A few days ago, I happened to stumble across a webpage with a list of all of the radio stations in the United States and Canada that claim to have a jazz format.  Sadly, it is a very small list.  Worse yet, many of the stations listed as “jazz” on this particular page were actually “smooth jazz” which is just about as much real jazz as as Diet Dr Pepper tastes like regular Dr Pepper (and I don’t care what the commercials say, Diet Dr Pepper tastes like cat vomit dissolved in turpentine).

That list I found was also somewhat incomplete, so I found a few other resources where I could look at or sort stations by format.  Even then there are “errors” of a sort.  For instance, take a couple of stations that I enjoy listening to when I am in their broadcast areas; KXJZ in Sacramento, California and KPLU in Tacoma, Washington.  These are among some of the remaining “NPR Jazz” stations left in America.  Unfortunately, these outlets spend much of the meat of their broadcasting day churning out NPR’s news and talk programming.  As I have said before, I enjoy NPR…but only when I’m in the mood for it.  When I want jazz, I want jazz.  As with KPLU during my stay in Washington last year, it was a huge bummer to have the music stopped at 3:00 PM and not have it resume until 7:30 (not to mention having it blotted out in the morning for another five hours).

I just find it stunning that this great American art form exists full-time in so few cities.  Even many major markets only get one or two doses on any kind of jazz per week on a local college/variety or community/variety station.

If there is any type of music that still needs a crew of good and well-informed disk jockeys to present it, it’s jazz.  Unlike rock, there are few big hits and it’s a genre averse to “top 100″ charts in the first place.  Jazz requires storytellers and historians to weave the fabric of the music and make the connections between where artist X or song Y came from and where they went from the point in time a recording was made.  Jazz requires somebody that truly feels the music and the mood of the day — something that cannot be accomplished with a random, computerized playlist and a set of jingles that plays between each song as can be done with rock (even though I don’t like that crap on rock stations, either).  Jazz is also a genre where multiple versions of the same song, even by the same artist, are not only welcome but highly desired, and a chopped-off digital display of the artist and performance just doesn’t cut it for those that then want to go out and own that track for themselves.

While it is a shame that so many stations have given up on a full-time jazz format leaving most of the country no way to enjoy that type of music — with the all-important element of surprise that no mp3 player can ever provide — at least the modern miracle known as the World Wide Web provides much more access.

So…deviating for just a moment from my state-by-state search for the remaining good English-language radio stations left on this Earth, I now feature what I believe are the ten best jazz and jazz/blues format radio outlets in the United States of America.  Seven of these have been listed on my Radio page for quite some time while three are recent additions.  These ten outlets cover all four of America’s main time zones so, if a public affairs program starts on one, others will still be focusing on music (not to put down public affairs programming, but the focus of my Radio page is on music as it is much more universal…after all, what interest does somebody sitting in Bumfuck, Arizona have in a 30-minute program discussing the rise of trash collection rates in Short Hairs, New Jersey?).  Best of all, each of these stations is unique in their outlook on programming.

Here they are listed in alphabetical order by call letters.

Click on the logo to visit the KCCK website.

KCCK might appear to some to be in an unusual place to have a jazz station.  When compared to most of the other outlets listed below, it just seems odd that anywhere in Iowa would be considered a hotbed of jazz.  Yet, KCCK churns it out 24/7 in Cedar Rapids from the campus of Kirkwood Community College.  While not all of the programming is local, the few syndicated shows they do take are all of excellent quality.  Friday nights on KCCK are dedicated to blues ending with one hour of jam band music.  As is the case with many jazz and jazz/blues stations, the weekends get very diverse.

Click on the logo to visit the KKJZ - K-Jazz 88.1 FM website.

In 1981, a station then known as KLON in Long Beach, California switched to an all-jazz format.  With a signal strong enough to cover almost all of the greater Los Angeles area — except where I live :-( — it did not take long for it to gather an audience.  Rechristened as KKJZ (“K-Jazz”) in 2002, it is now the most listened to jazz outlet and the fifth most listened to public (non-commercial) radio station in the entire US.  This impressive ranking is well deserved and doesn’t come just because it is situated in the country’s second largest metropolitan area.  KKJZ does an excellent job of mixing different genres in each set and has plenty of great specialty programming as well.  While I try to avoid featuring stations that use large blocks of syndicated programming, this is one I have selected that carries the nightly program by San Francisco jazz disk jockey legend Bob Parlocha (ironically enough, distributed by classical station WFMT in Chicago that I featured in my previous post).  LA being LA, even a non-commercial station needs a little star power.  Beginning this past May 2nd, the morning DJ on KKJZ is now none other than David Benoit.

