RIP S.C. jazz radio

Well, South Carolina's educational radio network has pretty much gutted any of the few hours of jazz programming it had left, except for "Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz" (since SCETV produces that, it would be rather unseemly to cut it).

In addition to doing away with the all-jazz format on WNSC so that it can largely duplicate programming already offered by the Charlotte area's other public stations, it's also done away with late-night jazz blocks on its other stations. (Not, by the way, that you'd find that information in The State, the state capital newspaper where ETV is headquartered -- an area covered by two and, in some places, three of ETV's stations. And that story I just linked to? Good luck if it's there in a week, as the Observer, like The State, is a McClatchy paper and things tend to disappear.)

It's a shame, really, in a state that produced the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and has a long jazz tradition (beach music notwithstanding) and active jazz education program.

For now, ETV is providing a helpful link of jazz streams on its Web site. Phhhhhht.

Yet another reason not to donate to a public broadcasting system repeatedly hobbled by the legislature and whose news programming already sucks. I'll take ETV head Moss Bresnahan at his word when he tells the Charlotte paper, “Local content is going to be one of our competitive advantages going forward.” And when he says he hopes to create a regional news network next year (about a decade after pressure from the legislature gutted what used to be a pretty good news department that got a little too feisty about reporting on state government).

Yeah, I'll take him at his word, but I'll wait till I see it. As Reagan said, trust, but verify. In the meantime, I'll be listening elsewhere -- on the computer.