{"id":25765,"date":"2020-06-04T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=25765"},"modified":"2020-06-04T06:00:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T11:00:24","slug":"steve-cushing-celebrates-40-years-blues-sunrise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2020\/06\/04\/steve-cushing-celebrates-40-years-blues-sunrise\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Cushing celebrates 40 years of \u2018Blues Before Sunrise\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Steve Cushing<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s been 40 years since Steve Cushing launched \u201cBlues Before Sunrise,\u201d<\/a> the five-hour weekly public-radio showcase for vintage blues, R&B and gospel recordings spanning the 1920s through the \u201960s. Fortunately for all of us, he's still at it.<\/p>\n

\"Chicago is still the world capital of the blues and \u2018Blues Before Sunrise\u2019 is one reason why,\u201d said Dan Bindert, station manager of College of DuPage\u2019s WDCB 90.9-FM,<\/a> which airs the show Saturday nights from midnight to 5 a.m. \u201cIt's incredible that Steve's been keeping blues fans up all night with his incredible trip into the rich cultural legacy of the blues for 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bindert attributes the popularity and longevity of the show to its host\u2019s \u201cexcellent taste and amazing record collection,\u201d which Cushing began amassing just after graduating from Proviso East High School.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

WDCB<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI watched my mentor Dick Buckley work and have fun far past retirement age and can easily see myself doing the same thing,\u201d Cushing, 68, told me. \u201cWhat\u2019s been weird is that over the past couple of decades the alternate musics \u2014 jazz, blues, folk \u2014 which were a staple of public radio\u2019s early days, are no longer on its menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason my program still survives is that it\u2019s available for free. Most public radio programming is so expensive that after buying the popular packages \u2014 \u2018Morning Edition,\u2019 \u2018All Things Considered,\u2019 \u2018This American Life,\u2019 \u20181A\u2019 \u2014 many stations have little or no budget left and have to fill in their schedule with whatever\u2019s cheap or free. And that\u2019s \u2018Blues Before Sunrise.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Cushing\u2019s humble assessment, he\u2019s been hailed as a \u201cveritable Chicago institution\u201d<\/a> for the labor of love he started in 1980 at Chicago Public Media WBEZ 91.5-FM. Since 2007 it's been airing on WDCB. It\u2019s also heard on 25 other public radio stations nationwide.<\/p>\n

Cushing recently began hosting a new show, \u201cJazz Oasis,\u201d<\/a> following \u201cBlues Before Sunrise\u201d from 5 to 6 a.m. Sundays on WDCB. It focuses on mainstream and bebop jazz from 1946 to 1964.<\/p>\n

He also is the author of three books based on his many interviews over the years. The latest, Blues Before Sunrise 2: Interviews from the Chicago Scene,<\/a><\/em> was published in November by University of Illinois Press.<\/p>\n

Added Bindert: \"As a night owl myself, I love that we\u00a0have\u00a0a great historian\u00a0like Steve\u00a0sharing rare blues records with\u00a0our audience\u00a0in a timeslot almost every other\u00a0station\u00a0considers a throwaway. I hope one day to get to bed before 5 a.m. on a Saturday night, but it's even less likely to happen now since Steve added an hour of jazz from 5 to 6 a.m.\"<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s comment of the day:<\/a> Mike Braden:<\/strong> The three-headed monster of racism and hatred and violence needs to be slain. But turning off the cameras won't do that; it'll only make it worse.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 40 years since Steve Cushing launched \u201cBlues Before Sunrise,\u201d the five-hour weekly public-radio showcase for vintage blues, R&B and gospel recordings spanning the 1920s through the \u201960s. Fortunately for all of us, he's still at it. \"Chicago is still the world capital of the blues and \u2018Blues Before Sunrise\u2019 is one reason why,\u201d... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25765"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25774,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25765\/revisions\/25774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}