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WBGO: Lobotomized?
by Anthony Medici in Editorials, Industry News, News, Opinion Posts, Uncategorized
In my blog last week I commented upon the bland, pasteurized and altogether uninteresting jazz music programming I encountered on WBGO (Newark) while visiting the New York area for the Vision Festival. I noted how I had always enjoyed listening to WBGO on previous trips to New York (I was born and grew up in New York City and still visit from time to time for special events and to visit family, so am up there a fair amount). I thought, possibly, that the yawn inducing music on the radio might have just been the result of a contrast with the white-hot intensity of the Vision Festival, which made WBGO’s programming seem so banal. Then I received a very polite response to my post from Cephas Bowles, WBGO’s General Manager, which shocked me!
Mr. Bowles maintained that while “WBGO’s programming has not undergone significant content changes for the past several years, ” the station has, in fact, tweaked the content around the edges to make it more enjoyable for a larger segment of the audience “ (my emphasis). Why did they do this? According to Mr. Bowles, it was “the need to appeal to a larger audience” (my emphasis).
I find this response deeply troubling. There, in Mr. Bowles’ post was my answer. It wasn’t just the contrast that made WBGO so dull. It was an actual programming choice. “Tweaked”? I don’t think so. Lobotomized might be closer to what WBGO has done to its musical content. Cut out all that innovative, exploratory, troubling, challenging, noncommercial jazz, and heck, even mainstream jazz that has some kick to it, in favor of middle of the road, bland, usually quite derivative programming, stuff that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in the 1950s, let alone in this millennium. Mr. Bowles admits that it might even be programming he enjoys, but done supposedly for the greater good of larger audience share.
What I hear in Mr. Bowles’ response is the corporate rationale of its parent organization, WNPR, whose disdain for jazz and classical programming is well-known. NPR, these days, is all about going after the commercial market, grabbing audience share, in other words, acting like its corporate, commercial colleagues at Clear Channel and other broadcasting hacks. I suspect Mr Bowles and WBGO are caught between a rock and a hard place: increase audience share or face the corporate music. But is the solution to present music programming (I can’t even say jazz programming) so bland that it produces mostly yawns?
Mr. Bowles proudly notes that WBGO is “listener-supported,” so therefore it’s all good and, hey, if the listener’s like it, it must be OK. Well, it’s not quite as pure as that. Go to WBGO’s website and click on corporate sponsorship. You will find that WBGO is not entirely listener-supported. The website tells us, “Our audience listens to WBGO an average of 7.4 hours per week. They are used to three or four spots read live by the announcer per hour, not the 17 minutes of spots on most commercial radio stations” (my italics). So at this listener supported station you will get three or four corporate commercials per hour (soothingly read by WBGO on-air hosts). Note also the comparison to commercial radio. So, the music must be made acceptable to corporate suits looking to sell coffee, cars, or whatever. I guess the answer at WBGO is to create a Jazz Muzak station.
Let me paraphrase the Biblical question: What profiteth a jazz station to gain audience share and lose its soul?
6 Responses to “WBGO: Lobotomized?”
Leave a Reply
July 7th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Thanks, again, for the post about WBGO’s programming.
Please know that WBGO’s parent organization is Newark Public Radio, Inc., a non-profit corporation based in Newark. NPR (i.e. National Public Radio) is based in Washington, D.C. and has NO governance responsibility for WBGO or any of its member stations. NPR is simply a producer of programming for its client stations. NPR does not own or control any U.S.-based radio stations.
Again, we are hopeful that people will sample WBGO’s jazz programming at wbgo.org or 88.3 FM in the NYC metro area and make up their minds.
I appreciate your perspective.
Cephas Bowles
General Manager
WBGO
July 8th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
There are 2 jazz stations I recommend sampling: KCSM (Bay Area, CA) and WRTI (Philadelphia. Both may have the broader programming you seek!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:32 am
paul? I like your blog. I work at Jazz 88 (in news)but am posting here simply as a jazz lover. I can’t entirely disagree with some of what you say here but, as with most things, context is everything.
