There’s a new name and face in music media. It’s one you may be familiar with, but in another context and in another media. It’s Beth Arroyo Utterback, a face you’ve seen and voice you’ve heard for years during membership drives at WYES–TV.
But first some background.
If you’ve read OffBeat or our website over the past year, you’ve been aware that there have been some serious changes at WWOZ.
WWOZ—New Orleans’ station devoted to our indigenous rootsy music—is a non-profit community radio station whose content is produced by a cadre of devoted unpaid volunteers: people so passionate about music that they give up their free time to share the music that they love with listeners all around the world.
The station was started by brothers Walter and Jerry Brock upstairs at Tipitina’s. They donated the license of the station to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, and it currently owns it today. WWOZ is overseen by a Governance Board that’s a subsidiary of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.
WWOZ started very small, but has now grown into a powerhouse that promotes local music worldwide. In 1991, former Jazz and Heritage Foundation board member David Freedman resigned from the board and became the station’s General Manager.
Freedman had experience in community radio, so he was a natural choice to run the station. Freedman is and was a visionary, and he branded WWOZ as the go-to radio source for New Orleans music. Moreover, Freedman could see the future of radio, and started converting the station to an internet powerhouse, with active social media and video capabilities; he even acquired technology and trucks to record music off-site, and exploited the station’s ownership and the relationship the Jazz and Heritage Foundation with the sale and distribution of Brass Passes. Most importantly, WWOZ acquired more listeners via digital streaming versus the radio airwaves. This was the golden age of growth for WWOZ.
Over two decades, Freedman took WWOZ to heights that no one thought could have been achieved. WWOZ was so financially successful that Freedman was ostensibly given carte blanche to run the station. But all was not well in WWOZ-land. After a time, Freedman alienated many of the volunteers and staff of the station, and ultimately, there was a mutiny. Key staff members left the station suddenly. OffBeat published a letter from a former staff member that pointed out the issues at WWOZ. After that, the board moved Freedman out of operations and hired an experienced radio professional, Arthur Cohen, as an interim manager. But the WWOZ Governance Board knew that the station needed a change, and ultimately they sought a new general manager for the station.
Beth Utterback. Photo by Charlie Steiner.
On June 1, WWOZ welcomed a new General Manager: Beth Arroyo Utterback, whose media experience includes 35 years of experience at New Orleans public television station WYES.
Beth started her media career at WDSU as an intern, and advanced to Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for overall management and direction of the station.
Utterback oversaw all station programming, local and national productions, promotions, special projects and community outreach. She created beneficial community partnerships and was the regular host of 30 years of successful membership drives. She’s also executive-producer of 11 cooking series which have been aired on public radio stations nationwide.
She’s received multiple Emmys and Press Club of New Orleans Awards.
Beth is a New Orleans native and has deep familial roots in the founding of New Orleans and even Colonial Louisiana, and is obviously very tied into the New Orleans community. She is thrilled to have been able to become the new General Manager of the station because she sees so much potential in WWOZ’s future.
Beth—whom I feel like I’ve already known for years, even though we just met not long ago—came to visit me in OffBeat’s office last week. She admired my Frenchmen Street view (everyone does), and we chatted for quite a while like old friends, mostly about music, the community, OffBeat, and of course, WWOZ.
“I admired WWOZ and the incredible work it does serving a worldwide audience as flag-bearer of New Orleans culture and musical heritage,” she said, but since becoming the station’s head honcho, she’s realized the tremendous reach of the station that she wasn’t totally aware of until recently. And she was stunned.
“I was amazed to see that we have so many listeners worldwide,” she said. She knew that WWOZ reached a lot of listeners but discovered that “about 75 percent of the traffic on wwoz.org comes from outside Louisiana and 13 percent from outside the U.S. We have over 110,000 listeners each week from here and around the world. We have almost 150,000 social media followers. [OffBeat’s reach via offbeat.com mirrors WWOZ’s; the people who love New Orleans and New Orleans music don’t necessarily live in New Orleans!]
“Our biggest Facebook post reached over 18 million people and that post had over a million shares,” she said. “Because of our unique programming, WWOZ has an enormous reach. This is something our community partners need to be aware of.”
“I can see the problems, too,” Utterback said. “But right now I’m still getting the lay of the land. I know what I have to do to keep WWOZ on the right track and I want to work with the board, staff and volunteers to keep the station growing.”
When Utterback first heard about the job opening, she was excited. “These are all my favorite people,” she said. “James Rivers, Leah Chase Kamata, Deacon John—music people I’ve known through the years. I have always been so deeply committed to all things New Orleans; this opportunity came along and I had to apply for the job.
“Knowing what I do now about the reach of the station to listeners all around the world, a great slogan came to me: ‘If you can’t live in New Orleans, let New Orleans live in you.’ This is what WWOZ means to our listeners.”
It’s refreshing to hear a new voice marvel at the appeal of our music and culture to the world. This is something that we’ve known for a very long time: There’s something we call the “church of New Orleans”—people who love the city so much they come here multiple times during every year (and not just during Jazz Fest). They want to live here, but can’t, for whatever reason. Any connection to the city’s music and culture is rabidly sought after by these “church” members.
WWOZ and OffBeat are almost like peas in a pod: We have the same mission; we just do it in different ways. Hopefully, we’ll be able to re-develop a strong relationship so that both entities can work closely to achieve a common goal.
It’s really heartening to know that Beth Utterback—a New Orleanian, born, bred and rooted in the city’s rich culture—will be leading a cultural treasure like WWOZ into the future. We’re looking for great things ahead.
