Pubcasting station KBEM wins jazz educator award

The Jane Matteson Outstanding Jazz Educator Award, presented annually by the Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education in Minneapolis, Minn., generally honors an individual. But the 2011 recipient is a public broadcasting station: KBEM/Jazz 88 radio, one of the few outlets in America playing 24-hour jazz — and which operates out of studios in Minneapolis North High School. “After 40 years of introducing jazz to new listeners, encouraging young musicians, providing the public with access to the best jazz has to offer — and teaching countless individual students about radio broadcasting and jazz — we could think of no more appropriate recipient for our ‘Jane Award’ than KBEM-FM,” said foundation President Tom Trow. The school district has been involved in radio programming since 1938; KBEM went on the air in 1970, and began receiving CPB funding in 1994. Jane Matteson was a local jazz benefactor and co-founder of the foundation.