Sure, WBGO plays more of the “hits” but, jazz, by its very nature is “innovative, exploratory, troubling and challenging.” We play Art Blakey, Luis Armstrong, Charles Mingus, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles and many others. Who among these would you characterize as “banal, bland, pasteurized or altogether uninteresting?”
Clearly, some of today’s jazz may lack the creative jolt of the masters, but if you couldn’t hear some of the great current crop of jazz players (Marc Cary, Marcus Strickland, Luciana Souza, bad plus, Roy Hargrove et. al.) on Jazz 88, where would you hear them? (Maybe one track a week on some part-time jazz outlet?)
Our mission is to promote, protect, preserve and present Jazz, whether we love every artist or not. I might love to hear “Gillespiana” played in its entirety but Afro-Latin Diz ain’t for everyone and, while accusing the station of kowtowing to some amorphous corporate master is so not accurate, what’s wrong with trying to attract more people to Jazz?
Again, speaking only for myself, I urge you to give the station more than just a cursory listen. Just like you can’t judge everything about an artist by listening to one solo, you can’t judge a great jazz radio station by an afternoon of listening.
Keep up the good work.
cruz
December 11th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
As to the commercial efforts. The programming may say there are 3 or 4 spots read by announcer per hour, but that is not usualy the case. The commercials are not actually commericals in the truest sense. The sports are called underwriting. The paramaters and guidelines of the spots have been set forth by the FCC. They can be no longer than 30 seconds, most underwriting spots are 15 seconds at most public stations. They cannot quantify or qualify a product, “no best,” “only place to find this,” no “while supply lasts” kind of stuff. No commercial station like ads. The copy is very restricted and also monitored. Public stations don’t really have much leeway when it comes to the spots you do hear. Basically the corporate sponsorship is nothing more than the name of the company and location and phone or website. That’s it. Underwriting is very effective, because the listeners who support a public station pay a membership to the station so they take ownership and support the other people like themselves who support the station. But they are not getting big bucks for the spots.
January 19th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I agree WBGO Ccould be a little more creative if they were really serious about attracting more listners to Jazz.
I am not here to critcize WBGO’s programming efforts but I am responding to give a realistic positive suggestion.
If WBGO is Newark New Jersey’s Public radio station they should have more programming that is reflective of its etnic make up.
I realise Jazz derivies from the African American Community but so do other forms of music.
I propose a music program based on the following history of the United States Of America.
My proposal is as follows:
An eclective mix of the following music generes:
GOSPEL, JAZZ, RHYTHMN & BLUES, FUNK, HIP HOP, DANCE, CARRIBEAN & LATINO RHYTHMNS.
WHY THIS MIX?
The African American Journey From Slavery To Freedom Is The History Of “AMERICAN MUSIC” and America Itself.
HERE ARE THE FACT’S BROKEN DOWN THAT REFLECT THE ETNIC MIX OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY!
THE WORKSONG/ SPIRITUAL
In the beginning before Rap before R&B before Jazz and before Blues there was the Work Song. None of the musical genres that came after these work songs could have existed without them.
The “Call & Response” form of these worksongs came straight out of the African American Slaves’ African heritage.
Originally they were ritualistic in nature and related directly to the religions they had left behind. The only instrument they used was the drum and their own voices.
It was not long after they arrived in America however that they were not allowed to either sing in their native tongue or put anything related to their religion in the lyrics.
The drums were believed to incite rebellion and they were taken away. And so the slaves began to merge the tone and rhythm of their old language into their chants and the lyrics were derived directly from their everyday life. The voice became used as an instrument and set the scene for what was to come.
GOSPEL
In the last 50-100 years of slavery in America it became accepted to convert slaves to Christians. Before this time it was not even a consideration because in order to justify slavery Americans held to their belief that the slaves were not humans and they were soulless.
It is rather amazing that it was the Quakers who put an added twist on the dilemma of slavery and claimed that converting the slaves to Christianity should be forbidden as a justification to continue slavery because they were soulless.
As Afro-Americans were allowed religion it became a unifying social occasion. It created something for them to rally around and believe in.
Up until this point the slaves had not been allowed to practice any kind of religion at all except those who practiced secretly. Now they could gather together socialize and in a sense to elevate their spirits.
