Another day of seminars and great music.
There is a jazz radio track at the IAJE, and we spent a great deal of time today in various meetings talking about what is wrong with, andright with, jazz radio.
The good news: Jazz radio's audience is not decreasing as fast as the overall radio listening audience. The bad news: The audience is in fact, declining, not growing.
The reasons for this are varied. Satellite radio takes some of the blame, but not all. Only a small percentage of satellite radio subscribers buy the service to listen to the jazz channels.
But, satellite, Ipods, the Internet and simply a busier lifestyle for all of us, siphon away time that previously might have been spent enjoying jazz on the radio.
And another prevalent theme is what can we do to attract more people, and in particular more young people, to the music and to our stations. Ironic, because the IAJE is the single largest gathering of middle, high school and college musicians anywhere.
I'm pleased to say that based on what I'm hearing from our peers, KCCK is doing a lot of things right.
But, there are also areas where we can improve. And we'll be working on those.
Tomorrow, I'll get my turn in the spotlight as I'll be on a panel about making your station important in your community, particularlythrough jazz education.
Brushes with greatness: I got to spend some time today with guitarist Fred Woodard, now of Boston but with Iowa roots, and a performer at Jazz Under The Stars 2003. Fred will have a new CD out later this yearand sends a shout out to his dad and friends in Iowa City.
Rode an elevator with Bob Mintzer as he tried to straighten out some sound issue over cell phone. Passed Nancy Wilson in the hallway, and followed behind her for a few minutes just so I could listen to her voice. But I wasn't stalkingher, honest....
Tonight, it's a reprise of the Iowa City Jazz Festival 2005, as ConradHerwig and Brian Lynch present an extended version of the "The Latin Side of Miles," included the full suite of "Sketches of Spain" a piece they didn't have time for in Iowa City. Then Randy Brecker takes the stagewith the Bill Evans Soul Jazz Project.
I love this job.
1 comment:
The best thing you can do as a jazz station to attract an audience is play great music at all times, keep your egos out of the way, and make sure the manager doesn't have access to a blog.
No, seriously, keep it coming and ALL THAT JAZZ.
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