WDCB (90.9 FM) is a

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

station broadcasting a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

format, serving primarily the Chicago area, and beyond through its streaming audio. The station is licensed to and owned by

College of DuPage College of DuPage is a public community college with its main campus in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The college also owns and operates facilities in the Illinois communities of Addison, Carol Stream, Naperville and Westmont. With more than 20,000 s ...

, in

Glen Ellyn, Illinois Glen Ellyn is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. A suburb located due west of downtown Chicago, the village has a population of 28,846 as of the 2020 Census. History Glen Ellyn, like the neighboring town to the east, Lomba ...

, United States, and mostly features live and locally hosted programming, along with select programs from PRX and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. Music from WDCB can be heard on

CAN TV Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV) is a public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable television service in Chicago, Illinois. The organization is funded by cable companies as part of their cable franchise agreements with the Ci ...

channel 42 in Chicago.

History

WDCB began broadcasting July 5, 1977 and was originally a part-time station, sharing time on the frequency with

WEPS WEPS (88.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to serve Elgin, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by the Elgin Area School District U46 and licensed to Board of Education School District U-46. Founded in 1950, WEPS is the oldest non-comme ...

.
Broadcasting Yearbook 1980
',

Broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

. 1980. p. C-68. Retrieved February 10, 2019.WDCB on the air
, '' La Grange Suburban Life''. November 2, 1977. pt. 2, p. 11. Retrieved February 10, 2019.Bagnato, Andrew.
College Station Clears the Air Over Frequency
, ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. September 2, 1986. Retrieved February 11, 2019. The station's call sign stood for "DuPage Community Broadcasting". In its early years, the station aired classical,

, and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, College of DuPage courses, community affairs, and entertainment programming.Spencer, LeAnn.
Tiny WDCB-FM Makes Big Plans to Jazz Up Its Image
, ''

''. August 23, 2000. Retrieved February 10, 2019. The station began full-time operations in October 1987, after an agreement was reached for WEPS to move to a new frequency. Throughout the 1980s, WDCB was also used on the Cablevision of Downers Grove's Local/Public Access Channel. By the late 1980s, jazz had become the station's primary format. Since then, WDCB's format has included a diverse variety of musical genres, including

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...

, bluegrass,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

Afro-Cuban jazz Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban ...

, and world music, along with

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early ...

shows, though

makes up a majority of the station's programming.WDCB History
, WDCB. Retrieved February 10, 2019.WDCB Program Grid
, WDCB. Retrieved February 10, 2019. COD courses continued to air on the station until 2001. ''Classical Confab'' aired Sundays until late 2005. WDCB is also the home of ''Those Were The Days'', the long-running old-time radio program that used to be hosted by Chuck Schaden. In 2009, Steve Darnall took over as the second host of the show. The show was announced for years by Ken Alexander, who died November 5, 2022. As the result of a 2016 agreement with Chicago Public Media, WDCB's programming is now also heard on

WRTE WRTE (90.7 FM) is an American radio station broadcasting a public radio / jazz format. It is licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States, and serves the city of Chicago. The station is owned by Chicago Public Media. WRTE broadcasts in the ...

90.7 FM, from a low power 6-watt signal located on Chicago's near-west side. While WDCB's primary 90.9 FM signal does reach all of Chicago, the 90.7 FM signal offers better reception for many WDCB listeners on the west side of Chicago, as well as Chicago's near-north and near-south side neighborhoods.

Programming

WDCB broadcasts more than 130 hours of jazz every week. Since 2000, John Russell Ghrist has hosted the Saturday afternoon big band program ''Midwest Ballroom''. Steve Darnall hosts the long running old-time radio program ''Those Were The Days'', which airs Saturday afternoons. WDCB's extensive blues lineup includes a 10-hour block of blues every Saturday night, led off by popular Chicago blues radio veteran Tom Marker ( who began hosting on WDCB in 2015), and ending with Steve Cushing's historical, early-blues program ''Blues Before Sunrise''. In 2015, WDCB became the new broadcast home of former XM host Michelle Sammartino's program, ''Jammin' Jazz: Jazz for the New Generation''. Local celebrity

Wayne Messmer Wayne P. Messmer (born July 19, 1950 in Chicago, IL) is a professional speaker, singer, broadcaster, author and actor. He is a professional member of SAG/AFTRA and the National Speakers Association. He was the long-time public address announcer f ...

also hosts a vocal jazz show on Sunday nights. In 2017, WDCB added prominent Chicago jazz singer

Dee Alexander Deleatrice "Dee" Alexander is an American jazz singer. She is a member of the AACM and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2013. Alexander is the host of ''Sunday Jazz with Dee Alexander'', a radio show on WDCB and the WFMT Radio Network. ...

to its on-air lineup. In addition to its predominantly live and locally hosted programming, WDCB also airs a number of nationally syndicated music programs, including NPR's "Jazz Night in America" as well as independent programs including "American Routes," "Night Lights," "Blues From the Red Rooster Lounge," and "The Grateful Dead Radio Hour." WDCB was also home to '' The Folk Sampler'' until it ended its run in Summer 2018.

Staff

The station manager of WDCB is Dan Bindert.WDCB Staff
, WDCB. Retrieved February 10, 2019. The music director is Paul Abella. WDCB is not student-operated, though COD students work at the station. WDCB's stable of on-air personalities includes Bruce Oscar, Paul Abella,

Orbert Davis Orbert C. Davis (born 1960) is an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. Biography Davis was born in Chicago and raised in Momence, Illinois. He began playing trumpet around the age of ten, but was not formally instructed until Charles Danis ...

, Bill O'Connell, and Marshall Vente, all of whom are prominent Chicago-based jazz musicians, along with longtime hosts Leslie Keros, Jay Greene, Matthew Hermes, Jeanne Franks, Bob Signorelli, Dona Mullen, Al Carter-Bey, and Andy Schultz. The daily lineup of Abella (mornings), Keros (middays), and Oscar (afternoons) has been intact since late 2019, after the retirement of long-time jazz personality Barry Winograd (who still hosts his early-jazz show ''When Jazz Was King'' on Saturday mornings). Oscar has been with WDCB since 1992.

References

External links

* * {{Illinois college radio DCB Glen Ellyn, Illinois Jazz radio stations in the United States DCB NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1977 1977 establishments in Illinois

History

Programming

Staff

See also

References

External links