Gospel grew out of these meetings, as singing became a natural outlet for their pent up frustrations and troubles. The same “Call & Response” of the worksong was utilized and expounded to create Gospel
The Blues
After the civil war the newly freed people had a whole new kind of trouble to deal with. They were taken from the lives that they had known as slaves and thrust into a New World that while it had freed them wanted nothing to do with them.
The American culture could no longer condone the blight of slavery but neither was it ready to accept the new free men and women into their society as equals.
To those who did not find a new kind of slavery in the rentee/landlord arrangement with landowners life introduced a new kind of transitory lifestyle to many especially men.
It was these men who took up both the guitar and harmonica instruments that were cheap and easy to travel with. It was in this setting of displacement in their “own country” that the blues was born from their souls.
What made the Blues so different beyond the inherent sense of frustration and despair that so many Afro-Americans felt at that time was the legacy of the worksong.
The early blues artists and even the later Jazz musicians used their instruments as extensions of their voice.
The rhythms that they made were in the same non-syncopated form as the worksong had been and the sounds were meant to mimic the human voice.
It was this way that the blues became even more poignant and even more successful in their intent to convey emotion.
Traveling Blues shows Minstrelsies began to tour the country. Blues began to be heard everywhere, and it began to influence people if only to prepare them for what came next.
JAZZ
Around 1914 the great exodus from the south to the north began. WWI was a major catalyst in producing the modern black man. It was through this international conflict that Afro-Americans were able to see the world as more of a whole and their place as Americans within it.
They participated in the war in their own segregated troops and while they were meant to simply be more bodies to use in the war-machine they gained an enormous sense of being part of something that something being American citizens.
And so they began to try and step up into the role of an American not just ex-slave.
Afro-Americans were drawn for many reasons to the industrial centers of the north mainly St. Louis and Chicago. One of the biggest reasons was simply the need to leave behind the south and the slavery it was associated with.
There was also the call of work that was not simply agricultural. The American dream was drawing these particular African Americans forth as much as it did with the early pioneers of the West. Up the river went the Blues and a new kind of music went with it.
During the reign of Napoleon, the military band was all the rage among the French. This translated to the importation of brass band instruments to all the French settlements New Orleans included.
Creoles “mixed breeds”- usually part black part French sometimes part Indian who were usually well-educated freemen and later their newly freed brethren the African American became infatuated with these instruments and the sounds they could make.
Incorporating the sounds of blues and the same non-western non-syncopated rhythms that had been brought from Africa a new breed of music began to grow.
At first it was simply a take on traditional marching band music but it began to metamorphize as blues became more and more prevalent. First came Ragtime and then Jass or Jazz. Again the instrument was employed to mimic the human voice in tonality and spirit and again something wonderful emerged.
From New Orleans, Jazz moved upriver with the exodus and in the house parties of the 20′ and 30’s it gained momentum. Where the Blues was considered the “devil’s music” to many of the Black middle class Jazz was acceptable.
“Black music” was the rage in the clubs and parties of the 20’s. Jazz made it possible for Afro-American music to be imitated for the first time by white musicians that became the beginnings of what was to come in future.
The broad emotional meaning of the genre allowed such cross-cultural developments without being watered down. From Jazz grew many different elements within it.
Bebop, Swing, Boogie, Free Jazz and Hard Bop were all examples of the experimentation the musicians of the time were making to elevate the sound. It became more and more mainstream and more and more musicians began to try new things to take things another step along.
RHYTHM & BLUES
Nothing shaped modern day Rock and Roll more than Rhythm & Blues. It was first and foremost a backlash against the direction that Jazz had gone. As with anything adopted by the masses Jazz had lost its soul in many respects.
It was to undergo a revival via looking back to the older blues heart of it but the musicians of the time were looking for something new. Out of the Hard Bop movement within Jazz itself the innovators added a new funky backbone getting harder with the rhythms and the sounds.
The soulful feel of Gospel blended in to produce the next step in the evolution of black music. It became again an almost exclusively black music but not for very long.
The radio began to blare these “shouting blues” and again it was taken up by the mainstream. Now you can listen to almost any modern rock song today and you will hear the soul roots of the Rhythm & Blues pioneers.
