WDUQ and Jazz Are Uniquely Intertwined

On June 9, 2010, eJazzNews ran “WDUQ and jazz are uniquely intertwined,” a piece by Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, while Duquesne University was trying to sell WDUQ, the Pittsburgh public radio station known for its jazz programming. The next day the public broadcasting trade paper Current linked to it as one of the places where supporters of WDUQ’s music programming were questioning whether the local foundations shaping the station’s future understood how much jazz meant to Pittsburgh. A year later the station dropped most of its jazz, and former WDUQ staff went on to build a jazz station of their own.

What is known about the 2010 article

The full article was not captured by the Internet Archive, but a copy of the eJazzNews front page archived on June 10, 2010 shows its headline, the byline “By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,” and its posting by the site’s editor at 8:27 am on June 9. The surviving opening lines say that not everyone “gets” jazz and call it “the most American of art forms.” The rest of the text was not preserved.

Current’s report, by Karen Everhart, said that “on a blog soliciting community feedback on the future of WDUQ and elsewhere,” with the word “elsewhere” linking to the eJazzNews article, supporters of the station’s music programming were asking whether the foundations “get” the significance of jazz in the city’s cultural life and heritage.

WDUQ and the 2010 sale fight

WDUQ signed on in December 1949 as Duquesne University’s station, became an NPR member in the 1970s and was known as Pittsburgh’s main radio outlet for jazz, alongside NPR news. The city’s jazz history is long: the Hill District was a center of the music from the 1920s to the 1950s, Roy Eldridge, Kenny Clarke and Ray Brown were born in the city, and bassist Sonny Dallas came from nearby Rankin.

In January 2010 Duquesne said it was looking to sell the station. When the university declined bids from WDUQ’s staff and supporters, a group of Pittsburgh foundations, among them the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, bought a 60-day option on May 4, 2010 to plan a station with a much stronger focus on news and information. On June 9 they withdrew the option, saying there was not enough time to finish the work before the university’s July 2 deadline. At that point Duquesne wanted at least $10 million.

What happened next

In January 2011 Duquesne agreed to sell WDUQ to Essential Public Media, a partnership of the Pittsburgh music station WYEP and Public Media Company, a nonprofit set up by Public Radio Capital. The new owner moved all but six weekly hours of jazz to an HD Radio channel; Evan Pattak of Jazz Lives in Pittsburgh called the cut from about 100 hours a week to six “draconian.” The format changed on July 1, 2011, the sale closed in September with the call letters changed to WESA, and by December the station’s audience share had fallen by half from June 2011. WESA still carries jazz on its HD2 channel and on Saturday nights.

Former WDUQ staff formed Pittsburgh Public Media, which bought a small FM station licensed to Bethany, West Virginia, and put it on the air as jazz station WYZR on August 31, 2013. It later added WZUM 1550 AM in Braddock and a 101.1 FM signal for the Pittsburgh area, renamed the FM station WZUM-FM in 2016, and in October 2026 operates as WZUM Jazz Pittsburgh. For a broader view of where the music stands, see our look at the state of jazz in 2026.

Sources

• eJazzNews, front page as archived by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine on June 10, 2010 (capture 20100610204211).
• Karen Everhart, “Foundations withdraw their option on WDUQ,” Current, June 10, 2010.
• Karen Everhart, “Funders buy time for rethinking in WDUQ sale talks,” Current, May 17, 2010.
• Current, “University considering sale of Pittsburgh’s WDUQ,” January 2010.
• Current, “WYEP, Public Radio Capital forge joint venture to purchase Pittsburgh’s WDUQ,” January 2011.
• Current, “Pittsburgh jazz fans object to WDUQ format change,” June 2011.
• Current, “WDUQ sale finalized,” September 2011.
• Current, “Ratings for new format WESA-FM down 50 percent from WDUQ days,” January 2012.
• Mike Janssen, “New WYZR brings jazz back to Pittsburgh area,” Current, September 20, 2013.
• Tyler Falk, “Jazz broadcaster expands reach to Pittsburgh with new FM signal,” Current, March 8, 2016.
• Wikipedia, “WESA (FM),” “WZUM-FM” and “Music of Pittsburgh,” accessed October 2026.
• WZUM, “WZUM Leadership,” wzum.org.

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here.
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