On September 1, the management of KMHD instituted a major revamping of KMHD’s Saturday afternoon programming. One program was eliminated and the four people who rotated hosting the show wound up out in the cold.
Another controversial change was the launch of a new program from 3 to 6 PM: “Mississippi West,” hosted by Mike Meyer and Dave Johnson. The focus of the new program is neither jazz nor blues, but rather something called “Americana and roots music”.
It’s too early yet to tell how well “Mississippi West” is going to do. KMHD’s core audience of jazz listeners may not care for a lot of the music played on”Mississippi West.” Blues fans could go either way. Doug Sweet, the station’s general manager, is apparently hoping the show will draw new listeners who will tune in for this one show only. This strategy has worked with other musical genres, such as the Monday night descarga show from 9PM to Midnight, and the blues programming from 4PM Friday night to 2AM on Saturday. Whether there is enough of an audience for “Americana and roots music” to support a three hour program on Saturday afternoon remains to be seen.
In the meantime, I want you to know that, thanks to listeners like you, Saturday Night Jazz (and a little blues, too) is alive and well. Nothing lasts forever, but Saturday Night Jazz will remain on KMHD’s schedule from 6PM to 9PM for the foreseeable future, or until people like you stop listening. (Making a pledge when pledge drive time rolls around again would help in that regard. A lot of people listen to this show every week, but very few of you pick up the phone at pledge drive time and make a pledge.)
Hosting this program every week is a dream come true for me. Thank you for making it possible! 🙂
Al Evans
saturdaynightjazz@yahoo.com
jazz for a saturday night 