Hail to college jazz radio stations like WHPK

WHPK, Chicago’s Hyde Park-based non-profit jazz-broadcasting community radio station at 88.5 fm, held its annual Black History Month gala last Saturday (Feb 21) with music by reedsman Ari Brown‘s quartet celebrating the 50th anniversary year of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). International House, where the party was held, was an appropriate setting, as it’s one of the venues where the AACM’s found an early audience for the next step in evolution of organized sound beyond the then-prevalent high energy “new thing.” Posters of some of the ’60s concerts are exhibited at nearby Du Sable Museum of African-American History‘s exhibit “Free at First: The Audacious Journey of the AACM,”open through next September 6.

Brown is a genially powerful tenor and soprano saxophonist, who between his original  funny, self-deprecating stories  whose group with his brother Kirk on piano, basisist Yosef Ben Israel, and drummer Avreeayl Ra (Dr. Cuz sat in on congas) offered rousing but ultimately peaceful modal pieces to approximately 150 attendees, including former AACM chairman Mwata Bowden, recipient of the radio station’s 2015 Reach Award. Bowden, also a saxophonist, is the UC Department of Music’s director of jazz ensembles, and in remarks from the stage spoke of the significance of continuity, in part represented by spoken word artist (“discopoet”) Khari B., his son, now serving as AACM-Chicago chair.

It’s not too much of a stretch to similarly praise the continuity 47-year-old WHPK sustains despite its relatively small (100 watt) signal and effective broadcast range. Staffed by the University’s students, staff and neighborhood volunteers, the station boasts of being the first to broadcast hip-hop in Chicago, and giving early exposure to Common and Kanye West, among others.

Chicago is lucky to have at least three non-profit, university and college-connected radio stations promoting local and experimental musics, jazz in particular. Besides WHPK, WDCB (90.9 FM, 5000 watts) from College of Du Page operates out of west suburban Glen Ellyn, with a professionally-produced playlist full of jazz, blues, salsa, folk and radio Golden Age programs, and WNUR (89.3 FM, 7200 watts) from Northwestern University in north suburban Evanston has student and volunteer deejays playing the strangest mix in the area.

Of course it’s not just Chicago. Boston’s got a handful of college stations with jazz deejays, Columbia University’s WKCR is a Manhattan-based institution, WWUH of Hartford CT. is another (giving a shoutout to devoted jazz host Chuck Obuchowski) — without college radio (and here’s a list of 469 in North America), jazz would be almost completely absent from the airwaves.

100 watts may not seem like much, getting far — but doesn’t that depend who’s listening? And anyway, like the best bigger stations WHPK too is streaming.

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