News Roundup

Library of Congress to Preserve WWOZ-FM Recordings

New Orleans City Business
September 11, 2001

NEW ORLEANS — WWOZ-FM radio station has given the Library of Congress recordings of live performances of New Orleans musicians from the past 15 years.

The Library of Congress will preserve the more than 7,000 hours of live jazz and blues recordings, ensuring the collection will be protected from future disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Katrina’s floodwaters nearly destroyed WWOZ’s primary tape-storage facility.

Also, the Grammy Foundation has awarded the station $45,000 in grants to help preserve the collection.

“We are excited about this unique collection and look forward to partnering with WWOZ and the Grammy Foundation to preserve it and make the historic recordings available to the American people,” said Librarian of Congress James Billington.

Of the $45,000, $5,000 was awarded through the Grammy Foundation’s Music Preservation Project, which restores at-risk media and archival materials. The remaining $40,000 was provided through a special Gulf Coast award cycle through the Grammy Foundation Grant Program.

“Without the combined support of the Library and the Grammy Foundation, the station could not have come up with the money to save all its live performance recordings,” said WWOZ general manager David Freedman. “At the same time, we were in a position to greatly enhance the Library’s collection and thus every American’s access to great music.”

The recordings, “The WWOZ Crescent City Living Legends Collection,” date to 1993 and capture performances at festivals, nightclubs and street events and feature diverse forms of New Orleans roots music, including jazz, blues, gospel, brass band and zydeco. Musicians represented include Ernie K-Doe, Boozoo Chavis and Tuba Fats.

While awaiting cataloging and digital preservation, the recordings will be stored in climate-controlled vaults at the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, the Library of Congress’ state-of-the-art preservation facility in Culpeper, Va.

The WWOZ collection will join the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division’s holdings of about 5.7 million items.