In one sentence:

Pubradio Jazz presents an acoustic mainstream jazz service focusing on a strong lyrical sound, designed to delight both casual listeners and passionate jazz lovers.



In multiple sentences:

A late-'90s national research project told public radio programmers a great deal about how listeners heard jazz. While this music is so varied that it's impossible to contain it successfully in one radio format, we discovered that there was a vein of jazz that had both great artistic, integrity AND great appeal to audiences. (Think "Kind of Blue," "Time Out," Milt Jackson, Benny Carter, Bill Evans and Diana Krall, and you've got the idea.)

That is the heart of the PubRadio Jazz sound. Our goal is nothing less than a jazz service with music that is attractive to both people who like jazz casually and to people who are deeply passionate about jazz. It's not easy to do both at once, but I think we have succeeded.

I picked a random hour of our service, and these are the artists played: John Fedchock, Scott Hamilton, Clark Terry, Bob Sheppard, Gene Ludwig, Lois Deloatch, Arlene McDaniel, Andy Bey, Barry Harris, and Gary Burton. The hour before that: Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Houston Person, Walt Harper (w/Ray Brown), Melody Gardot, John Brown, Wes Montgomery, Loston Harris, Paquito D'Rivera, Modern Jazz Quartet, Bill Charlap. And there you have it: great jazz names and classic performances blended with younger artists who belong there too. And in NO case are the artists ever just thrown on the air without forethought - everything gets a lot of off-air audition time and we make it a point to feature the best of each musician's work.

In the first decade WDUQ programmed jazz using this approach we more than
doubled our audience - and this was in a jazz-rich market where the population hadn't changed for more than forty years. Clearly we were on to something good - and it's our fondest wish to bring something good to your station in the form of Pubradio Jazz. Join us and you'll see.

Dave Becker

Dave has many years experience sucessfully programming Jazz. He has programmed at WDOR, Sturgeon Bay, WI; WSUI, University of Iowa; High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, Kansas; KCCK-FM, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; WDUQ Pittsburgh; WOI Ames, Iowa and KNPR in Las Vegas