{"id":20819,"date":"2021-06-01T00:11:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T07:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/?p=18140"},"modified":"2021-06-01T00:11:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T07:11:16","slug":"jazz-88-keeps-pumping-out-the-tunes-station-persists-despite-numerous-challenges-over-the-years-including-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/jazz-88-keeps-pumping-out-the-tunes-station-persists-despite-numerous-challenges-over-the-years-including-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz 88 Keeps Pumping Out the Tunes: Station persists despite numerous challenges over the years, including Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jumping joints have come and gone, and many musicians and fans are jamming with the angels.
\nYet, there has been one constant on the San Diego jazz scene over the last half century.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

With a twist of the dial or punch of a button on their radios, or a finger tap on online devices, listeners have been able to tune in KSDS, 88.3 FM, to hear one of America\u2019s original contributions to the world\u2019s musical heritage. From Lionel Hampton to Hampton Hawes, from Cab Calloway to Ann Hampton Calloway, from Sonny Rollins to Sonny Stitt, from Miles Davis to Ron Miles, from the Count to the Duke, from Pops to Fatha and even Cecil Taylor to Sun Ra, connoisseurs of African-American-inspired improvisational music can catch it all on the airwaves familiarly known as Jazz 88.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the first button on my FM on both my cars,\u201d said bassist and educator Gunnar Biggs, a mainstay of San Diego\u2019s performance scene since the 1970s. \u201cThey are carrying the torch, for lack of a better term, for the real jazz thing. They\u2019re keeping that in the forefront (by playing) the people that are historically necessary and also the vanguard that\u2019s carrying the tradition forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Program director Ken Poston (left) with Gilbert Castellanos and Vince Outlaw.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Charles McPherson in the studio.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

DJs Joe Kocherhans, Claudia Russell, Chad Fox.<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Steph Johnson & Voices of Our City Choir on Jazz88’s Listen Live Sunday.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Musicians, the station\u2019s on-air personalities, and those involved in the production of KSDS\u2019 ongoing Jazz Live concert series agree its abiding presence is a hugely contributory factor to an ongoing jazz presence in the region.
\n\u201cI would say that KSDS is probably one of the most important factors in keeping jazz alive just because of the consistency of it, for what, 50 years?\u201d said Dave Drexler, who has been involved with the station in various capacities since the mid-1970s.
\n\u201cIf KSDS was not around and was not committed through this core of people that have been there forever\u2014these on-air people who thoroughly loved the music and the opportunity to present it on a radio station and share that with an audience\u2014it would not have been part of the community.\u201d
\nTHE BEGINNING
\n<\/strong>Keeping jazz alive and growing was precisely what two adventurous women connected with the nascent San Diego City College had in mind in creating the concept of a radio format in 1973 that would both celebrate the music and serve as an educational tool for the school\u2019s communications students.
\nJim Hildebrand, who for years produced the station\u2019s Jazz Live program before bequeathing it to Drexler, credited Mary Sorrentino Woodworth and Lee Mirabal with coming up with the idea of creating jazz programming broadcasting from City College\u2019s on-campus radio station.
\n\u201cThose were the two people responsible for it,\u201d Hildebrand said. \u201cThe dean at the time was Jim Dark. The department chair was Hope Shaw, who was also into jazz and real supportive of it. … But it was actually Mary who was the real emphasis in getting it made into a jazz station.\u201d
\nHildebrand and others familiar with Jazz 88 said its creation was largely propelled by the idea of supporting and promoting the community of musicians and fans in the region.
\nSIGNAL SWING
\n<\/strong>In the early years, Jazz 88 was more of an underground phenomenon comparable to \u201cpirate\u201d rock stations that popped up on FM air waves. At only 831 watts, the station\u2019s weak signal rendered it inaccessible to many enclaves within a county characterized by its rugged landscape.
\n\u201cAt that time, KSDS was a very low-powered station,\u201d said longtime station broadcaster Ron Dhanifu. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t get it across the street.\u201d
\nThat handicap diminished over the years with a boost to 3,000 watts and then to 22,000 in 2007 when the station, after a protracted battle and fund-raising campaign, gained permission to increase its wattage. Its signal transmitter is located at San Diego City College\u2019s sister campus in Kearny Mesa, with a higher elevation than the downtown campus.
\nSince then, listeners can tune in to KSDS from anywhere in the county aside from those areas where the signal is walled off by high mountains.
\n\u201cIt was a major effort,\u201d said Drexler of the station\u2019s battle with another broadcaster to increase its range. \u201cIt was quite a story to increase the power from 831 to 22,000 watts.
