We'd like to announce a recent collaboration between the Library of Congress, New Orleans-based, community-supported radio station WWOZ-FM and the Grammy Foundation to help preserve live jazz and blues recordings that WWOZ has collected over the past 15 years

Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine, Wntr, 2008

We'd like to announce a recent collaboration between the Library of Congress, New Orleans-based, community-supported radio station WWOZ-FM and the Grammy Foundation to help preserve live jazz and blues recordings that WWOZ has collected over the past 15 years. WWOZ-FM gifted the Library of Congress with more than 7,000 hours of live jazz and blues recordings this fall. The contribution, which comes after Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters nearly destroyed the station's primary tape storage facility, will ensure the safety of the station's collection of recordings. In support of this gift, the Grammy Foundation has awarded WWOZ $45,000 in grants toward the preservation of the collection. Of the $45,000 provided by the GRAMMY Foundation, $5,000 was awarded through the Foundation's Music Preservation Project, which identifies and restores at-risk media and archival materials, and $40,000 was provided through a special Gulf Coast award cycle through the Grammy Foundation Grant Program. These recordings, which were made at various music festivals, nightclubs and street events, feature the wide range of New Orleans' roots music including jazz, gospel, brass band and zydeco. "The WWOZ Crescent City Living Legends Collection" includes an assortment of live music performances dating back to 1993 of New Orleans' musicians, including Ernie K-Doe, Boozoo Chavis and Tuba Fats. Selections from the WWOZ collection were named to the Library's 2002 National Recording Registry.

While awaiting cataloging and digital preservation, the recordings will be stored in climate-controlled vaults at the Library's state-of-the-art preservation facility in Culpepper, Va., the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation.