WDUQ's Mowod to receive Mellon Jazz Community Award
Tony Mowod says he takes a simple approach to putting together his jazz radio program — and he doesn't care whether he's criticized for it.
"I look at it the way a club owner would look at what he does," says the executive producer of jazz on WDUQ-FM (90.5). "I cater to the masses. People don't want the way-out stuff."
That's the reason his show has a rather conservative sound. But it appears to be working. He has been on the air there since 1987, further entrenching himself as a jazz voice in Pittsburgh, something that has been the case since 1959.
That has led to him getting this year's Mellon Jazz Community Award, an honor given to an individual or organization who has consistently worked for the advancement of the art.
"When jazz sings, we hear the sound of many voices," says Rose M. Cotton, senior vice president and head of Mellon Corporate Affairs, "But when jazz speaks, the Pittsburgh community hears one voice above all others — that of Tony Mowod."
Besides his work on the radio, Mowod also is a frequent master of ceremonies of many jazz events in the area and his voice is heard in commercials.
He also founded the Pittsburgh Jazz Society in 1986, a group that has generated $30,000 in scholarship funds for students and is the host of concerts and events. It has its own student-dominated big band and puts on concerts each Sunday night at Foster's in the Holiday Inn Select University Center in Oakland.
"This is the biggest honor," Mowod, 66, says, "Jazz has been my life, and this means just so much."
He is not without his detractors. Some potential listeners are turned off by his safe breed of jazz, which never branches into adventurous bands such as Medeski, Martin and Wood. Others bemoan the smooth baritone with which he delivers his banter over a soft recording of the show's theme song.
But Scott Hanley, general manager of the station, says Mowod is the reason ratings for WDUQ have increased from 60,000 listeners a week to 160,000.
He also credits Mowod with working with 23 other public radio broadcasters to put together a JazzWorks program that is heard in 30 markets by 250,000 listeners.
Mowod and his wife, Liz, live in Brookline. They have been married for 44 years and are the parents of five — Mary Ann, John, Anthony and Joseph — and grandparents to nine.
Mowod got involved in music while growing up in the lower Hill District, where he took piano lessons from a neighborhood nun. His parents thought he had the skills for a classical music career, he says, but he was more interested in jazz.
He played drums at Central Catholic High School in Oakland, then turned to vibes at Duquesne University, Uptown, where he also unsuccessfully tried to get some jazz programming on the air at the then-all-volunteer 'DUQ.
He also did some theater work on the Bluff and, in the mid-'50s, left Duquesne and went to New York City to chase an acting career. That was as tough a pursuit then as it is now, and he came back to Pittsburgh, where he started doing jazz radio in 1959 on WAZZ-FM, an outlet of WAMO-AM.
That led to 10 years at WYDD-FM In New Kensington and nine years at WTAE-FM, during which time he and his brothers owned several clubs. The last was Anthony's, Downtown, which closed in the late '70s, he says.
While the number of jazz clubs is declining and jazz album sales are near the bottom of the charts, Mowod says he thinks "jazz is stronger than it ever has been."
He points to the number of jazz education programs and organizations, such as the International Association of Jazz Educators, as evidence in the health of the genre.
At the same time, he says, it still is a small group compared to others. He says jazz lovers should try to be more positive about their attitudes.
"The jazz community is too small for its neighbors to be quarrelling," he says.
