There have been several hot spots for jazz in the US, New Orleans and Nashville being two of them. What you probably don’t know is that Detroit has had a notable jazz history, too. In fact, it is home to the oldest jazz station in the world. The station is WJZZ Detroit Jazz Radio, and its mission is to “promote, celebrate, and advance the jazz culture lifestyle and its music — internationally and as an international cultural brand.”
The company, WJZZ Detroit Jazz Radio Entertainment, LLC, is headed by Rodger Penzabene, Jr. — the sole independent owner, President, and CEO of WJZZ — who singlehandedly resurrected the dormant station in 2015. The reason he re-launched the station is that jazz is literally in his blood.
But before WJZZ’s rebirth, the call letters were WCHD when the station was founded in 1959 by Drs. Haley Bell, Wendell Cox, and Robert Bass. In 1974, it was changed to WJZZ. The station held the highest Arbitron rating for jazz radio stations in the US.
But before Rodger even heard of the radio station, his personal involvement with jazz began with his parents. His father, a writer and producer at Motown, received a posthumous Grammy for having written a number of famous songs. Rodger’s mother worked for a competing record company that was eventually bought out by Motown. In 1973, she opened and ran a club called Jazz West on Finkel Street on the west side of Detroit.
Next door was the famous Watts club, Mozambique, which didn’t serve food and closed at 2 am. Jazz West didn’t have a liquor license but was more upscale, served food, and stayed open until 6 am. So, the two clubs worked well side by side. Both clubs brought in top-level entertainers, legendary jazz artists like Nancy Wilson, Marcus Belgrave, Wendell Harrison, Eli Fontaine, Teddy Harris, Roy Brooks, Ron Carter, Lonnie Liston Smith, Yusef Lateef, and Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds.
Rodger’s parents held parties and get-togethers for the famous entertainers, actors, and artists coming to the club. Rodger knew people were famous and important, but he hadn’t yet developed an appreciation for jazz and their work. It wasn’t until years later, when he had an MP3 player, that he suddenly got schooled. A saxophonist friend of his, Dwight, checked out what jazz music Rodger had on his player. Dwight’s response was to cuss Rodger out, letting him know that what he had on his player was garbage.
Taken aback by his friend’s response, Rodger started doing research, which began his foray into jazz and Detroit’s jazz history. Dwight, upon realizing what Rodger didn’t know about jazz, said, “This is why we need a jazz station like WJZZ.” He kept talking about WJZZ, which Rodger later learned had closed in 1996 due to all of Bell Broadcasting’s assets being sold.
