01/04/07 - Hi Fred,
At long last, the new digital jazz radio station theJazz is to have proper programming. As many of your regulars will know, the station has been broadcasting 24 hours a day since the New Year, but all it offered was a continuous sequence of tracks, with no comment, no personnel details, no live jazz and no specific programmes.
The Easter weekend will see all that put right, with a series of presenters offering a variety of programmes covering, it is claimed, the whole field of jazz. There will be interviews with jazz performers, live music, request programmes and reviews of recent CD releases, plus a series on Jazz Legends, introduced by Ramsey Lewis.
Classic jazz will have two dedicated 2-hour programmes, both on Sundays. The first will be presented by Digby Fairweather, from 3 to
5 p. m., and the second by Campbell Burnap, from 10 p. m to midnight (hopefully this won't deter people from attending our local Sunday night sessions).
Other good news is that the excellent Helen Mayhew, winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for best broadcaster, will feature prominently on the station, presenting six programmes a week.
To get the new-look station under way, the first three days will be devoted to playing the 500 most popular tracks nominated by listeners. Ever since the station's launch, listeners have been invited to nominate their favourite all-time jazz records and these will be presented in order of popularity, culminating in Number One on Easter Sunday. The normal schedule will then begin on Easter Monday.
In the light of the current debate on your site about 'the real jazz', it will be interesting to see how many of the 500 recordings come from the trad/NewOrleans/Dixieland field.
To listen to theJazz, you don't need a DAB radio. You can listen to it on your computer at www. thejazz. com or on Sky digital if you have it (Channel 0113). The website also has a forum so that if you don't like the programmes, you can tell them so and suggest what you would like instead.
So, it sounds like an exciting development. Hopefully, it will be a bit more adventurous than its sister station, Classic FM.
Cheers,
Keith Allcock.
or go to my Home Page at
WWW.JAZZNORTHWEST.CO.UK