Jim Wilke

The Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for media were announced on June 19 at The Blue Note in New York City.  Jim is very happy to be the recipient of this year's Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Award for Broadcasting.  The complete list of this year's winners including musicians and journalists can be found here. Erik Lacitis wrote a special profile on Jazz After Hours for The Seattle Times published on 12/21/12. You can read the article here. Since 1983, Jim Wilke's radio programs have been broadcast nationally on PRI and NPR, and now internationally via the internet. Jazz After Hours has been on the air every week with a new show since 1984, and guests have included many of the jazz world's greatest artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Ray Brown, Harry Edison, Milt Jackson, and Jim Hall, as well as newer stars including Joshua Redman, Cyrus Chestnut, Diana Krall and Benny Green. Prior to devoting himself to jazz radio, Jim was program director of classical music station KING-FM. In addition to Jazz After Hours, Jim Wilke also produces a weekly Jazz Northwest show for KPLU. He has produced hundreds of hours of live jazz radio programs from venues outside the studio. His location recordings have provided material for numerous CDs as well as radio programs. He is a member of The Recording Academy (NARAS) and The Jazz Journalists Association. Jim taught Jazz History at The Cornish College of the Arts for many years and taught radio broadcasting at Bellevue Community College and KBCS.  He has been the music coordinator for dozens of outdoor concerts and several jazz festivals. He was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993, the first non-musician to receive the honor, and has been nominated for The Willis Conover Award for Excellence in Jazz Broadcasting by the Jazz Journalists Association in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013. Jim was also named one of the top syndicated jazz radio personalities in the JazzTimes Readers Poll in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012.  The expanded JazzTimes Critics Poll also included Jazz After Hours on the short list as one of the nation's top syndicated jazz radio programs in 2011 and topped it in 2012. In his leisure time, he's an avid small boat sailor on his Laser "O Barquinho", plays tennis, and enjoys hiking in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.