\n\u201cThe analog signal of 88.3 FM was very close to Channel 6\u2014XETV\u2019s audio signal\u2014for their television station. So, that was like 87-point-something. And you could pick that up on your radio…. So, they put up a fight for a long, long time, every step of the way.\u201d
\nEventually KSDS prevailed. In the mid-1980s, the station went to a 24-hour a day format. Since then, KSDS has become recognized nationally for its quality, including winning the National Association of Broadcasters\u2019 award as Jazz Station of the Year in 1993 and finalist nominations in 2004 and 2005. JazzWeek <\/em>magazine recognized it with awards in 2011, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
\nThe 24\/7 jazz policy remained in effect even through the pandemic, when the City College campus, which encompasses the studio, was shut down. The station continued to air music, but without the commentary of its highly jazz-educated DJs.
\nSMOOTH OPERATOR
\n<\/strong>Another challenge to KSDS\u2019 viability and all-jazz format was the emergence of KIFM at 98.1 FM with its smooth jazz output, headlined by DJ Art Good\u2019s trademark \u201cLites Out San Diego\u201d program and his nationally syndicated \u201cJazzTrax\u201d broadcast.
\nSmooth jazz is characterized by mellow sounding instrumental improvisations over relatively tame, mechanical rock and funk back beats. It is the antithesis of the intense rhythmic dynamics of bebop and post-bebop jazz genres favored by KSDS.
\nThe San Diego band Fattburger, originated by Crawford High grads Carl Evans Jr. and Hollis Gentry III, became a leading presence both locally and nationally in the smooth jazz bag, thanks in part to Good\u2019s playlist.
\nThe band\u2019s live performances, however, including drummer Kevin Koch, electric bassist Mark Hunter, guitarist Steve Laury, percussionist Tommy Aros, and occasionally vocalist Ella Ruth Piggee, were much grittier than normally expected of the lightweight \u201csmooth\u201d formula.
\nDrexler characterized KIFM\u2019s approach as a commercial endeavor.
\n\u201cThey changed the format to 100 percent smooth jazz because it was profitable for them,\u201d Drexler said. \u201cThere was an audience of baby boomers who wanted something a little bit more lively, yet who didn\u2019t want to be challenged by real jazz and were tired of where rock \u2018n\u2019 roll was going.\u201d
\nThe phenomenon created a rivalry between the two stations, with KSDS maintaining its commitment to \u201cstraight-ahead.\u201d
\n\u201cSmooth jazz was [sic] fighting words,\u201d Drexler said of the era.
\nBiggs, the bass player, says the emergence of KIFM and \u201cLites-Out Jazz\u201d changed the economics on the ground for musicians trying to make a living playing jazz, especially those committed to traditional, acoustic forms.
\n\u201cThe main thing that changed the vibe here was KIFM\u2014smooth jazz\u2014because everybody thought it was cool, right? So then we\u2019d come in (to a gig) and they\u2019d go, \u2018No, we wanted jazz.\u2019 And we\u2019d go, \u2018That\u2019s jazz!\u2019\u201d said Biggs, referring to what his band had been playing.
\n\u201cIronically, Fattburger became one of the biggest names in smooth jazz, though that was not their intention,\u201d noted Biggs, another Crawford alumnus.
\nDhanifu, who started at KSDS as operations manager in 1977, left, then returned after a short hiatus and became an on-air personality. He said he didn\u2019t have a problem with the station\u2019s anti-smooth jazz policy.
\n\u201cBut some of it was good, like Grover Washington Jr.,\u201d Dhanifu said. \u201cThat stuff was good, but (if station management) thought it was too poppy (it wasn\u2019t allowed).
\n\u201cTechnically, you\u2019re not going to find the musicianship of a Coltrane, of a Monk, of a Miles, or whomever in that generation. You\u2019re not going to find it because the bar was set too high, musicianship-wise.\u201d
\nSTRAIGHT, NO CHASER
\n<\/strong>KSDS\u2019 focus has not changed, though in pre-pandemic days the venue offered an eclectic array of feature programs, such as Miff Mole\u2019s \u201cFree Time,\u201d Chris Springer\u2019s \u201cLatin Grooves,\u201d Barry Farrar\u2019s \u201cPercussive Profiles,\u201d music director Joe Kocherhans\u2019 \u201cPortrait in Jazz,\u201d and John Phillips\u2019 \u201cCool Struttin\u2019.\u201d
\n\u201cI get all of the incoming product that is sent to us by record labels and artist representatives, and then I listen to them, to process them to see whether they fit our format and whether we would play them or not,\u201d Kocherhans said.