FUNK
Artists like Sly Stone, George Clinton, Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations and James Brown were really getting down and dirty as they spoke out about many of the injustices that was going on in America at this time.
The 70s were as much an effort to take it to the next level as it was a rebellion against the polish of the formulaic 60s R&B. Funk was much more than *** drugs and Rock n’ Roll it was the ultimate high.
Funk took its name from a black slang expression meaning body odor but it wouldn’t wear off as the ’70s wore on. It lasted for over a decade leaving a collection of work as durable and as danceable as anything ever produced that still rocks the house today.
Funk referred most to the strong bass line and it became the movement where R&B’s anonymous studio legends of the 60s came out from behind the slick vocal groups to become stars. Funk used the upped volume from the late 60s rock bands and turned R&B eclectic.
Funk was street music and it was drug music it was the experiment with R&B that took on its own life. The evolving social climate was not being addressed by many of the major labels and the artists felt the need to express those changing times.
The nationwide popularity of Rock n’ Roll was pervasive and complete. It had permeated every layer of American culture and not only was it stagnating in some respects it was also losing the voice of the African American who had created and fueled it.
HIP HOP/RAP
Funk’s sound and rhythms did not evolve into Hip-Hop but it did set the stage.
There are several elements to Hip Hop, which were defined in the streets during the late ’70s rapping,
· Dee Jaying
· Break Dancing
· Graffiti Writing.
Hip-Hop was and still is its own sub culture and that culture had its own voice.
The times were changing again in America and as usually African Americans had yet another new set of problems to deal with as the nation progressed.
Rap is the closest road that black music has taken back to its original roots in the worksong. The “Call & Response” the rhythmical use of the voice as an instrument and the deep-seated frustration inherent in the environment are all present.
Drawing up the R&B rhythms and “rapping” over it grew out of the house party and the clubs just as Jazz had. When “The SugarHill Gang” scored their first big hit when they released “Rapper’s Delight a whole new genre was born and the rest is history in the making.
The evolution of black music is simply the evolution of American music and life in America for the black race. It is also a definitive parallel with the history of the African American in America.
When we listen to the lyrics we hear clearly the feelings and thoughts of a people who had to and still exist within a society and yet are still being systematically forced to remain separate from it.
Barack Obama will officially become President of the United States tomorrow and the country has great hope for CHANGE.
Maybe WBGO should thinking about addiding a new program based on the facts I,ve stated for “CHANGE”.
Most recorded music started approximately in the 1930’s so a mix of the generes I spoke about from the 1930’s to the present would most definately definately attrack more listerners to JAZZ & WBGO.
If you are old enough to remember FRANKIE CROCKER created a format based on the facts I,ve listed for WBLS in the early 1970’s when WLIB- FM converted from 24 hour JAZZ to “THE TOTAL BLACK EXPERIENCE IN SOUND” later noted as “THE TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN SOUND”.
So WBGO If you are serious about increacing your listnership you should have a program based on the facts I listed since you are here to serve the general public.
HERE ARE MORE FACTS FROM THE ARBITRON RATINGS!
34 (tie) WBGO-FM 88.3
Jazz 0.5 0.6
I look forward to seeing “CHANGE” at WBGO
GOD BLESS YOU!
March 21st, 2009 at 2:06 am
A few weeks back I mailed MR. BOWLES a demo package of “ROOTS & GROOVES”.
I asked him if he would politely give me some feed back on the quality of the program.
I believe its a program that will help WBGO gain a stronger market share in the Arbitron ratings.
He never responded.
“ROOTS & GROOVES” is most definitely the history of black music in America from its origin to the present.
Mr Bowles wants to attrack more listners to JAZZ?
I wonder!
ROOTS & GROOVES” recreates the old “WBLS TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN SOUND FORMAT” of the 1970’s and brings it up to the 21st Century.
Its a perfect format to attract WQCD listeners on weekends without disrupting the normal flow up your regular programming.
“ROOTS & GROOVES” is most definitely the history of black music in America from its origin to the present!
“ROOTS & GROOVES is simply the true defination of sound of the 21st Century RHYTMN & BLUES mix of generes.
MR. BOWLES WHERE ARE YOU!