35 Years of Ray Smith

I’ve received a nice note from a representative of WGBH Radio in Boston. Sunday evening is something that I’ve been looking forward to — the 35th anniversary of Ray Smith’s show on ‘GBH, The Jazz Decades. I have the FM tuner in my computer programmed to record it. If you don’t live near Boston, you can hear it streaming on the Web.

Greetings–
Hope all is well with you. I thought this might be of interest for you, either for your blog or personally. I hope you’ll have the chance to check out this interview on the website at http://wgbh.org/raysmith and tune in to the broadcast this Sunday. Ray Smith is truly one-of-a-kind.
All the best–
Edgar

Ray Smith Celebrates Three-and-a-Half Jazz Decades on WGBH 89.7

Record collector. World War II veteran. Jazz drummer. These are just a few of the many sides of Ray Smith, host of WGBH’s Jazz Decades. Each Sunday at 7pm, Ray shares his passion for jazz, big band, and swing with listeners all over the world, culling music for the program from the more than 90,000 titles in his personal collection.

This Sunday, Ray and WGBH celebrate 35 years producing Jazz Decades for public radio stations across the country. In honor of the occasion, we asked Ray to describe his lifelong love affair with music. You can hear the man behind the music, in his own words on this special webpage at http://wgbh.org/raysmith

And don’t miss Ray’s 35th anniversary broadcast this Sunday, August 5, at 7pm on WGBH 89.7 FM in New England and worldwide at http://wgbh.org/jazz

Some Fun Facts about Jazz Decades

• The Jazz Decades’ first broadcast was August 5, 1972
• Ray Smith and Jazz Decades celebrate 35 years on WGBH 89.7 on August 5, 2007
• For the past few years, Ray has recorded the show at his home studio in South Carolina and it is produced, engineered, and mixed at WGBH 89.7 in Boston.
• 35 years of Jazz Decades, once a week = 1,820 programs
• At an average of 12 songs per show, Ray Smith has spun approximately 21,840 tracks
• Ray has approximately 90,000 titles in his collection
• This means that in 35 years, Ray has played less than 25% of his entire collection, assuming he has never played the same song twice.
• At this rate, Ray will have to be on the air for over 105 more years to exhaust his entire collection, assuming he adds no new titles over this century-long period.