Five experienced hosts bring history, soul, gospel, rhythm and blues, and eleven weekly hours of human-selected music to Chicago radio and listeners worldwide.
By Karl Lee, The Audio Concierge | Web Radio Info
Saturday night on WDCB begins with an hour in the Red Rooster Lounge.
From there, listeners move through blues history and Black culture, board a late-night train filled with Southern soul and Chicago blues, and finally settle in for five hours of music before sunrise.
The uninterrupted journey begins Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Central Time and continues until 5:00 a.m. Sunday. Together with Hambone’s Blues Party on Thursday night, WDCB presents eleven scheduled hours of blues every week.
This is not an automated stream or a collection of interchangeable playlists. Each program has a knowledgeable host, a distinct personality and a different way of placing the blues within American music and culture.
WDCB earns a 5 out of 5 rating. Learn how Web Radio Info evaluates stations on our Station Ratings page.
Saturday Night at the Red Rooster Lounge
Cary Wolfson begins WDCB’s Saturday blues journey at 8:00 p.m. Central with Blues From the Red Rooster Lounge.
The weekly hour combines blues and rhythm and blues with gospel and overlooked soul recordings. Wolfson, known on the air as the Red Rooster, has twice received a Keeping the Blues Alive award from the Blues Foundation.
His experience gives the program authority, but the show remains lively and welcoming. It is the kind of radio hour that can introduce a listener to an unfamiliar recording without making the discovery feel like a lesson.
Doug Curry Connects the Music With Its History
At 9:00 p.m., Doug Curry takes over with Blacks & Blues.
Curry is a Harlem native, writer, record collector, historian and poet who has hosted blues radio for more than 40 years. His program presents acoustic and electric blues from the past and present while exploring the people, places, history and politics surrounding the recordings.
That perspective makes Blacks & Blues especially valuable. Curry does more than identify artists and songs. He places the music within Black history and culture, helping listeners understand the lives and communities from which the blues emerged.
The program begins with Wynonie Harris singing “Mr. Blues Is Comin’ to Town” and closes with Ray Charles performing “Ray’s Blues.” Between those musical markers, Curry creates two hours of cultural radio shaped by knowledge, memory and personal selection.
Sammie Jay Takes the Night Train
At 11:00 p.m., Sammie Jay continues the blues block with Night Train.
The program combines Southern soul and Chicago blues, with particular attention to deep-soul singers. Jay balances memories of established performers with newer artists working to keep the music alive.
That combination provides a natural bridge between Curry’s historical approach and the expansive overnight program that follows.
Five Hours of Blues Before Sunrise
At midnight, Steve Cushing begins Blues Before Sunrise.
The five-hour program treats blues as part of a much larger cultural landscape. Cushing places it alongside gospel, rhythm and blues, jump music, swing, doo-wop, comedy and spoken recordings.
WDCB describes the music heard on the program as a living African American tradition with deep roots. That philosophy distinguishes Blues Before Sunrise from programming that treats blues solely as a nostalgic genre from another era.
Five hours gives Cushing room to make connections that would be difficult within a shorter format. A performance can lead to an earlier influence, a related gospel recording or another branch of American music. The program rewards both close attention and relaxed overnight listening.
Hambone Starts the Weekend Early
WDCB’s blues programming does not begin on Saturday.
Scott “Hambone” Hammer starts the weekend Thursday from 10:00 p.m. to midnight with Hambone’s Blues Party. The two-hour show mixes contemporary blues with classic rhythm and blues, soul and jump blues.
It is the most casual and energetic part of the lineup. Hammer describes the program as broadcasting from the back seat of a black Cadillac parked at the corner of Jazz Avenue and Blues Boulevard.
That playful personality gives WDCB a blues presence outside its Saturday-night block and provides another route into the music for listeners who may prefer newer recordings and a faster pace.
WDCB Is Still Chicago’s Home for Jazz
Blues is an important part of WDCB, but it does not define the entire station.
WDCB identifies itself as “Chicago’s Home for Jazz,” and jazz remains at the center of its schedule. Its principal music service, ’DCB Jazz, combines classic and contemporary straight-ahead jazz with close attention to musicians from Chicago.
Regular features include Women in Jazz, Latin Bit, Brass Band Feature, the Friday All-Request Hour, Monk in the Morning and Fusion Flashback. The station also broadcasts Chicago-area Jazz Calendar reports throughout the week.
Chicago Jazz Live adds another level of local service. The weekly program features Chicago groups recorded specifically for the series, with host Steve Rashid interviewing the musicians alongside their performances.
This makes WDCB more than a station that plays jazz recordings. It helps document the city’s working musicians and introduces their performances to listeners well beyond Chicago.
WDCB also clearly identifies its presenters and connects them with their programs. The station reports that close to 30 percent of its programming is presented by volunteers. Its staff pages name those volunteers alongside the professional music staff and other presenters.
That transparency matters. Listeners can discover who selected the recordings, learn about a host’s background and understand the purpose of a program. The hosts bring experience, curiosity and individual musical judgment to the schedule.
How to Listen and Use the Two-Week Archive
WDCB is available through:
- 90.9 FM in Glen Ellyn and much of the Chicago area
- 90.7 FM in Chicago’s West Loop
- The live player at WDCB.org
- The WDCB application for iPhone and iPad
- The WDCB application for Android
- The station’s two-week archive
The mobile app includes the live broadcast, archive, schedule, playlists and jazz calendar.
Most WDCB programs remain available through the two-week archive. Listeners can choose a program by date, pause the recording, move forward or backward and return to shows they missed. The archive also works on mobile devices.
This is particularly helpful for the Saturday blues block. Few listeners will remain awake for all nine hours, but the archive makes it possible to return to most of the programs during the following two weeks.
Recordings begin at the top of the hour and can occasionally open during a sentence or song. Certain special live broadcasts may also be excluded because of rights restrictions.
WDCB does not currently publish official instructions for listening through Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri or Sonos. A radio directory may recognize the station, but Web Radio Info has not verified a dependable voice command.
Test any smart-speaker method before a program begins, and use the official website or mobile app as a backup.
Accessibility Strengths and One Concern
WDCB provides several features that may help blind and low-vision listeners.
Individual programs have clear text descriptions, hosts are identified by name, and the station maintains a text-based alphabetical program list. The searchable archive and direct listening page provide alternatives to navigating the entire website.
One accessibility concern remains. WDCB’s weekly program grid is presented primarily as an image, with a separate printable version. An image-based schedule can be harder for a screen-reader user to navigate than a properly structured text schedule organized by day and time.
The alphabetical program-description page offers a more accessible text route, but it is less convenient when someone simply wants to know what is playing on a particular day.
Web Radio Info has confirmed WDCB’s listening choices, program information and archive. We have not yet completed a full accessibility test using NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver or TalkBack.
The Audio Concierge Recommendation
Begin Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Central with Cary Wolfson and listen through Doug Curry’s Blacks & Blues. That three-hour sequence provides the clearest introduction to WDCB’s combination of musical knowledge, personality and cultural context.
If you enjoy soul and contemporary performers, remain aboard for Sammie Jay’s Night Train. Night owls can continue with Steve Cushing, while everyone else can return to Blues Before Sunrise through the archive.
WDCB gives listeners named hosts, specialized programs, local cultural knowledge, worldwide streaming and enough archive access to explore the schedule on their own time.
That is full-service radio worth seeking out.