Where Art Thou O Jazz Radio?
Monday March 10, 2008
A site visitor to Radio.about.com wants to know why there are so few commercial jazz radio stations. He's afraid programmers won't go out on a limb. He's partially right - but it's not the programmers afraid to venture out. Read more.
Comments
There are many good Jazz stations. Many are PubRadio. Check publicradiofan.com.
Beyond that, there are good jazz outlets on Shoutcast. Some are terrestrial, some are internet only. Beyond that, there are internet only streams on Live365.
Jazz is far from dead. Its pattern follows closely that of Classical Music: you can find it, if it is worth it to you, with a bit of work. To mer, it is worth it to do the work.
I agree with your comments that Jazz would struggle as a commercial radio product — but I would also add that commercial radio as we know is facing its own challenges. As a producer of national jazz radio programs and a former jazz DJ in Boston, I would love to say that there’s a commercial future for Jazz on the radio — but it just ain’t so. On the other hand, who cares? The explosion of Internet-based radio programming is far more exciting than the idea of jazz on a commercial AM station. On the iTunes browser alone, there are more than a dozen live jazz radio channels; and with Sirius and XM offering their own jazz channels, even the public radio jazz guys are facing challenges.
I truly believe that the idea of a black box with an antenna attached is in the process of finding itself on the same attic shelf as the cassette player and turntable.
The last time my daughter turned on a radio (she’s 20) was to plug in a cassette adapter so she could listen to her iPod in her car.
My 83 year old mother on the other hand is a faithful listener to he AM radio. Where do you think the future is going?