I really enjoyed your nusings on SW radio.
When I was in college in the mid 60’s , I used to listen avidly to Willis Conover on the Voice of America as he played and talked (VERY KNOWLEDGABLY!!) about Jazz!
I was introduced over 5 years to various artists from Armstrong, Louis, to Zentner, Zi. What a wonderful world opened up to me! I would listen to the transmittal from Columbo, Ceylon (as it was called in those days).
If Mr Conover (I can not think of the Professor without great respect, admiration and love) featured Ella Fitzgerald, I would try and pick up the re broadcast again from Monrovia, Liberia, and then one more time from South Carolina about dawn my time in India.
Many years later I was fortunate to come to the USA, and got to see the artists I had listened to over my scratchy SW radio; Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis.
My most treasured recollections are a concert with Old Blue Eyes ( 4th row seats), and a meeting with Ella Fitzgerald after a concert in Dallas, and a phone conversation with a very gracious Mr Conover shortly before his death.
All thanks to SW radio, Mr Conover, and the VOA.
I now live close to Denton, TX, and listen to KNTU on 88.1 FM from the Univ of North Texas all day long. This is as close to heaven as I hope to get!
Thanks for re-kindling my memories!
One of the most popular programs in the entire world . . . the opening piano of Ellington's Take the A Train followed by that smooth voice saying "time for . . . jazz."