All Night Jazz has always been appreciative of our local jazz talent – so much so they dedicated the opening segment of their 11 PM hour as the Eleven O’clock Local where they shared tracks from such Tampa Bay luminaries as John Lamb, James Suggs, Nate B Najar, Daniela Soledade, Whitney James, Ona Kirei, Alejandro Arenas, Mark Feinman, John O’Leary, Michael Ross, Linda Nash, Pablo Arencibia, Philip Booth, Jack Wilkins, Chuck Owen, Jeremy Carter, Jason Charos, Simon Lasky, Synia Carroll, Joe Aromola, Fred Edinborgh, Fred Johnson and so many more talented LOCAL artists.
Effective October 31, WUSF proposes replacing All Night Jazz with a THIRD hour of NPR’s 1A (apparently two hours a day are not enough), yet another hour of BBC (making a total of 6 hours – or a quarter of the entire broadcast schedule) and a program called “As It Happens.” This is not even an NPR program but is produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). I’m sure the production quality is fine and there will be some obligatory world news coverage. However – IT’S NOT LOCAL!
Here’s just a sampling of what was featured on “As It Happens” this week (sorry Tampa – you will have to wait until the 31st of October to get your Canadian on!):
Monday: The Parti Quebecois in Canada pushes back against allegiance to the King of England. An update on the damage in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, from Hurricane Fiona (this as closer to home Southwest Florida struggles with their own damage from Hurricane Ian).
Tuesday: A water shortage in British Columbia, Canada. A piece on the mayor of Ottawa, Canada. A story on the protection of youth in Quebec, Canada.
A Wednesday: A contestant for Miss England competes sans makeup. A tribute to a former Canadian Minister of Parliament who recently passed away.
You get the drift. Followed by more from that six hour repetitive news block from the BBC
WAY TO KEEP IT LOCAL, FRESH AND ORIGINAL WUSF!
Sign the petition – Keep All Night Jazz on the air!
(Facebook, 10/21)
Save All Night Jazz on WUSF 
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