Bill Pearce 1946 - 2023
Music Producer and HostWe have sad news to share with you about a long-time music host at KMUW. Bill Pearce passed away. He hosted the jazz program Straight No Chaser for more than 10 years. Bill was always a wealth of knowledge when it came to the jazz world. He thought everyone on a CD cover deserved credit and was known to list the names from artists and musicians to engineers and producers. He was an avid listener to KMUW and was especially proud of the local news reporting and holding anyone in power accountable. We’ll miss Bill, and his Sunday night show Straight No Chaser.
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A Kansas native, Bill graduated with a degree in clarinet performance from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. While in Iowa, he worked at a commercial radio station playing pop-like music records and reading news.
After college, Bill returned to Wichita and began a career in photography. He worked for KTVH, commercial photo studios and Cessna. Bill got back into radio when he found a job at the now-defunct Friends University station. He played classical music during the week and hosted his own jazz show on Saturdays. He was the last person on air at the time of the station’s unfortunate demise. Prior to getting his own show, Bill read magazines like Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and National Enquirer for eight years for KMUW’s Wichita Radio Reading Service.
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Sunday, February 21Tonight we'll hear mostly older recordings, with Jimmy Smith, Groove Holmes with Gene Ammons and Oscar Peterson. Up next is a recent CD…
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Sunday, February 14Tonight we hear the first release from the Interplay Jazz Orchestra - Detour - and a new release from tenor saxophonist and flutist…
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Sunday, February 7Tonight we take the cellophane off the first big shipment of new releases for the year, including great ones from Renee Rosnes, Dr.…
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Sunday, January 31In this installment, we hear older classics from Buck Clayton and Miles Davis and brand new things from Chucho Valdes and the Jeff…
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Sunday, January 23Tonight, we combine jazz gems from the early 1950's to the early 2000's with selections from our "Best Of..." lists.
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Sunday, January 17Tonight on the show we'll hear some selections from Straight No Chaser's favorite new releases of 2015 including music from Kenny…
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Sunday, January 10We'll hear piano greats Marian McPartland, Tommy Flanagan and George Cables, great guitarists Kenny Burrell and Russell Malone, and…
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Here are the 2015 releases that I find best:Kenny Burrell - The Road To Love (HighNote)George Cables - In Good Company (HighNote)Joey deFrancesco - Trip…
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Music hosts JeddBeaudoin, Chris Heim, Carla Eckels and Bill Pearce run down the best in music for 2015 - including selections for world, rock, local…
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Sunday, December 27New Year's Day is almost here. Just for chuckles, we again hear a band vocal from the Maynard Ferguson band, and Diana Krall asks what…