WRTI-FM To Receive 2004 Mellon Jazz Community Award
April 26 2004 - 2:11PM
PR Newswire (US)
WRTI-FM To Receive 2004 Mellon Jazz Community Award - Presentation
To Coincide With Open House for New Studios on Temple University
Campus - PHILADELPHIA, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of a
half-century of presenting the best in local and national jazz
programming, providing quality news coverage, recognizing cultural
organizations and performing community service, WRTI-FM has been
named the recipient of the 2004 Mellon Jazz Community Award. The
award recognizes local venues, individuals, organizations, clubs,
musicians, programs and institutions for their significant
contributions to jazz in the southeastern Pennsylvania area. The
two previous awardees were Anthony H. "Tony" Williams, founder of
the Mount Airy Cultural Center, in 2003 and Bob Perkins, long-time
jazz broadcaster (currently with WRTI) and journalist, in 2002.
"While this region certainly has a wealth of talented individuals
and organizations that have helped build and strengthen our ties to
jazz, perhaps no single organization has done as much to ensure
that Philadelphia's tradition of jazz excellence gets passed along
to future generations as WRTI- FM," said Paul Kochis, chairman of
Mellon Financial Corporation's Mid-Atlantic region. "This year's
award recognizes WRTI not just for its outstanding jazz
programming, but also for its highly commendable educational
component, which has made an important contribution to the
community by researching, acknowledging and promoting the
accomplishments of jazz musicians, especially Philadelphia-born
musicians and others who call this area home." The award, which
takes the form of an original glass sculpture by noted Pennsylvania
glass artist Kathleen Mulcahy, will be presented to Dave Conant,
WRTI-FM executive director, on Wednesday, April 28 at 2 p.m. in the
station's new studios on the third floor of Temple University's new
Entertainment and Community Education Center. The new building on
the corner of Cecil B. Moore Avenue and 15th Street, once one of
the centers of the Philadelphia jazz scene, has tripled the size of
the station. The facility includes a new performance/recording
studio, an extensive jazz library and work stations for students
involved in production and programming. The station takes its RTI
call letters from Radio Training Institute and first broadcast in
the mid-1940s over the power lines throughout Temple's campus. WRTI
became an FM-licensed radio station in 1953, reaching out to the
nearby community with limited power, and adopted an all-jazz format
in 1968. When Philadelphia's only full-time classical music
station, WFLN-FM, switched formats in 1997, WRTI-FM added the
classics just one week later. Since these two musical art forms
joined forces, Temple University Public Radio has seen its ratings
and audience share rise dramatically. With classical music during
the day and jazz in the evening and through the night, the station
has become one of the top-rated public radio stations in the
country by reaching a weekly audience of more than 300,000
listeners. Its signal can be picked up from northeastern
Pennsylvania to Delaware, from Harrisburg to Cape May, N.J., and
around the world on the Internet ( http://www.wrti.org/ ). As part
of Mellon Financial Corporation's year-round celebration of jazz
excellence in the Philadelphia area for the 19th year, Mellon Jazz
is sponsoring an outstanding lineup of jazz attractions throughout
the rest of 2004 and into 2005. In addition to serving as the title
sponsor for the Villanova University Jazz Festival, Mellon Jazz
also has an important relationship with the Kimmel Center, where
the recently-announced 2004-2005 season features 14 outstanding
performances as part of "Kimmel Center presents Mellon Jazz"
series. Mellon also conducts a Mellon Jazz program in the
Pittsburgh area. More information on Mellon Jazz activities is
available by clicking on the Mellon Jazz link at
http://www.mellon.com/ . Mellon Financial Corporation is a global
financial services company. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is
one of the world's leading providers of financial services for
institutions, corporations and high net worth individuals,
providing institutional asset management, mutual funds, private
wealth management, asset servicing, human resources and investor
solutions, and treasury services. Mellon has approximately $3.6
trillion in assets under management, administration or custody,
including more than $675 billion under management. Its asset
management companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and U.K.-based
Newton Investment Management Limited. News and other information
about Mellon is available at http://www.mellon.com/ . DATASOURCE:
Mellon Financial Corporation CONTACT: Ron Gruendl, Corporate
Affairs of Mellon Financial Corporation, +1-412-234-7157, or Web
site: http://www.mellon.com/ http://www.wrti.org/
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