Back in the mid-1980s I was the Jazz Music Director at an NPR affiliate (KCHO-FM) in Chico, CA. While delivering the goods for great jazz radio was my primary mission, I also took over a Sunday evening time slot that had been a "Golden Age of Radio" program, focused mostly on the 1930s and 1940s old time radio and music. The replacement show was a modern spin on a similar idea. The show, KCHO Sunday Nite, featured jazz, comedy, radio satire, science fiction, spoken word, and even live jazz concerts from the confines of our basement studio deep in the bowels of the Merriam Library at California State University, Chico. Something must have worked since it made #4 in the ratings for that time slot in the market.

This hour revisits some of the feeling of Sunday Nite, excepting of course for all of the great science fiction shorts, radio drama, Bob and Ray, Ken Nordine, Ruby the Intergalactic Gumshoe, and so much more. But then again, we do revisit some of the music and comedic threads that made the show so much fun to do. Even for those who did not like the spoken word aspects, it was arguably still a showcase for top of the mark jazz, whether recorded, or locally produced. It was creativity, at the cross roads of jazz and comedy.

So sit back, or stand up, and take a listen. If this hour tickled your fancy, you can find more authentic episodes of KCHO Sunday Nite on this web site. I apologize for the less than stellar fidelity of those recordings, but the creativity of that time still shines through.