WBGO/Newark Public Radio – A Non-Profit Arts Organization
WBGOis operated as a non-profit, 501(C)3 organization in the public trust. As such it has a Board of Trustees, a mission, and is funded, in the main, by listener donations or memberships, as well as a combination of corporate, business, foundation, and governmental grants.
WBGO Mission Statement
WBGO 88.3 FM / Newark Public Radio is a non-profit, publicly funded arts and cultural institution, dedicated to the curation, presentation, and preservation of music created out of the African American experience. We are committed to providing our community with independently produced music programming and journalism for the purpose of public enrichment, entertainment, and insight.
About WBGO
WBGO is the global leader in jazz radio, broadcasting from the jazz capital of the world. Founded in 1979, WBGO is a publicly-supported cultural institution that preserves and elevates America’s music: jazz and blues. WBGO reaches a weekly audience of close to 300,000 in the New York/New Jersey metro area via 88.3FM. Through programs such as Jazz Night in America, produced in partnership with NPR and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and WBGO's position as content provider to NPR, its reach extends to millions more across the country. From its home base of Newark, New Jersey, Public Radio station WBGO has long been an anchor institution in community engagement through its partnerships, concerts, education and news programming.
Jazz Night in America
WBGO History
Newark Public Radio, WBGO Jazz88.3FM was the brainchild of an urban think tank whose members came together in Newark in the 1970s to effect change after the riots of 1967. Marshalling an extraordinary group of city activists, and with the help of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, they established the first public radio station in New Jersey in 1979 by convincing the Newark Public School System board to transfer its underutilized broadcast license to them.
WBGO was born as an independent, community-based, not-for-profit, public radio station that would champion jazz-an American art form that is also an important chapter in Newark's cultural history. WBGO affiliated with National Public Radio (NPR) and went to a 24-hour broadcast day in 1980 when the only other full-time jazz station in the New York Metro market, WRVR (a commercial station), changed its format to country-western music.
Today, WBGO's broadcast signal is heard by listeners on the air and via the Internet. Fans from around the globe tune in for jazz, blues, Rhythm and Blues, and award-winning news. Jazz88 has won the "Keeping the Blues Alive" Award and twice won the Gavin Report's "Jazz Station of the Year" Award. The New Jersey State Council on the Arts has named us a Major Impact Arts Organization for over 16 consecutive years. The designation of arts organization reflects WBGO's mission which extends beyond the radio station to important programs and activities that preserve, promote and present jazz.
In 1985, WBGO became a producer of syndicated programming for the nation's radio stations. WBGO produced the weekly JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater for 23 years, and now co-produces (with NPR Music and Jazz at Lincoln Center) the next-generation in jazz programming, Jazz Night in America.
WBGO's involvement in producing concerts has been strong since 1981 when the station began hosting free jazz concerts in Military Park, bringing life to downtown Newark. The same park is now a city jewel ringed by the Newark Museum, galleries, the renovated WBGO studios and the elegant New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC).
WBGO's dedication to preserving the uniquely American art form of jazz for future generations has spawned a Children's Jazz Series. The series offers eight free concerts that are presented annually by top-name musicians who develop their programs specifically for young people, some of whom are members of NJPAC and WBGO's Jazz for Teens educational program.
WBGO's daily broadcast can be easily identified by the passionate, extremely knowledgeable and idiosyncratic on-air announcers, frequent live broadcasts and on-air interviews with today's hottest jazz and blues artists, and a news department whose drive time news reports and weekly magazine program, the WBGO Journal, are recognized for their reporting excellence every year.
WBGO's studios are located at 54 Park Place in the heart of downtown Newark, New Jersey. The WBGO broadcast signal (from high on-top the Conde Nast building in midtown, New York City) reaches north to Rockland and Westchester Counties, NY and parts of Connecticut; south to Ocean County, NJ; east to Nassau County, NY and west to Morris County, NJ. The signal can be heard in all five boroughs of New York City. In addition, WBGO can be heard on the four New Jersey stations of New Jersey Public Radio, from midnight to 5 a.m.
Since 1996, WBGO has streamed its signal over the Internet on wbgo.org and programming is also available through mobile applications. Jazz 88 has become a true oasis to thousands of listeners (many of whom have become donating members, outside of the station's listening area). Members from around the United States and as far away as Malaysia, Turkey, Germany, Japan, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Taiwan, Brazil, Great Britain echo a listener from South Africa's e-mail to us, "You are so inspiring."
WBGO is a 501(c)3 organization. WBGO is funded by more than 17,000 members each year, and by a combination of corporate, business, foundation, and governmental grants. Newark Public Radio is governed by a nineteen-person Board of Trustees.
