Iowa City Jazz Fest Channel Launches June 1

Iowa’s Jazz Station, KCCK-FM, along with Summer of the Arts, will launch the “Iowa City Jazz Festival Channel” on June 1. The program stream will consist solely of artists performing at the Iowa City Jazz Festival, July 5-7.

The channel was created in recognition of the fact that how people listen to music has changed with the advent of on-demand services like Pandora and Spotify.

Craig Kessler & Bob Stewart interview Ariel Pocock at the 2012 Jazz Fest

“We’ve always given heavy play to Jazz Fest artists in the weeks preceding the Festival, and aired interviews and other features,” says KCCK General Manager Dennis Green. “But today, if someone wants to hear a particular artist or tune, they aren’t always willing to wait for it to show up in our rotation. They want it now. The Jazz Fest Channel is our way of making that content available whenever people want it.”

Programming on the Jazz Fest Channel will consist of recordings of the groups performing on both the main stage and side stages. Artist interviews and profiles, as well as schedule information and updates, will be carried as well.

The Iowa City Jazz Festival will take place July 5-7 on the UI Pentacrest. Headliners include Sachal Vasandani, Charlie Hunter with Scott Amedola, Christian Scott, Dr. Lonnie Smith, JD Allen, Fred Hersch and Pharoah Sanders.

A variety of local and regional bands will play on three side stages, including several high school and college ensembles. Their music, if available, will also be a part of the Jazz Fest Channel.

The Iowa City Jazz Festival Channel will “pre-empt” KCCK’s second program stream, The Iowa Channel, for a little over a month. The station is available by downloading the Iowa Channel app for IOS and Android, online at www.iowachannel.org or at 88.3-2 on HD Radio.

KCCK’s main channel, 88.3 and 106.9 FM, and www.kcck.org online, will broadcast all of the main stage performances live.

The Iowa City Jazz Festival is presented by Iowa City’s Summer of the Arts. Information is available at www.summerofthearts.org. There is also a Jazz Fest Channel “button” for quick access from that site.