Leo Rayhill

Leo Rayhill Leo has been the volunteer host of The Sounds of Jazz for 40 years, and for three decades, the program has been broadcast on WCNY-FM.A central New York native, Leo is a graduate of Hamilton College

Picture: WCNY's Leo Rayhill with Clark Terry
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WCNY's Leo Rayhill with Clark Terry (2002)
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Leo Rayhill (right) with Clark Terry of the Village Vanguard in New York City last month.
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Rayhill, host of WCNY's Sounds of Jazz, was honored last weekend on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the show this spring.

Photo courtesy of Leo Rayhill.
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WCNY's Leo Rayhill with Clark Terry (2002)

But WCNY's Leo Rayhill and WAER's Eric Cohen, Marie Lamb and Dick Carr also have their feet planted firmly in the present.
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Rayhill remembers when the opposite was true.For 41 years he's been a jazz deejay; currently he hosts Sounds of Jazz, heard from 6:05 to 7 p.m. weekdays on WCNY, which has translators in both Utica and Watertown.
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By the time WCNY offered Rayhill, now 75, a show in 1971, the same year the station was founded, jazz programming was already disappearing from commercial radio."It was very bleak, it was really hard," he remembers.
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Rayhill works full time at his own roofing business, but devotes four hours a day to preparing and running the show.And he gets no money for it."The reward is playing my music.
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The efforts of Cohen, Rayhill, Lamb and Carr make clear that, although jazz's origins might be uncertain, its future needs to be charted, now.

The press conference included dedications to late Syracuse clarinetist Michael "Peanuts" Hucko, who worked alongside luminaries like Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, and to WCNY-FM 91.3 (Classic FM) deejay Leo Rayhill, longtime host of the weekday program Sounds of Jazz.
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"This is the best jazz festival anywhere in the United States," Rayhill enthused.

At WCNY-FM in Syracuse, N.Y., Leo Rayhill has been hosting The Sounds of Jazz at 6 p.m. every weekday for more than 30 years.The program had been on other stations for 10 years before moving to WCNY, which is primarily a classical music station.Station manager Paul Dunn told the Syracuse Herald-Journal: "Leo is a true treasure.He has introduced jazz to countless listeners, and his love of the music is demonstrated by the fact that he's a volunteer host of the program."(Rayhill owns a roofing and siding firm.) During the station's pledge drives, says the Herald-Tribune, "Sounds of Jazz typically draws more listener donations than any of its other programs."

Leo Rayhill

Leo has been the volunteer host of The Sounds of Jazz for 40 years, and for three decades, the program has been broadcast on WCNY-FM.A central New York native, Leo is a graduate of Hamilton College