Tucked away in four tiny rooms on the bottom floor of the Theater and Communication Building, some music legends of yesteryear will be singing their jazzy tunes at The University of Memphis today.
While John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Billie Holliday are now deceased, the smooth and rhythmic melodies from these prominent figures of the jazz community continue to grace the airways by way of The U of M’s student-run radio station.
The U of M radio station, 91.7 WUMR, houses thousands of jazz compact discs and hundreds of recently donated jazz albums that form an imposing “jazz barricade” around the students manning the broadcast controls.
While some students question the relevance of jazz music to a pop-culture world, Malvin Massey, music director of the campus station since 1988, said the campus decided on jazz because as a genre, jazz is underrepresented by Memphis radio stations.
“Jazz is America’s music,” Massey said. “Now the foundation is set for jazz music in Memphis and we have an established audience.”
Although WUMR does not keep an official report of listeners, Massey said the station averages approximately 40,000 listeners during “peak times.”
“Forty thousand is a lot for this area and for such a small market,” Massey said.
The campus station officially started in 1978 under the initials WSMS, with only those on The U of M campus able to pick up the radio frequency. After several years on the air, Massey said the station received “a big following in the city” and moved from an AM signal to an FM signal. When The U of M decided to change the school’s name, WSMS changed its call letters to WUMR.
Even though the radio station is run on a volunteer basis, well known figures such as Fox 13’s Claudia Barr and Drew Daniels of FM 100 are past employees of the station.
“Radio is a hard medium to get into,” Massey said. “If you want to get into the broadcasting field, this is the best place to start--and it’s a great opportunity.”
During Massey’s 13 year tenure at the campus station, he said the most memorable event so far was in 1990, when the radio tower carrying the U of M frequency snapped in half during a construction accident.
After the tower snapped, the U of M station went off the air until the University gained permission to use another tower to broadcast their programs.
Massey said he does not want the jazz format of the station to change and that he enjoys WUMR’s reputation as a “low-key” radio station.
Although WUMR already houses over 5,000 CDs in its small space, the station receives eight to 10 new CDs a day from record labels. Every Sunday, 10 to 20 new CDs are put into rotation for air-play.
“When we get CDs from the record labels, we review the CD and play what we think will work best,” Massey said.
“Jazz is the classiest music in the world,” he said. “There is something in jazz for everybody.”
