brownie Posted July 1, 2005 Report Share Posted July 1, 2005 From The St. Petersburg Times today: LIVE JAZZ PROGRAMMING TAKES A HIT Citing automation's convenience and superior technology, WUSF will eliminate almost all of its live jazz broadcasts. By Colette Bancroft, Times Staff Writer Published July 1, 2005 Rare as live radio is becoming, jazz radio is rarer still. By the end of this month, live jazz at WUSF-FM 89.7 will edge close to extinction. Many jazz fans in the Tampa Bay area know that Vic Hall, who has been hosting jazz programs on WUSF for 37 years, is retiring after a special four-hour show at 10 p.m. Saturday. Hall, 80, is stepping down by choice. Five other jazz hosts, with tenures at the station ranging from five to 26 years, will air their last live Jazz All Night broadcasts by the end of July, but not willingly. WUSF is shifting all but a few hours of its jazz programming to the same automated format it uses for most of its classical shows. That means jazz programming director Bob Seymour will select music in advance from a database, then he or other DJs will tape voice tracks to introduce the music. Computers will integrate the tracks and broadcast the result. The decision to automate the jazz programs was based on technology, says general manager JoAnn Urofsky, who's been at the station 28 years. "For a couple of years, we've been planning to replace the control boards, go to digital. We've been operating with 1988 equipment." The new equipment was necessary to receive syndicated programs like A Prairie Home Companion. It also improves audio quality and allows WUSF to broadcast program-assisted data (such as song titles and artists) to listeners' digital radio screens. Urofsky says automation is more convenient for announcers. "They can come in after their real jobs, record their show and go home at 6:30." She says the matter of how many of the jazz DJs will continue their shows in the new format is still under discussion. WUSF has broadcast nightly jazz programming since 1979. Until now, there has usually been a live announcer in the studio to select the music, take calls from listeners, play requests and provide information. One of those live announcers is Scott Hopkins, a math teacher at Freedom High School in New Tampa who hosts the Sunday night show. Hopkins says he met Hall 26 years ago and soon was on the air at WUSF. He and the other regular jazz hosts - Steve Carroll, Jeff Franklin, Thomas Dickens and Curtis Hayes - do what they do out of "sheer love," he says. "It's certainly not a get-rich-quick scheme," he says. "We're paid a little more than minimum wage. We've always said it's gas money and a few CDs." Hopkins says the jazz hosts are an invaluable resource for the station. "It would be difficult to find five guys who know as much about jazz as we do." They often play material from their personal collections - in Hopkins' case, 5,000 albums and more than 1,000 CDs. Hopkins says he loves not only jazz but the interaction with his late-night listeners. "Sometimes one or two requests would change the entire direction and complexion of a show. The show is a living, breathing organism in that sense," he says. Urofsky says that kind of programming on the fly "is not necessarily the best way to program. What you really want is a good mix of music that's representative of the genre. To get that kind of consistency, you need preplanning." Listeners, she says, can leave voice messages for program hosts, and they can respond the next day. "I've been an overnight jazz programmer, so I understand that you build relationships with certain listeners. But they'll always be there." Hopkins says he is not likely to continue his show after July 29. "The automated route offers no attraction whatsoever." Franklin, another of the overnight jazz hosts, wrote in an e-mail that WUSF's live jazz programs have been "exemplary FM radio. Live, exciting, occasionally raw, mostly much more professional than we should have been, given our payroll, the Jazz All Night programmers have been a last bastion of what radio should be." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted July 1, 2005 Report Share Posted July 1, 2005 Urofsky says that kind of programming on the fly "is not necessarily the best way to program. What you really want is a good mix of music that's representative of the genre. To get that kind of consistency, you need preplanning." Pardon me, but fuck Urofsky. Of fuck off, Urofsky. Or both. That is exactly the best way to program, if you have qualified DJs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fitzgerald Posted July 1, 2005 Report Share Posted July 1, 2005 This is similar to the approach used by WBGO, which I discussed in the "Why I Stay Pissed" thread recently. They want consistency - homogeneity - so that when "casual jazz listener" (not the serious fan, because he's not the target) happens to tune in, whether 8 AM, 4 PM, 4 AM, that listener gets the same predictable sound. This station takes things a bit further by automating, but that doesn't surprise me at all. WBGO went from having qualified DJs with personalities to hiring musical incompetents and sending them to voice classes. The personality lobotomy was pretty easily mandated by the program director with the homogeneity rule and the associated playlist restrictions. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted July 2, 2005 Report Share Posted July 2, 2005 I listened to WUSF's jazz programming for the year-and-a-half I lived in Tampa. A nice mix of mainstream styles with very little fluff. And yeah, as a listener, I very much enjoy knowing that there's a live person plaing the records, and I have been known to call in a show to get information, make a request and/or dedication (yes, you can make a dedication on jazz radio!), or just feel the dj out to see what tricks he/she might have up their sleeve, musically speaking. It's a good thing. So, one guy is going to be doing the station's entire jazz show programming? It's going to be his call, every single last tune that does or doesn't get played? Geez, I don't care how hip he might be, that's just can't be too much good of a thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcello Posted July 2, 2005 Report Share Posted July 2, 2005 On a somewhat related note when I talked to the program director of the Buffalo station (WBFO) last week he told me that they have been selling their collection of 12,000 LPs on Ebay to make room for space. When I asked him if he didn't think there were some LP's there that the station might want to keep, he said that whatever is, or has been released on CD, is enough for them and they got rid of their turntables some while ago. I asked him why didn't he donate them to libraries, he said that it would be too much work and shipping would be too expensive. I know a few collections that would have sent a van there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fitzgerald Posted July 2, 2005 Report Share Posted July 2, 2005 Unfortunately, even some libraries won't accept LPs, having disposed of their collections already. And you might not know when they'll decide to do something stupid like that. The only safe haven is my place. I haven't ever gotten rid of anything. Send 'em here. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcello Posted July 2, 2005 Report Share Posted July 2, 2005 You were my second choice! Or third. But really, I was thinking of the Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection where it may be of use to reachers and students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fitzgerald Posted July 2, 2005 Report Share Posted July 2, 2005 So it's clear that what I need to do is come up with an official name for my collection...... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcello Posted July 2, 2005 Report Share Posted July 2, 2005 Yea, that and a tax attorney! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazaro Vega Posted July 5, 2005 Report Share Posted July 5, 2005 Well, Blue Lake is going to have another live BAND on the radio next Monday, Arno Marsh with Organissimo.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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