\n\u201cI make suggestions on each disc about which tracks to play and then I forward that to the program director, Ken Poston, and he makes the final decision. It has to be jazz. That\u2019s the main thing, and then it has to be within the realm of straight-ahead jazz. We don\u2019t play any smooth jazz.\u201d
\nSaid Biggs: \u201cThat\u2019s the one thing I respected about KSDS, man, because they came out and actually said, \u2018Real jazz.\u2019 They were saying \u2018real jazz\u2019 and carrying the torch.\u201d
\nContinuity has been maintained greatly though the longevity and commitment of the station\u2019s announcers
\n\u201cThe one thing that\u2019s unique is many of those people who are on the air year after year have been on the air for 40 years,\u201d Drexler said. \u201cSo, there\u2019s a body of knowledge. It\u2019s no longer a student radio station in terms of its jazz presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Drummer & DJ Barry Farrar.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

Farrar is one of those who has had an on-air presence for four decades. He was pursuing a career as a drummer when he became obsessed with learning about jazz in the 1970s. He would call into the station to participate in its album giveaway contest, whereby callers would vie for a free record by answering a jazz trivia question. One night, he said, the station was offering a 20-LP Columbia release to the first caller who knew Charlie Parker\u2019s birth date. He called and Dhanifu answered the phone, recognized Farrar\u2019s voice as having been a winner of previous contests and voiced skepticism about Farrar\u2019s legitimacy as a participant.
\n\u201cHe got a little bit opinionated with me, but he actually said, \u2018Okay, if you know so much, why don\u2019t you come down here and get on the air?\u2019 That was it, baby. That was 1979, and I\u2019ve been there ever since.\u2019\u201d
\nLike most of the employees at that time, Farrar was a volunteer and had to take courses in broadcasting at City College to get on the air. In \u201cPercussive Profiles,\u201d which ran weekly before the coronavirus shutdown in early 2020, Farrar focused on one drummer per program and often did live interviews with the subjects.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the only all-jazz drum-focused show that I\u2019ve seen anywhere in the world,\u201d Farrar said. \u201cSome people in New York interview guys and feature the music, but it\u2019s not exclusively drummers. I have guys from all over the world that we used to interview, before Covid.\u201d
\nGOING PRO
\n<\/strong>Over the years, the station evolved in funding and staffing, so it now has a paid, professional roster. Claudia Russell is one of the more recent hires: She marked her 20th year at KSDS in March.
\n\u201cI was working for the public radio affiliate in Elkhart, Indiana, at the time the job came open here at KSDS,\u201d she said. \u201cI had never been to San Diego. I didn\u2019t know anything about the station, but I read up on it, and learned that it was all jazz all the time, and that it was not (a National Public Radio) affiliate. That independence was attractive to me.
\n\u201cThese were live human beings in the studio each hour on the air presenting music, which to me is extraordinary. There are so few places that do that and that KSDS has managed to continue that model for the decades that it has is really remarkable.\u201d
\nPoston is widely regarded for his vast historical knowledge of the music, especially of developments on the West Coast.
\n\u201cThat guy is a walking encyclopedia of jazz,\u201d Farrar said. \u201cThis guy\u2019s so heavy, he blows my mind.\u201d
\nFarrar recalls broaching with Poston his fascination with the Stan Kenton Orchestra when the bandleader was using mellophoniums to color his arrangements.
\n\u201cI go, \u2018That\u2019s my favorite part of Kenton\u2019s work, when he started getting really progressive and had the mellophoniums,\u2019\u201d Farrar said. \u201cHe says, \u2018Those mellophoniums are in my garage. I have every one of them.\u2019 He\u2019s got all the [music] books from all the bands. It\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d
\nPoston has parlayed his knowledge into projects such as a concert presentation of Kenton\u2019s music by KSDS\u2019s all-star orchestra led by the brilliant trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos.
\nBut regardless of roles, with such a small staff, Russell said everyone has to pitch in as needed. \u201cWe all work really collectively here. I\u2019m kind of the person to contact with additional promotional ideas and concepts, but we have a tight group here and we work pretty collectively to make things happen.\u201d
\nJAZZ LIVE<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Danny Green Trio performs at Saville Theatre, a Jazz88 Jazz Live production.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

<\/strong>The Kenton retrospective was part of the station\u2019s ongoing Jazz Live series, which occurred one Tuesday a month until the pandemic hit.
\nWhile providing a performance platform for musicians, the principal impetus for the series, launched in 1977 by Scott Harrison and Jackson Ratliff, was to teach live audio production to City College students.
\nHildebrand, who began teaching the Jazz Live class and producing the concerts in 1981, said the broadcasts originally occurred in a classroom. \u201cWe called it \u2018the pit.\u2019 Once they got this thing going, they started to get some audiences and there just was not enough room in that little space in the pit.\u201d
\nEventually, Jazz Live became entrenched at the Lyman Saville Theatre, which was named after a theater instructor at the college.
