WRVR Jazz NY – Recipe for Success

WRVR was on to something. The hasty decision to abandon ship, after painstaking research and experimentation, remains a mystery nearly forty years later. WRVR’s popularity and loyal following was well noted by WBGO, and when jazz suddenly vanished from 106.7 FM, on September 8, 1980, the fledgling public radio station seized the opportunity to fill the void, and expanded from part-time to around-the-clock broadcasting. The bold and fortuitous decision enabled WBGO to emerge as the leader in jazz programming in the greater NYC market, while WRVR was reduced to a footnote in radio history.

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Although few New York listeners seem aware of it, WBGO has been providing intelligent, challenging jazz programming for a year and a half. Though jazz had been well established at the station, round-the-clock programming had not been tried.

”I was in Washington attending an important meeting the day WRVR went off the air,” Albert Pryor, WBGO’s program director, recalled. ”But when I heard the news, I caught the first plane back to Newark, and we made the decision that day to go on the air around the clock. That same night at 1 A.M. I went on the air and did our first all night shift.”

excerpt taken from May 14, 1982 NY Times article

Continue reading the main story

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The reckless actions of that fateful day in New York radio history were at odds with the thoughtful approach that led to the programming recipe book that WRVR utilized at its Woodside studio. The WRVR secret sauce, which was the brainchild of program manager Dennis Waters, consisted of an equal mix of traditional jazz, progressive jazz, and R&B inspired fusion jazz that Waters named the Triple-Z format. He brought a Top-40 sensibility to jazz programming developed during his tenue at WKTQ in Pittsburgh. Waters’ strategy included bringing popular DJ Herschel Venezie along with him. Herschel became one of the most popular voices at WRVR, and was soon named co-music director of the station in November, 1979.

Researchers Morris Holbrook and Douglas Holloway later reached out to Waters, and to listeners via questionnaires, to gain a better understanding of the thought process that went into WRVR’s programming strategy. From the data collected in those responses, they developed a matrix of Commercial vs. Purist, and Familiar vs. Esoteric jazz artists which formulated the ‘RVR playlists. My eyes glazed over a bit from some of the details of how the matrix was created, but the finished product is eye-opening and clearly shows the “circular pattern” used by the station to incorporate all styles into each hour of programming, without alienating one single group of listeners.

Details of study can be found here:

Consumer Research – WRVR

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The strategy of the team from Pittsburgh was validated by strong ratings, until the sale of the station by Sonderling to Viacom. Listeners be damned! WRVR was no more, but the path paved by the ill-fated station led to the current success of WBGO.

Poison’s Music Survey Singles

Recycling post from a couple of years ago, which was a full-blown music themed survey. Except for Amanda, of Mind the Dog Writing Blog, who was kind enough to share her interests, I did not get any responses. Consider this the 45 rpm version of the survey.

Please share! I look forward to your thoughts and insights.

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Which group or artist would you choose to compose your theme song? Why?

For me, it would be Carole King. I think I connect with the whole hippy Earth mother sensibility. A friend once said “Daughter of Light”, from the Thoroughbred album, made them think of me.

 

Daughter of Light
Carole King

Daughter of light
You’re a welcome sight
To a weary soul
Seeing you just lifts me out of the cold
It’s only temporary
You have to go away
But you’re beautiful
And you never fail to make my day
Daughter of light
You smile and all the sadness leaves my heart
It’s an easy course for sailing that you chart
But it’s only temporary
You have to go away
You’re too beautiful
And you know I’d never ask you to stay
Riding on the beach at sunset
Dreaming of the world that waits for you
That’s where my mind’s eye sees you
In a world that frees you
To do anything that you want to do
Daughter of light
Though you can only be a sometime friend
You restore my faith in love again
And that’s not temporary
Even though you go away
You’re too beautiful
Much more than words can say

Songwriters: CAROLE KING,GERRY GOFFIN
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

 

 

Redemption

I have so much information floating around in my head, much of it of dubious value. This assemblage has been collected, coalesced and distorted by fading memory, so that even the formidable powers of Google fail me when I try to reconnect the original source. Such was nearly the case for a quote I would likely have attributed to one of many famous existential authors. Instead, said quote helped me rediscover other long-forgotten gems from the brilliantly twisted mind of Kurt Vonnegut, and this particular search will serve as the motivation to revisit his work.

I had a professor who knew Vonnegut personally, and used his teaching platform to spread the author’s insights into the values of big business and society. Vonnegut’s view of existence and Man’s place in the world, like many of his generation, was colored by the transformation from his personal exposure to World War II. Ironically, this quote was the runner-up to the original quote I was seeking, which was from a relatively obscure book of poetry from 1970 entitled Black Out Loud. At the risk of misquoting the original poem and taking liberty with language that some may feel I have no right to use in any context, I have supplanted it with the following:

“Trout was petrified there on Forty-second Street. It had given him a
life not worth living, but I had also given him an iron will to live. This
was a common combination on the planet Earth.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

My intent was to channel the energy, imagery and frustration of the speaker in the original poem to springboard into my own work.  

 

Redemption

Must I die upon the cross

To grant salvation for a life that’s lost?