Jazz 88 gives fans peek behind scenes to fill gap from federal cutbacks

With federal funding for public radio and TV stations around the country drying up,
supporters and station managers are having to get creative when it comes to raising money to stay in business.

One such fundraiser, a live on-air concert, takes place Thursday evening on the San Diego City College campus.

For a $30 donation, anyone can be in the studio when the Jonathan Cohen Trio performs at radio station KSDS.

Better known as Jazz 88, the station is one of just two full-time, non-commercial radio stations in San Diego, along with KPBS. It is also the only local station broadcasting jazz music 24 hours a day.

The non-profit entity is part of the San Diego Community College District, similar to how KPBS is connected to San Diego State University.

Thursday’s concert is the first in a series of events planned for this fall and winter, possibly into the spring, according to one of the organizers, San Diego City College associate music professor Michael Espar.

Espar said the idea for the concert originated from a conversation he had with another faculty member, Louis Valenzuela, who’s a professor at the college as well as a jazz guitarist.

“Jazz 88 got hit with these funding cuts and we thought that it would be a perfect occasion to combine studio recording and practice for our students with raising money for a good cause, to support the station that’s right here on our campus, about 100 feet from our studio,” he said.

As part of the fundraiser, a limited number of all-access tickets are available to see and hear pianist-composer Cohen and his bandmates inside the City College Recording Studio. The tickets enable fans to gain a rare look at a professional live-stream concert production while supporting local public radio.

The all-access tickets also include Jazz 88-branded merchandise and a behind-the-scenes tour of the radio station after the show. Limited seating will be available in both the live room and studio control room.

Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite. The concert also will be livestreamed on YouTube.

Students and faculty from the program are leading production, recording and marketing efforts for the event, which organizers have said is expected to result in a professional-quality livestream while providing hands-on training for the next generation of music and media professionals.

Cohen, a pianist-composer who has a day job as a philosophy professor at UC San Diego, told Times of San Diego that this will be his first time ever performing live on the radio.

“I’ve done a couple of different recording sessions at the (KSDS/SDCC) studio, but they were not simulcast,” he said. “The way I’m thinking about it is, just, it’s a gig, it’s a live performance, which I’ve done many times, and they happen to be recording it, and it’s also being broadcast.”

In addition to Cohen, the trio includes guitar/double bassist Lilith Holtz and drummer Claudio Rochat-Felix. Their performance is expected to last an hour and is planned to consist of a mixture of both original material and cover songs, Cohen said.

The fundraiser comes a few months after federal cuts to public broadcasting grants eliminated about 20% of the station’s expected funding, roughly $220,000 of a $1.1 million budget.

Michael Rovatsos, a production director with the station who’s also a musician and producer in his own right, encouraged people who are regular listeners of the station but haven’t become members or made a donation yet to consider chipping in.

“For people who have listened and know this station and know what we are, there is absolutely no shame in becoming a member for the first time at whatever level you can afford,” he said.

“I will tell you this, and it comes from personal experience,” he added. “When you support this station, you listen differently, you listen with different ears and it’s a different experience and moving forward, you have a different sense of pride listening to the station when you start putting some money behind it.”