YSU New radio show plays classic jazz

Music that rarely gets air time these days will be featured.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Unless you're a jazz hound, you've probably never heard of the likes of Peanuts Hucko, Bunny Berigan or the Salt City Five.
With the help of a former Youngstowner, though, those names and their music from an often overlooked jazz era will once again be heard in the area through a new radio program being offered by WYSU-FM at 88.5.
Youngstown State University's public radio station recently added "Rhythm Sweet and Hot" to its program lineup.
The hour-long syndicated show, featuring pre-World War II jazz, will air Fridays at 11 p.m. It originates from WDUQ in Pittsburgh, which syndicated it in 1998.
Co-hosting the program is record-collector and vintage music expert Mike Plaskett. Plaskett is a 1962 Cardinal Mooney High School graduate who attended YSU in the 1960s and once worked for WYTV and WNIO radio in the Mahoning Valley.
Plaskett is teamed with Ken Crawford, another authority on old tunes. Crawford is one of a select group of collectors who lends his 78 rpm discs back to record companies for re-issue projects.
Program's goal
The goal in bringing "Rhythm Sweet and Low" to WYSU's nearly 40,000 listeners is to "present music that was very popular in its day but has not found its way onto compact disc," David Luscher, associate director at WYSU-FM, said Tuesday.
The program, which borrows its title from descriptive terms for jazzy dance music, showcases "an era in jazz that isn't getting as much attention as it used to," Luscher added.
"With Mike being a local boy, we thought it would be a neat tie-in," Luscher said.
Plaskett and Crawford's program, heard on 33 radio stations, including those in Puerto Rico and Australia, won't just feature little-known tunes and artists.
Listeners also will be able to sample jazz icons such as Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Benny Goodman.
"Rhythm Sweet and Hot" is replacing "Worldwide Jazz," which WYSU-FM lost because the program no longer is being produced.
Though WYSU's programming is weighted toward classical, there's an ample jazz presence as well, with four jazz shows on the schedule, including "Rhythm Sweet and Hot."
"Youngstown has always had a strong tie with jazz," Luscher said.