WRTI-FM To Receive 2004 Mellon Jazz Community Award - Presentation To Coincide With Open House for New Studios on Temple University Campus - PHILADELPHIA, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of a half-century of presenting the best in local and national jazz programming, providing quality news coverage, recognizing cultural organizations and performing community service, WRTI-FM has been named the recipient of the 2004 Mellon Jazz Community Award. The award recognizes local venues, individuals, organizations, clubs, musicians, programs and institutions for their significant contributions to jazz in the southeastern Pennsylvania area. The two previous awardees were Anthony H. "Tony" Williams, founder of the Mount Airy Cultural Center, in 2003 and Bob Perkins, long-time jazz broadcaster (currently with WRTI) and journalist, in 2002. "While this region certainly has a wealth of talented individuals and organizations that have helped build and strengthen our ties to jazz, perhaps no single organization has done as much to ensure that Philadelphia's tradition of jazz excellence gets passed along to future generations as WRTI- FM," said Paul Kochis, chairman of Mellon Financial Corporation's Mid-Atlantic region. "This year's award recognizes WRTI not just for its outstanding jazz programming, but also for its highly commendable educational component, which has made an important contribution to the community by researching, acknowledging and promoting the accomplishments of jazz musicians, especially Philadelphia-born musicians and others who call this area home." The award, which takes the form of an original glass sculpture by noted Pennsylvania glass artist Kathleen Mulcahy, will be presented to Dave Conant, WRTI-FM executive director, on Wednesday, April 28 at 2 p.m. in the station's new studios on the third floor of Temple University's new Entertainment and Community Education Center. The new building on the corner of Cecil B. Moore Avenue and 15th Street, once one of the centers of the Philadelphia jazz scene, has tripled the size of the station. The facility includes a new performance/recording studio, an extensive jazz library and work stations for students involved in production and programming. The station takes its RTI call letters from Radio Training Institute and first broadcast in the mid-1940s over the power lines throughout Temple's campus. WRTI became an FM-licensed radio station in 1953, reaching out to the nearby community with limited power, and adopted an all-jazz format in 1968. When Philadelphia's only full-time classical music station, WFLN-FM, switched formats in 1997, WRTI-FM added the classics just one week later. Since these two musical art forms joined forces, Temple University Public Radio has seen its ratings and audience share rise dramatically. With classical music during the day and jazz in the evening and through the night, the station has become one of the top-rated public radio stations in the country by reaching a weekly audience of more than 300,000 listeners. Its signal can be picked up from northeastern Pennsylvania to Delaware, from Harrisburg to Cape May, N.J., and around the world on the Internet ( http://www.wrti.org/ ). As part of Mellon Financial Corporation's year-round celebration of jazz excellence in the Philadelphia area for the 19th year, Mellon Jazz is sponsoring an outstanding lineup of jazz attractions throughout the rest of 2004 and into 2005. In addition to serving as the title sponsor for the Villanova University Jazz Festival, Mellon Jazz also has an important relationship with the Kimmel Center, where the recently-announced 2004-2005 season features 14 outstanding performances as part of "Kimmel Center presents Mellon Jazz" series. Mellon also conducts a Mellon Jazz program in the Pittsburgh area. More information on Mellon Jazz activities is available by clicking on the Mellon Jazz link at http://www.mellon.com/ . Mellon Financial Corporation is a global financial services company. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is one of the world's leading providers of financial services for institutions, corporations and high net worth individuals, providing institutional asset management, mutual funds, private wealth management, asset servicing, human resources and investor solutions, and treasury services. Mellon has approximately $3.6 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including more than $675 billion under management. Its asset management companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and U.K.-based Newton Investment Management Limited. News and other information about Mellon is available at http://www.mellon.com/ . DATASOURCE: Mellon Financial Corporation CONTACT: Ron Gruendl, Corporate Affairs of Mellon Financial Corporation, +1-412-234-7157, or Web site: http://www.mellon.com/ http://www.wrti.org/

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