COMMENTARY : Horns of a Dilemma: Jazz on the Radio

During the past quarter century, jazz and radio have had what has often seemed to be an adversarial relationship. Live music shows are down to a precious few; all-jazz disc jockey stations are so rare that even New York City had none for several years in the early 1980s.

While the Southland has been better off than most major urban centers, as of Jan. 1 there will only be one FM jazz station in the area--KLON, 88.1, in Long Beach. KKGO, switching to all-classical, will move its jazz format to an AM outlet, KKJZ.

The KLON story is not simply that of a radio station. Increasingly, it represents a force for the propagation of innovative live events. Even listeners outside the station’s range (the 1,200 watt power has limits, though some as far away as San Diego and Santa Barbara can hear it) are aware of it because they have attended some of the dozen major concerts presented under its auspices this year.

“These are extremely gratifying times for us,� said Ken Poston, the concert coordinator. “Our concert reuniting the legendary Lighthouse All Stars in Hermosa Beach came out recently on an album. In August we presented four concerts at the John Anson Ford Theatre celebrating the 50th anniversary of Blue Note Records. We’ve had other concerts at Eldorado Park during the summer, a blues festival on campus at Cal State Long Beach, and on Dec. 6, 500 fans came aboard the Queen Mary for our party featuring Terry Gibbs.

“Sure, there’s an audience out there for the best in mainstream-modern music. During 1990, we hope to include, in our live shows, a West Coast version of the Charles Mingus celebration at New York’s Town Hall.�

All this is heady stuff for what began modestly in 1981 on a station that had been known less for jazz than for polka, opera and bluegrass. “Three of us who were there from the start are still on the air,� says program director Ken Borgers. “I’m on in the morning, my sister Helen in the afternoon, and Bob Epstein does a traditional jazz show on Sundays.�

A non-commercial station, KLON keeps itself afloat through corporate donations and memberships (presently 7,800 members pay $40 a year). The ongoing battle to increase the station’s power to 30,000 watts finally seems close to resolution.

How does a jazz radio station survive without making commercial compromises? Isn’t the tendency to lean to fusion and jazz/rock all but irresistible?

“We like to play two or more new releases per hour,� says Helen Borgers, “along with two numbers by our respective featured artists of the day. We each have our favorites; I believe in keeping people aware of the roots. Roy Daniels, whose show precedes mine--he’s on from 9:30 to 1:30--is more into hard bop. But in general, middle-of-the-road companies like Concord Jazz, who record Gene Harris and so many mainstream people, are our life’s blood.�

Bubba Jackson, who handles the 6:30 to midnight shift, takes a dimmer view: “We’re four or five years behind the times. By not having Dave Grusin, Hugh Masekela or Miriam Makeba in our library, we’re ignoring the changes in the music industry. We’re failing to serve a younger generation. I don’t go out of my way to buck the general policy here, but Luther Hughes’ new show will help.�

Hughes, a reputable bass player, will host one of three new programs set to start in January. “Sure, I’ll include some of the better fusion things,� he said. “I can show how we got from Dizzy and Bird to where we are today. I have some very contemporary guests lined up: David Benoit, John Patitucci, Eric Marienthal.� Hughes’ show, “Jazz Today,� will kick off Jan. 6 from 9 p.m.-midnight, continuing every Saturday.

Latin jazz also must be recognized as integral to any overall jazz coverage. “Jazz on the Latin Side,� which supposedly will present strictly jazz-oriented Latin music rather than salsa, will air Sundays at 9 p.m. with Jose Rizo in charge.

A welcome returnee to the airwaves, though less felicitously spotted, is Howard Lucraft, the British-born journalist (mainly for “Variety�), composer and guitarist, who will lean toward nostalgia in a Saturday series from 5-8 a.m., presumably aimed at whoever stayed up very late on Fridays. His early subjects will include the veteran clarinetist Abe Most and the late Kenton singer Ann Richards.

The blues idiom, which has enjoyed a healthy renaissance during the last five years, will be acknowledged by a near tripling of the time allotted to Bernie Pearl’s “Nothin’ But the Blues,� which will air Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m.

Clearly, there is no united front in jazz: The schisms among opinion-holders are as irreconcilable as ever. One can still come across a die-hard who assures you that nothing of real value has been created since 1940. The bop innovations of Gillespie and Parker, though still unacceptable and “too modern� for these antiquarians, are regarded by many observers today as part of a tradition.

Other aficionados, all of them decades younger, will not even recognize the names of anyone who lived before the flowering in the 1960s of John Coltrane.

Nevertheless, a middle ground can and must be found. Those who complained that they heard “too much fusion� on KKGO failed to recognize that this was a commercial station fighting for viability. If KLON (operated by Pacific Public Radio, a nonprofit corporation) can pick up the mantle and maintain a modicum of integrity, it may become more than ever a valuable force in a too often fragmented musical community.