KKJZ (88.1 MHz FM, "K-Jazz 88.1") is a non-commercial

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 in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

broadcasting from the

Long Beach State California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities ...

campus. The station is one of several public radio stations in Southern California presenting

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 m ...

and

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 ...

. The California State University Long Beach Foundation owns the non-commercial broadcast license for KKJZ; as a

station, it is funded by contributions from listener-members and other donors, with 75% of the station's funding coming from station memberships. Global Jazz, Inc., an affiliate of

Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc. Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc., a subsidiary of Mt. Wilson Broadcasting Inc., is a Los Angeles-based radio broadcasting company owned by Saul Levine. The company was founded in 1959, and Levine is the only independent operator of an FM comme ...

, programs and manages the radio station. The station's antenna is located on the top of Signal Hill in the Long Beach area, and its studios are located on campus at the Foundation Building. KKJZ is also available through internet streaming audio and in Japan via

direct broadcast satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

on MBCO (Mobile Broadcasting Corporation). According to U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules for a Class B station, KKJZ could broadcast with a maximum power of 50,000

watts Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power. Watts may also refer to: People * Watts (surname), list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters *Watts, main character in the film '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' * Watts family, six cha ...

using the same antenna height of 137

meters The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pr ...

HD programming

KKJZ-HD1 (

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

) is a simulcast of the analog signal, which bills itself as "America's Jazz and Blues Station"; the format features mostly contemporary

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 m ...

artists, such as Ramsey Lewis, Diana Krall,

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he hel ...

and (the late) Dave Brubeck. KKJZ-HD2 is KJAZZ Cool Jazz. KKJZ-HD3 is known as "22 West Radio", a station run and programmed by the students and faculty at Cal State University Long Beach.

History

On January 3, 1950 the station began broadcasting with the call letters 'KLON' and was owned by the

Long Beach Unified School District The Long Beach Unified School District is a school district headquartered in Long Beach, California, United States. Established in 1885, Long Beach Unified School District now educates 81,000 students in 84 public schools in the cities of Lon ...

. The station has been broadcasting jazz since 1981, when it was transferred to CSULB. The station changed its call sign to 'KKJZ' in July

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. Prior to its Southern California location, the call letters KKJZ belonged to "Smooth Jazz 106.7" in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

. The station had been broadcasting with 6,500

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

s ERP, but in December

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

the station upgraded its transmitter to 30,000 watts as well as an

digital signal A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; a ...

. The station began broadcasting with 30,000 watts full-time on March 14, 2005. The owner of KKJZ's non-commercial broadcast license, the California State University, Long Beach Foundation, has contracted with Global Jazz, Inc., a for-profit company, to program and manage the station. This agreement became effective on April 21,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...

. Prior to that date the management and programming were performed by Pacific Public Radio, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organization created by the CSULB Foundation. Global Jazz is an affiliate of

, owned by

Saul Levine Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters, Inc., a subsidiary of Mt. Wilson Broadcasting Inc., is a Los Angeles-based radio broadcasting company owned by Saul Levine. The company was founded in 1959, and Levine is the only independent operator of an FM commer ...

. Levine is the owner of three radio stations in Southern California with non-jazz formats. One of his stations was converted from an all jazz format to the

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

station KMZT in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

. That station is now country-formatted KKGO, which was its call sign when it was a jazz station. The assumption of station management by Global Jazz raised some questions among the station's staff and supporters. The

University of Redlands The University of Redlands is a private university headquartered in Redlands, California. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Califo ...

radio station, KUOR, which had for the last six years operated as a relay for KKJZ's programming to a large

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the citie ...

audience, switched to broadcasting Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), ending availability of KKJZ's programming to residents of Los Angeles' inland suburbs after reaching an agreement with SCPR that included nearly half-a-million dollars to upgrade and renovate the University of Redlands' studio and transmitter. The

Arbitron ratings Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...

in 2008 indicated KKJZ had the most listeners of all jazz stations in the United States and the fifth-highest number of listeners of public radio in the country. On May 2, 2011, five time Grammy nominee pianist David Benoit made his debut as a morning host on the station.

Music events

* Long Beach Blues Festival: Traditionally held on Saturday and Sunday of the

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

weekend. For most of the years it was held on the athletic field of the

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities ...

campus. In 2008, the 29th festival was held at Rainbow Lagoon in

downtown Long Beach Downtown Long Beach is the heart of Long Beach, California, United States, and is the location for most of the city's major tourist attractions and municipal services. It is also the location for numerous businesses. There are many hotels and rest ...

. * Live broadcast of the Playboy Jazz Festival from the Hollywood Bowl. Long-time jazz

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobil ...

Chuck Niles (aka "Bebop Charlie") is the only jazz disc jockey to have a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Calif ...

. Horace Silver,

Louie Bellson Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, ...

, and Bob Florence ("Bebop Charlie", "Nilestones"), and others have written tunes for “Carlitos Niles”. Chuck Niles was a DJ for KKJZ from 1990 until he died in 2004. Niles also appeared in small parts in several films. KJAZZ is the official emergency broadcast station for the City of

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporat ...

References

External links

KKJZ official websitelive streaming audio of KKJZ
plus two other streaming audio channels: Mostly Bop (bebop) & 88 Greats (classic jazz as chosen by station members) {{California college radio California State University, Long Beach Mass media in Long Beach, California KKJZ KJZ KJZ Radio stations established in 1975

HD programming

History

Music events

See also

References

External links