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Tomorrow night, January 4, marks the final night of jazz programming on WBEZ, and the station made a strange announcement about it this morning on the locally produced news program Eight Forty-Eight. Jazz critic John McDonough—a longtime contributor to Down Beat and a notorious enemy of most artistic advancements in the music over the last four decades—filed a report investigating whether the loss of jazz on the radio was really worth lamenting.
He interviewed some heavy-hitters in the local jazz scene—Lauren Deutsch, executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, Jason Koransky, editor of Down Beat—who admitted that they don’t actually listen to jazz on the radio, and then interviewed his 17-year-old son and a few of his friends, who said they prefer listening to music on the Internet and their iPods. This, McDonough essentially said, suggested that music programming was no longer useful. I'll admit that I don’t listen to the radio much either, but I'm not the average listener. Neither is Deutsch or Koransky. We get loads of CDs in the mail and earn a living listening to them. If I didn’t have such access, radio would be the ideal medium to hear new stuff.
JIC alum Penny Tyler told McDonough she stopped listening to jazz on WBEZ because the programming was terrible, and it’s true that former music director Chris Heim turned the station's once-diverse programming to shit during her too-long tenure. But not once did McDonough wonder if better music might get audiences to tune back in. He did interview Tribune critic Howard Reich, who posited that most of the criticism aimed at WBEZ’s jazz programming was generated by local insiders bitter about their lack of control over it. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but there are an awful lot of outsiders who aren't listening to the programs.
Finally, in the story's idiotic conclusion, McDonough said that jazz and blues (which is also getting the hook) weren't doing too bad in Chicago. As proof he pointed out that House of Blues has become a nationwide franchise, as if the club (which books jazz almost never and blues only sparingly) were some sort of homegrown operation done good, which it's not--it didn't start here and it's been a chain for more than a decade now. He also cites the presence of jazz at Ravinia and Symphony Center (each puts on maybe six or seven concerts a year) and the programming at the Jazz Institute as further evidence. But these are all venues that, much like WBEZ, focus on national and international artists, largely ignoring the individuals who are key to the local scene's survival.
The piece contained so many intersecting agendas that it’s hard to tabulate them all--a good chunk of the story took pains to explain that public radio's audience was best served by thoughtful news programming because it isn't available elsewhere (cough, cough). But ultimately it was WBEZ patting WBEZ on the back for its own controversial decision.
To listen for yourself, go to the Eight Forty-Eight audio library for January 3 (scroll down to “Music Programming Changes Hit Home”) and let the disbelief sink in. Then let’s hear what you have to say.
And maybe this brands me as a craaaazy lefty Internet weirdo, but "civil discussion" is, right now, the last refuge of the scoundrel. I've heard that language too much from establishment weasels like Peggy Noonan, David Broder, and Martin Peretz to trust it anymore, no matter how good WBEZ's intentions are; if I hear it again in McDonough's dulcet tones, I'm going to have to beat someone up.
I still think WBEZ is making a big mistake, but I was shocked that they aired something so egregious in their own defense.
I dont have a very large jazz collection, and i dont own an ipod. I dont have sattalite. I know its crazy but I LISTEN TO THE RADIO.
Arent all the npr programs available somwhere else like in the form of a podcast or online.
I wonder how many kids, and all the people without all the latest gadgetry will never be introduced to jazz by just cruising around the dial.
Radio is not only for the afficionodos, and collecters. radio is for the people.
Anon comments: "I would think that someone who was airing a authoritative commentary on NPR about the state of Blues and/or Jazz in Chicago would know better."
Think again. Here's another recent example of WBEZ's utter clueless about the local scene:
During the December 29 edition of "848", "Passport" DJ Tony Sarabia -- who, the host informs us, "has covered the local music scene from A to Z" -- gave his review of the year in live music. After explaining how jazz is having "tough times" in Chicago (e.g., the closing of the Jazz Showcase, and the "closing... umm... relocating" of the Velvet Lounge), Sarabia noted that "cutting-edge jazz" can still be heard at the Empty Bottle.
