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Elena
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Tilghman, Dane
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Lourenco, Didier
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IN MEMORIAM
The Katrina death toll in Louisiana has topped 1000.
Will things ever be the same? In a word, no...
Photo courtesy AP/Charlie Riedel
and NOLA.COM
New Orleans Artist
Relief Effort
Things are looking up!
Preservation
Hall recently opened its doors for the first
time since Katrina for a book signing by Tom Piazza.
Keith I. Marszalek, courtesy
NOLA
For the REAL sound of New
Orleans, the kind that will bring tears to your
eyes
and make your mouth water for a bowl
of gumbo, be sure to tune in to
90.7 FM The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station
GOOD NEWS!
WWOZ
the "heart and soul of New Orleans music"
is now back on the air! Click here
for the latest news
on OZs temporary broadcast schedule.
We are pleased to share with you the
inspiring
details of the "WWOZ in Exile" survival story.
Musical 'heart and soul' back on the air
By Bill Nichols,
USA TODAY
Posted 10/19/2005 11:06 PM
BATON ROUGE — Disc jockey Freddie
Blue's fingers danced across his
computer keyboard Wednesday morning, prompting the classic sounds of
Dr. John, the Rebirth Brass Band and Ernie K-Doe to announce some good
news to the people of New Orleans: The heartbeat of the Crescent City was
back on the air.
WWOZ-FM, a tiny public radio station that serves as a voice of the multihued
New Orleans sound and a lifeline for area musicians devastated by Hurricane
Katrina, made it back on the air for its first full day since the storm smashed
its
New Orleans studios. 'It's a beautiful day," Freddie Blue — real name Fred
Goodrich — crooned from a temporary studio in Baton Rouge. 'And it's great
to play some music.'
'OZ,' as the station is known to listeners, has become more than a radio station
in the new world of New Orleans, where any link to pre-Katrina life is
cherished.
The city's musical community sees the station as its central nervous system, and
the news that it was back on the radio dial was cause for celebration.
'They are to New Orleans today what Radio Free Europe was to the world of
the Iron Curtain before communism fell,' says Quint Davis, the producer of
the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage
Festival. 'I think it's one of the
great radio stations in the world. And it's definitely the heart and soul of
New Orleans music.'
In New Orleans, every survivor seems to have a story that could be the stuff
of movies. The team behind WWOZ is no different.
When Katrina hit, Ken Freedman, the station manager of New Jersey public
radio station WFMU-FM, began to worry about
what had happened to
WWOZ. Freedman said he thought, "Man, oh man, I've got to at least help
them maintain their online audience."
He managed to track down WWOZ station manager David Freedman — no
relation — and a Rube Goldberg-style Internet broadcast was put together
within days. Using WFMU's technical facilities and library of New Orleans
music, WWOZ was able to stream a signal to its Internet home page using
staffers' laptops linked from around the South.
They dubbed it "WWOZ in Exile," and along with music, the station put
together a list of virtually every known New Orleans musician, whether
they were safe and accounted for, and what their needs might be.
'OZ has always been the intangible glue that holds this community together,'
says jazz pianist David Torkanowsky, a WWOZ disc jockey. 'If you're going
to restart the city, you have to start with the heartbeat. For musicians, it's
a beacon.'
As the floodwaters receded, David Freedman was anxious to get the station
back on the air and to be sure WWOZ's priceless collection of zydeco, Cajun,
jazz and blues records and CDs had not been damaged.
He sneaked back into New Orleans with a fake press pass and climbed 20
flights of stairs in the darkness to get to the station's midtown studio. The
collection seemed largely safe, although some exclusive live recordings done
by the station over its 25-year history were thoroughly baked when air
conditioning failed.
He was in Los Angeles on Wednesday to talk with officials of the Grammy
Foundation about helping salvage the collection.
The past few weeks have been spent trying to get the station's signal back on
the airwaves by getting its transmitter in working order and locating enough
of WWOZ's 120 volunteer DJs to begin live programming.
Late Tuesday afternoon, the signal from the borrowed studio at Louisiana
Public Broadcasting's office was successfully beamed to the transmitter in
New Orleans.
'It's like giving birth to a large child,' program director Dwayne Breashears
says.
Like most New Orleans institutions, WWOZ's future is unclear. Contributions
totaling more than $100,000 have poured in from around the globe since Katrina
hit, but manager Freedman worries that his subscription base could wither in a
vastly smaller New Orleans.
He vows that OZ will try to do its part to heal this wounded city by showing the
world that its syncopated style has not been stilled.
'Communities aren't just buildings,' Freedman says. 'Our job is to try to be
sure
that we don't lose this spirit that sets New Orleans apart.'
© Copyright 2005,
USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co.,
Inc.
MORE Good news!
WWOZ
is keeping its finger on the pulse of
The reopening of New Orleans live music
venues. Click here for the latest
info!
New Orleans Habitat
is an affiliate of
Habitat for Humanity International and
welcomes volunteers from all faiths to help
with ongoing recovery and rebuilding of
New Orleans.
Harry Connick, Jr., Branford and Ellis Marsalis
Partner with Habitat to Build a
Musicians' Village
in New Orleans' Upper 9th Ward
If you want to be hip to the New Orleans music scene, click
here, cher.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
New Orleans
Artist Relief Effort
Cafe Tipitina
Art Print
Linch, Lisa
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New
Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
Maison Bourbon Jazz
Subirats, Joseph Bonet
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Check out the Louisiana Music
Collective:
Internet Radio
Louisiana CD's
Louisiana Music Magazine
"The authentic New Orleans and
Louisiana
roots music
resources."
Wild Women Don't Have the Blues
Jim Tanaka
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Jazz Scene II
Hillmer, John
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Pass
a good time, cher!
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