Entries associated with the tag "Dick Buckley":

On Sunday from 2 to 4 PM Dick Buckley, perhaps Chicago's best-known jazz DJ, hosts his final show on WBEZ, where he’s been spinning records for 31 years. Aside from possessing one of the all-time great radio voices, Buckley has a deep knowledge of the music, particularly its first four decades, and his show provided excellent history and context, but his avuncular charm always made it seem like he was simply playing you some of his favorite records.

Buckley was the only jazz host to survive the music purge of station manager Torey Malatia in January of 2007, and programming has been cut back again recently, but I've been told that the decision to retire was his own (Buckley turns 83 next month).

This leaves the station with no jazz shows and only one in-house music show, Tony Sarabia's Radio M--to which I contribute monthly. (It's followed by Afropop Worldwide, but that's produced elsewhere and syndicated.)

Sunday's extended broadcast promises a discussion of Buckley's radio career with fellow WBEZ broadcasters Richard Steele and Dan Bindert.

Today’s playlist:

Nush Werchowksa, Mathias Pontevia, Heddy Boubaker, Glotosifres (Creative Sources)
Satan’s Tornade, Satan’s Tornade (Warp)
Omer Klein, Introducing (Smalls)
Stetsasonic, In Full Gear (Tommy Boy)
Achim Kaufmann, Michael Moore and Dylan van der Schyff, Kamosc (Red Toucan)

Today’s Tribune has a pair of stories related to WBEZ’s decision to eliminate music programming in January. The better of the two is a fascinating profile of long-time jazz DJ Dick Buckley, 82, whose deep knowledge of early jazz remains unparalleled in town. According to the article, station management recently proposed a one-hour jazz program that would be cohosted by Buckley and fellow jazz personality Dan Bindert. But like an increasing amount of the station’s programming, music would be secondary to yapping -- in the form of interviews with “jazz artists, aficionados, and historians.” Buckley says he “isn’t thrilled” with the idea.    

The other story examines the efforts of Mike Widell and Hillel Frankel, who’ve organized the websites savethemusiconwbez.org and boycottwbez.com as desperate measures to force the station to retain its music programming. Unsurprisingly, their efforts have fallen on deaf ears at WBEZ, which has been strangely tight-lipped and vague about its future plans. (Although since making its announcement about the cessation of music programming last spring, the station has decided to keep some vestige of Passport, its world music show, and the aforementioned jazz program.) From what little station management has said about music’s role at the station starting next year, it seems that the proposed jazz show will be the template -- discussions and stories about music and musicians rather than music itself.

While there’s certainly a place for such broadcast journalism, this decision seems to imply that straight music programming is too sophisticated or too boring for listeners. That’s a rather sad assessment, and it only seems to bolster the station’s arrogance as an arbiter for good taste -- something WBEZ has not exactly excelled at with music programming over the last decade.