Listen here, starting at the 43:00 mark:
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/audio_library/84...
Of course, the Bottle's Tuesday night jazz series ended in April, and its Wednesday night series vanished much earlier than that. No mention was made of the thriving weekly series at the Hideout and Elastic, nor the summer's popular series in Millennium Park. This was particularly ironic given Sarabia's lament just a few sentences earlier about how the city's music festivals have failed to "really support local music in Chicago," along with his comment about how his "biggest beef" in listening to radio in his younger days was "Where are all the local musicians?"
But you have to give Sarabia credit for admitting to being a "loser" for "not getting out enough to see live music." I guess the joke's on us: Lucky Tony keeps his "Passport" show on the new, improved WBEZ schedule!
ps - John McDonough has been the house clown at Down Beat for several centuries now, but his act grew stale sometime in the late 18th century.
Does anything else need to be said about why BEZ's lullaby jazz weeknight programming will not be mourned?
I listened to this piece and found myself getting increasingly outraged. It
was no doubt staged to be a parting blow to all the many critics who have
weighed in on the jazz programming over the years. For John Mc Donough, the
commentator (and a jazz writer for Downbeat) to call people who work in this
town promoting jazz "a jazz establishment" and imply that he himself is
exempt from whatever that appellation accrues is ludicrous to start with.
Then the sound clips of Lauren Deutsch, Jason Kornasky and Penny Tyler - all
identified as "the jazz establishment" were edited in such a fashion to
imply that jazz on the radio was irrelevant to them as they had such
extensive CD collections. Knowing their points were intended to mean
otherwise and to underscore the point that since Chris Heim took over the
musical direction, most people in the field complained to deaf ears at BEZ
for years and then stopped tuning in altogether. This is really inexcusable
journalism. If you extend Mc Donough's point from these "edited to make a
point " sound bytes to its logical conclusion, then all of radio is really
an obsolete medium since content is supplied elsewhere and youth have
embraced other technologies ( this point emboldened by Mc Donough's own
son - who appears in a clip as an apparent authority ) Further Howard Reich
makes a cameo appearance in this piece and talks about "the self serving
turf wars and power quests of the jazz establishment" ) Huh? Last I knew we
( jazz establishment types) were trying to build audiences for the
incredible talent that was not getting any radio play and up ticket sales
for 8 Bold Souls, Fred Anderson, Han Bennick, Steve Lacy and Roscoe Mitchell
et. al - If I recall correctly we were still realing from the last idiocy of
BEZ saying people were trying to go to sleep at 11pm and that playing
Charlie Parker, Ernest Dawkins or John Coltrane might keep them awake. To no
avail have we have been trying to make the point that radio is one of the
main vehicles to introduce audiences to new artists and is an educational
opportunity that many feel should be served by PUBLIC radio. And as I have
been want to state- when Neil Tesser and Victor Parra were on BEZ in the
last century- when they would announce upcoming concerts in the area and
play a piece by the artist- attendence would grow by 100% - If this is self
serving show me the artists, promoters or jazz label that has been enriched.
In the end Mc Donough's piece only positions him to be one of the Talkers
about jazz on BEZ which in their new format is about all we can ever
expect. - ... UGH-
www.chicagoreader.com/pdf/060414/060414_business.p...
www.chicagoreader.com/pdf/060526/060526_restaurant...
The trend towards talk radio is obliterating music programming on the dial, and as much as program directors say they'll make it up on the internet or via new technologies the Digital Millenium Copyright Act will stop them in their tracks with over regulation of programming, especially music from the 78 rpm era. The best place, the most eglatarian place, for music in the mass media is on low tech FM radio. No bandwidth problems, no expensive computer and high speed connection to buy, no sitting in one room to hear music, you can take it with you and, unless you pledge, it's free.
