Once a lively presence on radio, jazz now finds itself relegated to satellite broadcasters and low-watt stations at the edge of the dial. Aaron J. Johnson examines jazz radio from the advent of Black radio in 1948 to its near extinction from the commercial dial after 1980. Even in jazz’s heyday, programmers and DJs excluded many styles and artists, and Johnson delves into how the politics of decision-making and the political uses of the medium shaped jazz radio formats. Johnson shows radio’s role in the contradictory perceptions of jazz as American’s model artistic contribution to the world, as Black classical music, and as the soundtrack of African American rebellion and resistance for much of the twentieth century.

An interwoven story of a music and a medium, Jazz Radio America answers perennial questions about why certain kinds of jazz get played and why even that music is played in so few places.

Aaron J. Johnson is an associate professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh.

Preface

Introduction

Part I    Jazz on Commercial Radio

1. Jazz Here and Jazz There: Jazz Rides the Omnibus
2. Independent Contractors: Jazz Shows Outside the Format
3. Jazz Around the Clock: All-Jazz Commercial Radio/Jazz as a Radio Format 

Part II    Jazz on Noncommercial Radio

1. Paradise Found, Paradise Lost: The Rise and Fall of Jazz on Noncommercial Radio
2. Don’t Get Too Far Out: Programming Jazz on Noncommercial Radio
3. Jazz Is for Everybody: Missions and Mission Statements, Precursors, Models, and Ownership

Postscript: Jazz Radio Present  and Future

Appendix A: Notable Jazz Disc Jockeys

Appendix B: Jazz Radio Stations c. 2020

Notes

Bibliography

Index