IN PRAISE OF CHRIS ALBERTSON • WAMU PULLS EVEN WITH WTOP

Chris Albertson on PBS in 1971

Chris Albertson, the world’s leading scholar on blues singer Bessie Smith, died in late April at the age of 87. 

According to a report in The New York Times [link] he was found dead on April 24 at his apartment in Manhattan. 

The cause of his death has not been specified. He had been in declining health for several months. 

Albertson was not only an expert about the life and times of Bessie Smith, he was a curator of her work, a relentless champion of her role in American blues music and promoter who brought her music to the forefront after years of neglect by the music industry.

Though Albertson is now gone, his Bessie Smith work lives on.   

Check out his blog Stomp Off [link] for delightful stories, rare photographs and succulent music. 

CHRIS ALBERTSON & WBAI

Chris Albertson in 2011

Chris Albertson had another passion: WBAI in New York. 

He was a true believer in the original Pacifica philosophy. 

Back then, he loved WBAI’s culture of openness, landmark programming the station’s role in changing the social and political abric of America.

Albertson was the General Manager of WBAI from 1964 to 1968.  This was a time when WBAI (and Pacifica) really mattered. The station was then a magnet for poets, philosophers, dreamers and people against the Vietnam War.

Bob Dylan was a frequent late night guest on WBAI.  Spark News featured a recording of Dylan on WBAI in 2014 and 2016 ]link]. You can hear it via YouTube:

Albertson had a fascinating media career, much of it based on his lifelong love of jazz. He began working in radio in the mid 1950s as a host and program producer for Armed Forces Radio in Iceland. He created programs about the legends of jazz for the BBC.

In 1958 he moved to WCAU in Philadelphia where he produced and hosted Accent on Jazz, a weekly jazz documentary program that featured the then-current jazz scenes around the world. (Check out his interview with George Shearing while he was at WCAU here.)

In the early 1960s Albertson moved to New York where he worked at WNYC, WNEW and finally WBAI. He became WBAI’s General Manager in 1964.

In the early 1970’s, Albertson was a co-producer and the host of The Jazz Set, a popular weekly program on PBS that was seen nationally. The show featured rare appearances by Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Randy Weston, Jimmy Heath, and Ray Bryant.

Mission statement of WBAI Now & Then

As the years went by, Albertson became disillusioned with WBAI and Pacifica. In 2011 he started the blog WBAI Now & Then [link]. The blog became a gathering point for others who lamented the devolution and growing irrelevance of Pacifica, a tragic story that is still playing out today.

Albertson's final post a week before his death

Albertson was a fan of Spark News and helped bring our blog into the conversation about the future of Pacifica. He also kindly listened to our story about the important role WBAI had in our own life and career.

In the summer of 1969 we traveled and stayed a while in New York where we discovered WBAI-FM. We came to New York as a way-too-cool Top 40 DJ.  We left NYC as a more humble person with a whole new sense of what radio could be.  Thanks, Chris.

APRIL 2019 NIELSEN AUDIO PPM RATINGS FOR DC, DALLAS & HOUSTON

In Washington, DC, WAMU is now tied with WTOP in AQH share. WTOP dropped almost a full point from March.   

The number of estimated weekly listeners for both stations remained about the same.

CCM WGTS had record high ratings in  the April 2019 “book.”

Classical WETA also had a big bump in estimated weekly listeners, according to Nielsen.

The biggest looser was hard-right commercial talk station WMAL, down from a 6.8 AQH share in March to a 5.5 AQH share in April.

In Dallas-Fort Worth KERA remains the top radio news source in the market.

AAA KKXT started to rebound from several down months.

Commercial Classical WRR-FM remains strong in the Metroplex despite falling to a 1.0 AQH share.   

WRR’s number of weekly listeners remains steady.   

These numbers indicate that lots of folks are tuning to WRR but they aren’t staying as long as they did during previous months.

We can’t visit Houston without mentioning the death of our dear friend Capella Tucker, the former Director of Content at KUHF. 

Tucker passed away in late April at the age of 48. The cause of her death was cancer.

Tucker started working at KUHF in 1994 as a reporter and producer. 

She made a name for herself producing the national program Engines of Our Ingenuity.

She moved up to become KUHF’s Assistant News Director, then News Director, then she became Director of Content.

Her friend and associate, Craig Cohen, the host and Executive Producer of the daily news/talk show Houston Matters, told local media:

Capella Tucker

“Capella hired me to develop and host Houston Matters. She was so invested in the as-yet-unlaunched, unnamed show, she met me at the airport, and spent hours driving me all around Greater Houston.”

“As we talked, it became clear how passionate she was about her adopted hometown, and what she thought the show that would become Houston Matters could add to it. She sold me on coming here that afternoon.”