Music sounds better on FM, too, than in the wires.
I'm sad to see Chicago going through this and lament the many great times I had listening to the station when it was relevant as a Chicago based radio station. The USA Today-ing of the media environtment does not do well by radio, the most local of media.
You're welcome to join Blue Lake Public Radio from over here in Michigan for classical music all day, jazz starting at 10 p.m. est (9 p.m. in Chicago) every Monday through Friday night and continuing until 3 a.m. While we play Chicago musicians it, of course, is not the same as a Chicago based radio station supporting it's local musical hereos. www.bluelake.org
The assertion that no one was listening is simply not supported by any data. We heard from tons of listeners during programs like our Coltrane month feature and 8 hour Trane marathon this past September.
For Horberg to say we did not play Trane or Bird is simply false. I've persoanlly played probably more Trane than almost any other jazz artist over the past 6 years of hosting jazz on WBEZ. And I wasn't the only one. And we also played Ernest Dawkins most recent CD quite often throughout this past fall season when it was released.
I thought Howard Reich's assessment of local "jazz establishment" criticisms often being self serving was actually quite on the mark. Since moving to Chicago in 2000, I've been consistently amazed by the mean-spiritedness, turf battles, grudge holding, an so on, that happens to go on within the local jazz scene. Like crabs trying to claw out of a barrel sometimes.
As for McDonough's commentary itself, you all have already covered it pretty much. I for one thought his opening comment that "I've been listening to jazz since I was 11 and have never really listened to jazz on the radio" makes it plainly obvious how little authority he had doing a commentary on jazz radio.
Lauren Deutsch's comment that "we all have enormous collections" struck me as incredibly elitist. I wish everyone who had an interest in jazz could afford an enormous collection of music. There would be a lot more rich jazz musicians if that were the case. And all of us who love jazz would be richer for it. Penny Tyler, as far as I know, hasn't regularly lived in Chicago in several years. To include her quote in that commentary was broderline absurd.
I do have a large music collection myself, but I discovered jazz through radio and still love listening to jazz on the radio. I have long enjoyed listening not only to my fellow WBEZ djs, whose work I admire, but also to other Chicago jazz radio outlets like WDCB as well as the many great shows you can hear on the web. Lazaro Vega who posted above, is well worth checking out on the web, but there are many others too. Dan Polletta in Cleveland on WCPN is one of the best, as is Ed Love in Detroit on WDET, not to mention the well known outlets like WBGO and WWOZ.
Each station has its own set of challenges, both financially and artistically, which has a direct effect on the scope and the style of its jazz programming. Many split format public stations have cut or totally dropped their music programs over the last 15 years. The cancellations often have nothing to do with relative success of the music shows themselves, artistically or financially. There just isn't that much airspace to be had anywhere, but especially on Chicago's non-commercial end of the dial. In every city, both news/talk and music folks want all the airtime they can have, but there's really never enough air time to go around. Some audiences are always left short. The consolidation and dumbing down of commercial radio has only magnified these problems.
The amount of music that carries in some way the name of jazz is incredibly wide ranging. It's not easy for any one station or program to please everyone all the time, especially when there is poorly informed, and often axe grinding critical sniping telling people not to even bother tuning in.
For every critic and local musician upset we didn't play enough "out" jazz, there were others on the opposite end of the spectrrum who wanted to hear Glenn Miller tributes from Air Force's Airmen of Note big band.
WBEZ's jazz shows did seem to please a large audience of folks who liked hearing the mix of legends and current internationally and locally based jazz artists that we did play.
During our final broadcast last night, our studio phone's multiple lines rang constantly for 8 hours straight. Often there were five callers at once, even at 2 am. We answered them as fast as we could as they wished us well and lamented the change, saying thanks for bringing jazz into their lives through the radio for all those late night hours. In nearly 20 years on the radio, I've never experienced an outpouring like that before. It was amazing and gratifying.