Click on the logo to visit the KMHD Jazz Radio website.

While I do not want to discourage anybody from listening to the other nine stations in this list, my current overall favorite jazz station is KMHD in Gresham, Oregon.  While visiting the Portland area last year, this was the outlet that fully rekindled my interest in jazz after having been an occasional dabbler in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s (first lit again by another station I will get to further down the list).  KMHD is one of the oldest surviving all-jazz stations in the United States, originally founded in 1984 by Mount Hood Community College.  In 2009 when the school ran into financial difficulties due to budget cuts forced by The Great Recession, instead of just selling off the frequency (as others have done lately in situations I have described here in some recent posts), they entered into an operating agreement with the very well respected Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) that runs a great deal of the state’s NPR radio stations and PBS television stations.  OPB was smart enough to keep the call letters and the format, and the college was smart enough to retain ownership.  Both organizations seem to be profiting very well from this arrangement as KMHD often pulls in very close to a 2.0 in the Arbitron ratings for Portland (for those not familiar with Arbitron, just take my word for it that 2.0 is pretty damn good for a non-commercial station especially in a crowded radio market like Portland).

Click on the logo to visit the KSDS website.

KSDS in San Diego, California is a station that I have come to like more and more over recent months; so much so that it is one of the three new additions to my Radio page.  Owned by San Diego City College, I think KSDS does the best job of any jazz station in being musically connected to its community.  They do a fantastic job of promoting local jazz artists and even feature them for an hour every Sunday.

Click on the logo to visit the KUVO website.

In my description of KMHD above, I mentioned there had been another station that had begun to rekindle my interest in jazz.  That station was KUVO in Denver, Colorado.  When I pulled my first stint of living in Denver from 2004 through 2005, the number of good radio stations there was extremely small.  Thus, it was sort of out of desperation that I filled up one of my car radio preset buttons with KUVO since the signal was strong and it was at least a temporary oasis from my two favorite rock stations there that seemed, between them, to never be able to play enough Aerosmith (barf) or R.E.M. (double-barf).  As time went on, I found myself staying on KUVO for longer and longer periods of time.  I was most impressed with how they played different varieties of jazz and, as opposed to other stations of that genre I had known in the past, did not constantly play really slow tunes that would put me to sleep.  Aside from the wonderful staff on KUVO that selects the music, a good portion of that might be that the station actually identifies itself as having a jazz/blues format instead of just strictly jazz.

Click on the logo to visit the WBGO website.

Another of the three new additions to this website’s Radio page is WBGO in Newark, New Jersey.  ”Jazz 88″ as it is sometimes called is now the only jazz outlet that serves the New York City market.  This station just oozes everything good about New York attitude and style which, as one might imagine, goes very well with jazz considering how much history those two entities share.  WBGO does carry a somewhat larger amount of public affairs programming than some of the other stations on this list and, during the area’s morning commute time, is a bit more chatty in that slot than what one might be accustomed to coming from a jazz station.  That being said, I think it still fits the tone of the station and certainly works well for the area.  I don’t find it to be a put-off and I don’t believe most other jazz fans will either.

Click on the logo to visit the WDCB 90.9 FM website.

While WDCB, located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, is officially part of the Aurora market, make no mistake — this is Chicago’s jazz and blues station.  Just as WBGO is a excellent reflection of New York City’s style and deep history with jazz, WDCB does the same in a style well fitting for a place called “The City of Broad Shoulders.”  Nighttime and weekend programming certainly gets broad as, in addition to jazz and, of course, plenty of Chicago blues, WDCB will delight its audience with one or two hours devoted to other types of programming including bluegrass, Irish folk, reggae, and even a Sunday slot dedicated to rebroadcasting old-time radio programs.

Click on the logo to visit the WUMR website.

WUMR has been churning out jazz to Memphis, Tennessee and the surrounding area since the University of Memphis took over the license in 1979.  This is the most solid jazz station on my list with hardly any time spent on any other genre including blues.  While WUMR might have some of the highest amount of students actually performing on-air tasks, this station is still loaded with knowledgeable professionals that have spent many years on this station keeping folks entertained and educated about the great American musical art form.