\nHildebrand said Jim Dark, the school\u2019s dean at the time, and department chair Hope Faith viewed the station\u2019s launch as a way to support the music and its performers, and Jazz Live dovetailed with that mission.
\nMost broadcasting, whether radio or TV, revolves around promoting products through advertising, Hildebrand observed. \u201cFor us, there were no commercials,\u201d he said. \u201cOur promo was jazz. We promoted jazz. We promoted the jazz community. And that\u2019s really the essence of what KSDS had become.\u201d
\nBiggs remembered his first Jazz Live gig during its early days with the late pianist Butch Lacy, who was a fixture of the San Diego jazz scene in the 1970s and \u201980s before moving to Denmark.
\n\u201cIt was in a classroom at City College,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cIt was just me and Butch. They rolled a grand piano in there and it was just the two of us. It was more like a class presentation. That was the vibe that was going on there.\u201d
\nBiggs would go on to play many Jazz Live shows over the years, as well as other KSDS-supported opportunities, such as fundraising extravaganzas often held at Balboa Park.
\n\u201cThat was the great thing about Jazz Live\u2014it always included a few youngsters,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were just learning what media and presentation and probably jazz was for the first time, while they\u2019re plugging everything in and getting it wrong. … It was always a fun thing.\u201d
\nEventually, Hildebrand turned over the reins of the Jazz Live production to Drexler in the 2000s. Early on, the concerts presented mostly musicians from the greater San Diego region and no admission was charged. In more recent years, the shows have featured nationally and internationally renowned artists and groups, such as Tierney Sutton, John Beasley, Alan Broadbent, and Peter Erskine.
\n\u201cWe came to the consensus that maybe [the station] could get some grant funding to get national touring jazz acts in here,\u201d Drexler said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a very good theater and this would increase the level of what we\u2019re doing, increase the prestige and make it more of an attraction for students that they\u2019re producing and presenting a live jazz program with national touring talent.
\nKEEP ON ROLLING<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Claudia Russell.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

<\/strong>A more recent challenge resulted from the college\u2019s decision a few years ago to discontinue the class that had been taught by Hildebrand and Drexler to produce Jazz Live. So, the station had to come up with funding through creative means to continue the monthly broadcasts.
\nWhile amid the pandemic, the studio at City College has reopened and the station is maintaining a limited on-air presence on weekdays with Kocherhans, Russell, Dhanifu, and Gary Beck handling the microphones.
\n\u201cIn the time that I\u2019ve been there, we\u2019ve had some pretty big hurdles to get over… but the station has always persevered,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThe idea that we\u2019ve been able to continue broadcasting, regardless of what has happened with economies or staffing issues, you name it, we just keep rolling. And I love that about the station. It\u2019s like the little station that could.\u201d
\nThere is no reason to expect KSDS to falter in its mission of filling ears with finger-popping tunes, instructing inquisitive minds on the history of the music or the latest sounds, and serving as a pillar for the area\u2019s world-class players as well as fledgling musicians.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been saying probably for the last 10 or 15 years, I will stack San Diego\u2019s jazz scene up against any city in America in terms of talent,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe may not have the most clubs. We may not have the biggest prestige in the country.
\n\u201cIn San Diego especially, you see someone like Joshua White evolve, and finally the Joshua White album, Thirteen Short Stories<\/em>, is out. … It\u2019s so wonderful to see people being nurtured through the jazz musician community and coming up and being those young lions and those rising stars.
\n\u201cWhen people think jazz, they think New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City. But in terms of just the sheer talent that we have with our jazz community, I\u2019d put them up against anybody in the world.\u201d
\nThis is excerpted from an upcoming book, <\/em>The History of Jazz in San Diego.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jumping joints have come and gone, and many musicians and fans are jamming with the angels. Yet, there has been one constant on the San Diego jazz scene over the last half century. With a twist of the dial or punch of a button on their radios, or a finger tap on online devices, listeners have been able to tune in KSDS, 88.3 FM, to hear one of America\u2019s original contributions to the world\u2019s musical heritage. From Lionel Hampton to Hampton Hawes, from Cab Calloway to Ann Hampton Calloway, from Sonny Rollins to Sonny Stitt, from Miles Davis to Ron Miles, from the Count to the Duke, from Pops to Fatha and even Cecil Taylor to Sun Ra, connoisseurs of African-American-inspired improvisational music can catch it all on the airwaves familiarly known as Jazz 88. \u201cIt\u2019s the first button on my FM on both my cars,\u201d said bassist and educator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yesterday-and-today"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}