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so we're going to need to create a special segment here called favorite jobs that i've ever had this week we talk about my days as a jazz head news man at wbgo the only full-time jazz radio station in the new york city metropolitan area joining us is the new president and ceo of wbgo jazz ada in newark steve williams steve good to see you again man oh david thanks for having me man it's great to see you again too so you took over after a tough period of internal issues over there and we don't need to get into all the details but for me the big takeaway is that the people who work at jazz 88 all kind of feel like they have ownership of the place there's a lot of passion not just for jazz but for the radio station itself no it's a big part of the history of newark and a big part of newark's personality that's right uh and you you said it the word is passion right people uh for their heart and soul and just about everything else that they have to keep wbgo and the sound of jazz music and rhythm and blues and blues and and uh and terrific news and spoken word programming on the air uh there's a tremendous uh legacy uh that is attached to wbgo and its history going back now more than 40 years and so uh for all of us that are involved with the radio station and even those who aren't involved anymore but were previously this is serious business man we really take this seriously and we take it to heart and uh we we really uh really want bgo to succeed and i think that that in in some ways explains the the passion and the commitment that you uh that you see and feel not just uh in the news but what comes out of the speakers you know what i mean yeah we should also i got to give a shout out to doug doyle who's the news director over there who's a great friend of mine um who is uh just one of the great great people in uh in public media so shout out to doc yeah go ahead i was just going to say doug is one of those pillars of wbgo's long success in in this community and and globally yeah this is also not your first go around at the station you were program director there for a bit we first met when i was doing a show uh called newark today which is now in the capable hands of my colleague uh michael hill what brought you back uh the opportunity to take wbgo into its next phase of development and success was irresistible to me i uh i share that passion that we spoke of uh a moment ago and i saw this as an opportunity to really continue some of the things that i had begun uh during my tenure as program director it was one of those uh offers that was impossible to refuse so here i am there really is an offer you can't refuse especially if you love jazz and radio and of course who doesn't want to start a new job in the middle of a global pandemic right yeah i mean i'm chuckling uh i mean that's also very serious business and uh you're right uh this is a challenging time for all of us uh but we also see this as an opportunity to uh to serve our community in the unique way that wbgo always has for the last four decades and it's interesting that you uh that you bring up the the service in the midst of a pandemic you know uh i actually came on board about a year ago as a consultant as a programming consultant uh i was asked to to to come back uh into the wbgo fold the the universe uh by uh the uh interim ceo and the the uh the founder of of newark public radio bob odenhoff he needed some help on the programming side and about a month after i came on board is when the pandemic reached unbelievable heights in the new york city metropolitan area so we were really faced with several uh challenges not the least of which was figuring out a way to keep our employees safe and out of harm's way while at the same time uh continuing our service this service that people really rely on especially in tough times you know uh we wanted to keep wbg on the wbgo on the air uh and uh in service to the community so we had to as they say turn on a dime and figure out uh a workable solution uh to uh to keeping the station on the air and allowing our announcers and our support staff to to work from home and stay out of harm's way and we did that uh and it's almost a year now we've been uh working and broadcasting remotely with our announcers doing their uh radio programs from their homes in various places across the metropolitan area and and it has gone on uh virtually flawlessly david and i i don't notice right yeah most people don't realize that and and the reason why they don't realize that we've been working uh remotely and largely from home for nearly a year uh is it's really uh a credit to the professionalism and the commitment of the staff and management of wbgo and the um the access to uh important pivotal technologies that allow this to happen what many people don't realize david is that there are a great majority of of radio stations and and and television operations that are doing uh the bulk of their operations from various places not from you know the traditional studio uh uh setup and so we felt that in order to to to adequately serve our community uh we had to follow that path and like i said it's it's really worked well uh for us and obviously worked well for the listeners i'll i'll let you in on a little secret we're actually in my dining room so exactly exactly i know what you're talking about the adage the adage the show must go on really rings true uh especially in these these times of crisis and that's that's the at the core of of what we do as broadcasters right uh we serve our communities in in good times and in bad and it's usually in the bad times when they need us the most all right steve williams president ceo of wbgo jazz 88 newark good to see you man we'll be listening likewise man yep thank you david thanks for having me man