Regional radio veteran readies music program for syndication

TRIBUNE-REVIEW
It's the voice that's launched a thousand pitches.

Folks may not recognize Jim DeCesare's name, but his smooth, deep bass is familiar to radio and TV audiences across western Pennsylvania. They've been listening to the commercials he's voiced for more than 25 years.

“I've had a lot of people tell me they grew up listening to me on WDVE, but I've never been on WDVE," though his commercials have been, said DeCesare, formerly of the late, lamented WYDD-FM and currently program director at WLCY-FM (106.3), an adult soft-rock station in Blairsville.

“Jazzz," with three z's, is DeCesare's way to distinguish the smooth sounds that he spins Sunday mornings from the traditional jazz of Erroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan.

“I don't like the word `jazz,'" he said. “I don't like what it conjures up. Everytime you see the word jazz, they add a saxophone to it, but it's more than saxophones, it's violins, keyboards, multistring bass guitars, wind instruments, Middle Eastern instruments, steel drums - it's multifaceted."

“Jazzz Impressions" began as a syndicated program heard across the country and on WYDD, a New Kensington FM station that was on the cutting edge of Pittsburgh radio in the 1970s and early '80s. DeCesare began working at its sister station, WKPA, while attending the Penn State extension campus there.

DeCesare, a 1974 Churchill High School graduate who didn't even listen to the radio much, was hanging out in the student union when a professor caught him skipping class. The professor asked him what he intended to do with his life.

“He said, `Did you ever think about radio?'" DeCesare said. “I said, `Yeah, sure, I'll do that.'"

He's been “doing that" ever since, moving from 'YDD to Greensburg's WSSZ-FM (107.1) when it became an album-oriented rock station in the late 1980s. After the station was sold to WAMO-FM (106.7), DeCesare moved to WLCY four years ago.

Jazz isn't normally part of the playlist at WLCY, but somehow the music fits the station's mellow, contemporary sound.

And DeCesare finds jazz musicians much more approachable than most of their current peers in rock and roll, for instance. Not that long ago, he said, rock groups dropped into local radio stations for impromptu interviews to promote concerts or records. That access has largely vanished.

“The refreshing thing is that jazz is still that way," DeCesare said. “It's probably one of the few things left - possibly country (music) - still that way. I could probably make two phone calls and be talking to (jazz artists) George Benson, Russ Freeman, Jay Beckenstein."

In fact, those very same top names, and many others, regularly lend their voice to DeCesare's show in the form of interviews and greetings to “Jazzz Impressions" listeners. That gives the show a national flavor - and reflects DeCesare's long interest in taking fusion jazz to a wider audience.

For years, DeCesare has tried to interest national syndication networks in the program, only to be frustrated again and again. “After investigating that route I decided it would be a dead end," he said.

Instead, DeCesare decided that if he wanted something done right, he'd have to do it himself. His decision to take the show national this year has been heavily influenced by the improved technology now available.

“What I have for a studio (at home) even six years ago would have been way out of my reach financially," he said, but digital-editing equipment and recordable CDs are now inexpensive and reliable.

“In the past nine months I finally got everything I needed," DeCesare said. “I now have the ability to put up a Web site - it's affordable to become a dot-com, it's affordable to buy good (audio) processing gear."

At least two stations have already tested the program and he's confident more will be interested in the promotional packages he's sending out.

While WLCY remains locally owned, many other radio stations across the country have been purchased and downsized by big conglomerates. In DeCesare's opinion, that provides an opportunity for an unusual niche program to break into otherwise tight radio formats.

“It's not a countdown show," DeCesare said. “The main thrust is what's new, and practically the whole two hours could be made up of new CDs that come out."

But he delights in including older material from his library, including LPs that he first played on the air 20 years ago.

“This Sunday, for instance, I might try to get on an old Crusaders album or Ramsey Lewis song," DeCesare said. “It's enjoyable for me, just for the nostalgia of it. There are little nicks and pops that may have (been created) when I was playing it back on `Jazzz Impressions' in 1981."

DeCesare's new Web site is at www.jazzzimpressions.com.