KKJZ / KJazz 88.1 FM

Radio is dead? The hell it is! Name anything more vibrantly alive & with it than KKJZ ("KJazz"), my workweek lifeline. 88.1 MHz is the frequency to which the very molecules of my being vibrate. The station, owned by Cal State U Long Beach, maintains a legacy over half a century wide in transmitting jazz and blues over the airwaves to the Greater Los Angeles area (and now globally online). Like that of regional sister station in classical broadcast KUSC, KJazz's programming affirms the beauty of public radio with the whole hour, every hour, being dedicated to music without commercial interruption and with no need to switch the track playing every 3-4 minutes. The station playlists are varied and reliable day to day. The voices of daytime hosts David Benoit, Rhonda Hamilton and Jose Rizo are friends to me every Monday thru Friday. No doubt about it, KJazz is the soundtrack in my classroom whenever we're out of direct instruction mode and digging into the deep learning at hand.

In addition to the main station, there is KJazz HD2, "The Bebop Channel," though the programming of the station isn't really non-stop bebop and, in fact, is pretty similar to the main station, perhaps just with a little less vocal jazz in the rotation.