Sabin's Radio Free Jazz USA
- Place of Publication: Washington D.C., DC
- Language: English
- Date of Publication: 1972-1975
- Periodicity: Monthly
- Editor: Ira Sabin
- Publishers: Ira Sabin
- Lacunae: vol. 12 no. 69-70, 75; vol. 13 no. 8; vol. 14 no. 2-4, 7-8, 10-11. These issues will be loaded in 2025.
- Type: Full Text
- Preceded by: Sabin's Happening's
- Continued by: Radio Free Jazz
Sabin’s Radio Free Jazz USA continued the previous publications of Ira Sabin, owner of Sabin’s Discount Records in Washington D.C. In the first issue, labeled as vol. 12 no. 70 (May 1972), Sabin noted a professed need by jazz radio stations across the country for a publication devoted to jazz programming, relations with jazz record companies, and general information, with hopes of establishing a network of radio stations across the country which programmed jazz: as shown on the masthead, “Let’s get it together / Jazz USA.” Sabin’s column, “Pulling Coattails,” focused on advocacy for jazz radio.
Issues regularly published lists of popular recordings at different stations across the country, including much R&B and soul, in addition to jazz. These published lists, compiled by Sabin through correspondence with local disc jockeys and station employees, provide a window into listener tastes in different cities and many within the Black community. Sabin began contributing another column, “Soundings,” in which he discussed different aspects of jazz, not only radio. Columns on the music industry and musical genres developed, many by the same writers as found in Sabin’s Happening’s. In the final issue before Sabin dropped his name from the title, he noted that 98% of radio persons he surveyed used information in Sabin’s Radio Free Jazz as a programming tool. [January 1975, p. 2]
RIPM would like to thank the Sabin family for inclusion of Sabin's Radio Free Jazz USA as part of the RIPM Jazz Periodicals collection.