So the hardworking staff trundled down to the Boston Public Library last night for the JazzBoston convocation of local music lovers stranded by WGBH radio’s eviscerating of jazz programs from its airwaves. And we fully expected a repeat of the Old South Church pity party a year-and-a-half ago after ‘GBH had exiled classical music to the anemic WCRB. That event was dominated by long-winded whining and self-referential gasbaggery that eventually became unbearable (which is a fancy way of saying we left early).
Last night, though, was nothing of the sort. This group – about 150 strong by the hardcounting staff’s estimation – was universally well-spoken, thoughtful, coherent, and – blessedly – succinct. The conversation was MC’d by the dapper and small-c-catholic José Massó of WBUR’s Con Salsa.
There were several threads that ran through the first hour of conversation (the hardleaving staff had to exit early, although this time reluctantly).
• One thread was the sheer love of jazz in the room. As one audience member said, talk radio focuses on the day-to-day and makes us all live inside our own heads. Music makes our life different, humanizing and connecting us.
• Another thread was practical: Where to get jazz now that it’s not in the mainstream media. (Internet for sure, but that tends to limit us to what we already know.) And how to inject local musicians into local news and talk shows.
• Yet another thread was tactical: How to pressure WGBH into changing its mind (weekly musical protests outside WGBH?). Or how to convince WBUR that it has an opportunity here to grab the jazz franchise.
• And a final thread was aspirational: How to educate children to explore jazz in a way that might have a lasting effect on them.
All in all, it was a terrific event that JazzBoston audio-recorded and presumably will post on its website at some point. Meanwhile, given this dedicated music community, there’s good reason to believe that jazz will flourish in one way or another in Boston for years to come.
Campaign Outsider 
Thank you, John, for capturing the spirit and intent of last night’s event so perfectly. I’d just like to add that José’s co-moderator was Emmett Price, Associate Professor of Music and African American Studies (former chair of the latter) at Northeastern University. A power pair — both are members of JazzBoston’s board — we couldn’t have done it without them.
Pauline Bilsky, Executive Director, JazzBoston
Thanks, Pauline. Didn’t mean to snub Emmett. Best of luck in your efforts.
Let’s see: on a particularly cold mid-winter night, close to a THOUSAND people show up for what you called a “pity party” versus 150 on an average mid-summer-though-threatened-by-thunderstorms night. Now, in recent posts, you indicated that “classical music” is over your head, so any discussion of something you don’t care about may seem like “gasbaggery”, but would be of considerable interest to its advocates. (I was there that night, in the same pew as a bespectacled, slender onlooker but I didn’t take note of when he left.) If you click on John’s story about that event at Old South Church and scroll down to the last comment, voila my name appears with a dollop of technical observations about WCRB. Its signal is NOT anemic: it runs 27,000 watts atop a tower that itself is atop a hill with a commanding view in all directions from a point near the Andover/Tewksbury line. At that altitude, it’s as if WCRB operated with 50,000 watts at 500 feet, the standard for most of the commercial stations in Boston. The FMs on the Pru run generally a skosh more than 20,000 watts. Two elements tend to hinder WCRB’s reception closer to Boston: the hilly terrain and built-up man-made infrastructure cause raw interference plus waves bouncing off buildings,bridges and towers; and classical music requires a “quiet” background, called signal-to-noise ratio, because the range of volume broadcast is from a solo instrument to a full symphony orchestra and chorus (e g : Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) The sale of WFNX 101.7 to Cheap Channel is regrettable; if WGBH had bought it, the signal from an office building in the Financial District could have been used to provide a local-quality signal to Boston, the People”s Republic of Cambridge, the Brookline oblast, etc. Maybe some day after Cheap Channel’s loans come due.
This was a great Community Meeting. Your Report is on point! The meeting was well attended. But the success will be realized when the follow up takes place. I hope everyone Takes Action and sins up to help out!
Doug Ruffin
President,
Boston Music Coalition
There you go, trundling again.