Jason Church
General Manager
jaschur@siue.edu
(618) 650-3607
Jason Church achieved a dream when he signed on with WSIE in May of 2018. “I’ve known, since I was a kid, that I wanted to get into radio,” Church noted. “This really is a dream. I’ve listened to WSIE since I was thirteen years old. It was my goal when I was younger to work here — I didn’t know in what capacity, but I just knew that I wanted to be a part of this.”
Church got his first radio job at Lindenwood’s 89.1 FM The Connection (KCLC), on the university campus, which played new adult contemporary, otherwise known as smooth jazz. In his junior year, Church began working for 106.5 Smooth Jazz (WSSM), which later flipped to The Arch in 2005. Fortuitously, Church started working for Emmis Communications as news director for all four of its stations, though his primary duties were with FM NewsTalk 97.1 (KFKT). During that time with Emmis, he also programmed a jazz-oriented HD channel, Hip 96.3 HD-3.
During his time with Emmis Communications, the Radio Arts Foundation, which sustains Classic 107.3 FM, tapped Church to produce a two-hour, weekly program, called The Jazz Collective, which airs from 12 Midnight to 2 a.m. on Saturdays and can now be heard from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on WSIE 88.7 "The Sound."
Additionally, while at Emmis, St. Louis pianist Mike Silverman approached Church, ultimately recruiting him to help create an annual jazz festival in St. Louis’ University City neighborhood. That collaboration led to a second returning jazz festival in Chesterfield, Missouri, and ultimately, with Silverman’s help, Church launched the Hermann Wine & Jazz Festival, in Hermann, Missouri.
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