New York public radio station WNYC has long hosted Jonathan Schwartz, an American Songbook expert who has been called a national treasure in recognition of his vast knowledge of American standards, and his unique personal collection of recordings. Schwartz often demonstrates a seemingly bottomless knowledge of Frank Sinatra’s career. Here at the RAIN editorial office, we often turn to WNYC’s webcast on weekends for a dose of Jonathan Schwartz. Now WNYC’s new Internet station administers that dose at any time.
In an interesting pureplay, WNYC has launched a 24/7 stream called The Jonathan Channel. (Listen here.) Tom Taylor’s newsletter notes that Schwartz recently quit his shift at SiriusXM, so is now exclusively distributed by WNYC — his weekly shows are broadcast on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. He has been a WNYC host for 14 years, so there is a deep archive of content for The Jonathan Channel to draw from.
There might be a trend afoot with 24/7 specialty stations derived from broadcast. Recently TuneIn announced a full-time rerun channel of public radio’s This American Life, which has an 18-year library.