Click on the logo to visit the WVAS website.

As my radio station suggestions try to stay focused strictly on music, I normally avoid highlighting stations that broadcast sports.  However, I just cannot help but love WVAS coming from the campus of Alabama State University in Montgomery.  I look at them as the little station that could; an outlet that probably does more with less than almost any other college radio station of any format, especially one tied to an HBC (historically black college).  Both faculty and students alike work their butts off to make WVAS as professional sounding and fun to listen to as possible and their love for this station just shines through.  I hope my readers will give WVAS a chance even if they are not into listening to an occasional Alabama State Hornets football or basketball game.

Click on the logo to visit the WWOZ website.

The last of my list of the ten best jazz radio stations (and the last of the three new additions to my Radio page) is certainly fitting as it comes from the birthplace of the music itself, New Orleans, Louisiana.  Of course, “jazz” includes a lot of different things just like its home city.  Thus, when listening to WWOZ, don’t always expect it to stick just with stalwarts like Louis Armstrong and the Marsalis Brothers.  There’s lots of spice in this station’s programming just like in Louisiana cooking.  Best of all might be that those hosting each show on WWOZ are volunteers doing it simply for the love of the music and their city.  This is why the station’s call letters are WWOZ which stand for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” in that the station’s founders wanted people to focus on the music being payed instead of “the man behind the curtain” playing it.  As with much of New Orleans, WWOZ and its staff suffered terribly due to Hurricane Katrina.  Donations and an untold amount of hard work have kept this treasure running and perhaps even more resolute than ever to make sure that, no matter what happens on the commercial side of the dial, the unique music of New Orleans will always have a free, over-the-air home.

Despite my recent fuss over two major college radio stations being sold off and turned into “popular classical” stations, I do not hate classical music.  No, it is by no means my first listening choice especially while driving and I don’t collect a lot of it.  Still, there are times when it fits the time or mood, so I like to always have a few good streams available of well-staffed stations that will explain this music about which I don’t know nearly as much as I do “classic rock” and oldies (and, I like to have multiple choices so I can avoid the one area of classical music that I don’t like…opera).

My project to again go through all of the world’s English language radio stations that stream online to pick out the really good ones has been proceeding, albeit slowly.  I found this one several weeks ago and had planned on waiting to highlight it until I had a few more to add to my Radio page.  With my research now half complete with nothing else to add (plus wanting to make sure nobody believes that I think good classical music outlets are not desperately needed on today’s North American radio dial), I though it would be a good time to go ahead and highlight this station.

As usual with me, it is something extra about this station that has attracted me to it besides its usual format and playlist (which are indeed excellent).  Of most note in this case is not a musical program but, instead, spoken word.

For many years, the legendary Studs Terkel called WFMT in Chicago his radio home.  His daily show ran from 1952 to 1997 where he interviewed a vast array of people from musicians of all types to politicians, writers, activists, architects, and anybody else that Terkel found interesting (and ol’ Studs found almost everybody to be interesting in one way or another).

Even though the show ended long ago and Terkel died in 2008, he was such a big part of Chicago and WFMT in particular that the station continues to keep him around on their schedule.  Almost every Friday night at 10:00 PM US Central Time, The Best of Studs Terkel runs for an entire hour with views and comments that are often just as timely today as they were when they were first broadcast.

While that program is what I am highlighting in this entry, don’t misunderstand that it is the only good thing about WFMT.  This is a station with a whole stable of knowledgeable hosts and a fantastic sounding stream.  It is definitely deserving of being among the few other classical music stations that I recommend.

Click on the station logo to visit 98.7 WFMT

In my weekend rounds of catching up with news of all types, I was sad to learn that yet another major college had sold off its radio station.  This time it was WRVU at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the nation’s top institutions of learning (especially in the American South) and better known to most as a member of the powerhouse Southeastern Conference in sports (the same as my beloved Kentucky Wildcats).

This was a huge blow to the town known the world over as Music City.  WRVU, now WFCL, finds itself in the hands of Nashville Public Radio, the local overseer of the corporate-funded NPR.  Now, only two of Nashville’s top 25 radio stations are not owned by a media conglomerate of one type or another (WRLT, the adult alternative station, and WNVL with a “regional Mexican” format…FYI, in their last Arbitron ratings book, WRVU was 24th which is impressive for any college station).

