Cleveland’s premiere jazz venue the BOP STOP has shown itself to be creative and innovative in the face of the pandemic. Last summer it put in a new state-of-the-air streaming studio, allowing it to maintain a full schedule of remote, live streamed concerts, with the intention of integrating streaming with live music long after the pandemic ends.
In January, it put its studio to another use, launching the Live at the BOP STOP radio program, hosted by BOP STOP director Gabe Pollack and featuring the top-flight jazz musicians who perform at the club, with Baldwin Wallace University’s radio station WBWC 88.3 FM. The show was then picked up by Oberlin College’s WOBC 9.15 FM and WPKM 96.3 FM in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Now, as of April 1, Live at the BOP STOP has been added to the weekly lineup of programming of Global Community Radio, a nonprofit, non-commercial, listener-supported community radio service, which makes programming available to campus and community radio stations. It’s added two additional outlets for the show: the university of Wisconsin — Osh Kosh’s WRST-FM and Austin, Texas community FM jazz station KJZX-FM.
“One of the goals of the show is to bring quality live jazz programming to non-commercial stations, and we’re delighted to work with an organization that has the same goal,” say Pollack.
The first season of the hour-long program features musicians such as Pete McCann, Steve Kortyka, Jackie Warren, Theron Brown, Dave Sterner.