Both jazz and news/talk have been well served on public radio over the years. News and talk will continue to be well served through WBEZ's excellent programs. All over the country though, the news/talk format is becoming predominant for a variety of reasons, and split format stations (whether jazz or classical) are going away steadily. It's not just specific to WBEZ.
I used to paint in my studio listening to Dick Buckley's nightly 8 pm jazz show in the 90's. It was a great, great historical primer to the music for me, having spent my youth listening to Punk Rock. You can't underestimate how much potential radio has to reach new audiences.
While I definitely have not been a fan of the weekly music programming in the last 8 years or so, I had hopes that the station would broaden and expand the range of music during the nightly shows. That the station shit-canned 90% of the programming entirely and replaced much of it with reruns of the daily new programming is telling to me. Slowly but surely WBEZ drives me away.
Keep listening to WNUR' jazz show and WLUW for inspiring food for the ears...
Even I have to agree, though, that it was probably a bad PR move to try to explain their progamming decisions by concocting some crazy fluff-piece. I mean, does anyone really give a fig about what this guy's kid and his friends think about anything? I know I don't.
However, if I'm anything, I'm consistant, Pete and I still believe you're all running around like Chicken Little yelling "The Jazz is falling! The Jazz is falling!"
What happened to Blues Before Sunrise? It's on another station now. See? No fire. No brimstone. Some other station will pick up the slack for all of you who are unable to do anything to support something you're all galactically fanatic about.
As far as Dick Buckley goes, you gotta respect that kind of knowledge. It's truly astounding. However, he's gonna be the next Harry Caray if he stays on too much longer. I hate to say it but it may be time to enter a new phase of his career.
And good god! Piano Jazz before that?
Look, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to either of those two hosts. They are legends in their own time and should be honored as such. However, it's just depressing to spend like 15 hours on a Sunday listening to two people who sound like the the grim spectre of death himself is working the mixing boards just waiting. That, and it's like 8 hours of NOTHING but jazz. I mean come on!
If you're that jazzy that you can't handle trimming it down from 8-15 hours of jazz programming (per day!), then you need to get out there and support the scene, ACTUALLY BUY THE MUSIC. I've heard of these things called cassettes that actually allow you to listen to it any time you want to.
So many people are listening to so many other kinds of music, beside the blessed flapping of angels' wings that is jazz, that they'll never hear on the radio. Consider yourselves lucky you've got other Jazz stations in Chicago to listen to (especially since you all seemed to hate WBEZ's programming anyway
). Some people actually have to go out and buy it or, god forbid, patronize an establishment that provides said music.
So, "P.M. Dawn", ultimately we may have almost agreed on something here. I too thought the newspiece was dumb. However, the underlying argument that it's WBEZ's responsibility to be the great provider of all things Jazz is probably equally not-so-smart.
Oh, one more thing, about the reruns...many people out there enjoy talk radio and can't hear the programs during the day. You can listen to Jazz any time you want. Quit moping. (scat-do-dat-bap-diddy-do-wah)
As it stands though, I’d much rather have a source for news and culture available then that same long jazz song they’ve played over the past few years.
You've got to love it when
a blatant ass
makes it blantantly clear
that he's
an ass.
Here's the thing: if WBEZ's night time numbers slide below the impressive ones quoted above, will they can the news and bring back the music? And is public radio's true mission the numbers game? To what end? Survival or profit? Mission or profit? If mission and survival do not exclude each other, as they didn't with jazz on WBEZ, than it makes little to no sense to dump a highly marketable niche position in one of the jazz capitals of the world to compete with WGHN and every other Fm, Am, television station and cable news network for the news/talk market. Overall a mixed news and music format is a stronger proposition for the health of a station as it reaches a larger composite audience.
Thanks for the word Dan. WBEZ's journalistic approach to music announcing and biography was held in high regard on this side of the big water.