspective on the world. I'm trying to expose people to ideas behind music, educate people to the history of the music. Or expose them to some music, or even an instrument, they might not have heard of before."

Hopes and goals aside, Stewart is having fun, "I am by no means an expert; I just love the music. I'm learning a lot as well, so it's kind of a great exploration."

You can catch Ian Stewart attempting to pronounce song titles in many different languages on World Music Show, which plays on Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on WCVE, 88.9 FM.