Aside from being pulled off the air with no farewell announcement, the biggest insult is that WRVU’s frequency is now the home to something trite and repetitive.  Sadly, it’s the same fate that befell KUSF in San Francisco…being turned into a “popular classical” format.

I again want to point out that I do enjoy classical music on occasion.  I am also aware that, in the wake of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that allowed massive deregulation of America’s airwaves, classical stations have been disappearing at an alarming rate.  Still, just as there is more to Led Zeppelin than D’yer Maker (possibly the most overplayed classic rock song of recent years), there is more to classical music than the opening movement of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.  ”Popular classical” is just as bad of a slap in the face of how that particular type of music is supposed to push boundaries and expand minds as “smooth jazz” is to what is supposed to be the great American art form.

In the case of WRVU, the money that “Vandy” got is probably going to be the worst use of a radio station sale in modern history.  It will go into a trust fund that will keep their newspapers and magazines running in perpetuity…in print form!  Wow.  If there’s any media dying off faster than good radio, it’s the entire newspaper and magazine industry.  When the time comes in the next decade or two when even the New York Times and Washington Post give up actually printing their daily editions, I wonder how foolish the current leadership at Vanderbilt will look.

The question is often asked…if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  At Vanderbilt it will be…if a newspaper is printed but nobody reads it…

Yes…seriously foolish when, if they realize their mistake down the road in that they could have kept something that everybody could still listen to for free in any number of ways, it will cost far more than the $3.5 million they just received to buy the rights to another frequency…plus, revamp the equipment, publicize the station, and hire the needed professors and other staff to train and supervise the students.

Yet, the biggest loss is not for Vanderbilt.  It is for the whole city of Nashville to have lost a station that brought both alternative rock and country to a music scene that, at least in its most commercial form, has become maddeningly stagnant.  Houston is feeling the same loss as nobody was left to pick up the slack from the station sold off by Rice University.  San Francisco still has some good non-commercial choices but receiving them can be difficult due to the area’s hilly terrain.

Perhaps worst of all is the precedent this is setting.  Recent news reports reveal that Bryant University’s WJMF may be the next to be sold followed by those held by many of the smaller state colleges in Pennsylvania.  In an era of shrinking budgets, I fear this will be a tidal wave that will only put more non-commercial frequencies under the control of NPR or, worse yet, fundamentalist Christian organizations purveying their twisted views of the Bible and politics.

I realize that I have been threatening here on and off for quite a while to get into the subject of how even college radio has been becoming corrupted by the influence of America’s big media companies.  I know that radio of any type is not the most popular thing to defend these days in the era of Pandora and the iPod.  I am also aware that radio can never be what it used to be as there are now so many new alternatives in both content and delivery of media.  I must also admit it’s hard to get people fired up about college radio stations when much of it is amateurish at best and they do not have programming that makes people want to “rip the knob off and leave it here all day” as many hit radio stations used to tell their listeners.  Still, I think it is important to defend and save even if older people have lost their feeling of value in it and younger folks may not have any attachment to it at all.

In most areas of North America, college radio is the last place where true new rock is played.  They are usually the last place left that plays any jazz, bluegrass, reggae, or funk.  They are usually the last outlets left informing the community about truly free events (not something paid for as a big commercial by some sponsor).  If done right, the programs are informative and, most of all, surprising…something that doesn’t often happen with one’s iPod, Pandora account, or even Sirius XM which has become as bad as commercial radio with its playlists ever since those once separate entities were stupidly allowed by the US government to merge.

It is also important to remember that college radio is not here to be popular.  It is here to be a learning experience for both host and listener alike.  No, people are not always in the mood to “learn” as listeners but it needs to be there when they are.

It is also important that college radio as a whole does some learning of its own and makes sure it remains viable.  Individual stations need to make sure they are not the next victim of some dean’s back room dealings to sell off a frequency to fund his or her possibly lame-brained pet project.  If anyone reading this is involved in college radio or knows somebody that is, I strongly suggest reading 9 Tips to Ensure College Radio’s Survival at Radio Survivor.  Of particular note would be advice regarding two things that go a long way toward whether or not a station gets placed on this website’s own Radio page — involve the whole community with the station and air live programming 24/7.

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