Popularity of jazz on World Wide Web


The 3/12/02 issue of the Seattle Times carried an interesting article by a local columnist about the popularity of jazz on the World Wide Web. Apparently there are two ratings services that provide reports about how many people listen to the various Internet radio/music programs that are streamed world-wide.

The station rated #1 or #2 on the Internet, depending on which rating service you refer to, is the London-based station, Jazz FM (www.jazzfm.com). This result surprised me, but it's fascinating that jazz is now being heard by so many people throughout the world, yet still struggles for a wider audience in the United States.

I was even more surprised that the #6-rated Web station in the world is KPLU-FM, the campus radio of Pacific Lutheran University located in Tacoma, WA (about 40 miles south of Seattle). KPLU-FM is the major NPR radio station in the Seattle area, and it broadcasts jazz and blues non-stop, except for the morning and evening hours when it carries NPR programs. The Web address for KPLU-FM is: www.kplu.org

If you want to read the full newspaper article, here is the link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestlife/134418782_erik120.html
sdcampbell

Showing 1 response by sdcampbell

Thanks for the info, Muzikat, about WCLK. I checked out their Web site as you suggested, and was pleasantly surprised to see Diane Schuur's picture on their home page.

Diane, affectionately known to her friends and family as Deedles, is a hometown Seattle product (technically, she's from Auburn, about 30 miles south of Seattle). I have very fond memories of an evening some 15 or so years ago, when I wandered into Bud's Jazz Records in Seattle. A good friend of mine, now deceased, worked part-time at Bud's, and the evening I went to visit him at work, Diane Schuur was sitting at the small counter at the front of the store. My friend, David, was chatting with Diane, playing her newest recording on the store's stereo system, as Deedles sang along with the record. There were just the four of us -- Bud Young (the owner of the store), David, me, and Diane -- and we spent two delightful hours talking with her, and listening to that amazing voice of hers at a distance of about 3-5 feet.

Although Diane is blind, she was kind enough to autograph the cover of her album for me. I still have the LP and jacket, along with some 25 other albums I've gotten autographed by some of the great jazz artists of the past 30 years.