WCNY-FM Host Shares Favorite Holiday Music on the “Sounds of Jazz”

Syracuse NY : Join Leo Rayhill, host of the “Sounds of Jazz” on WCNY-FM, as he shares some of his family’s favorite holiday music performed by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Ray Anthony, Mel Torme, Glenn Miller, Ernie Carson, and Jim Cullum and his World’s Greatest Jazz Band. This hour-long holiday special airs Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24 at 6 pm on WCNY-FM, 91.3 in Syracuse, WJNY-FM, 90.9 in Watertown, WUNY-FM, 89.5 in Utica, and over the World Wide Web at www.wcny.org.

In September 2007, Rayhill, a 45-year veteran of the radio industry, celebrated a milestone. He has hosted the “Sounds of Jazz” every weekday on WCNY-FM for 35 years. According to Vice President of Radio Operations, Don Dolloff, "Leo has introduced jazz to countless listeners, and his love of the music is demonstrated by the fact that he voluntarily hosts the program." Rayhill says his passion for jazz is the reason he has hosted the show for so long, especially since he was also the owner of a roofing and siding business until about three years ago.

“Jazz has captivated me since his childhood,” says Rayhill. The owner of the bar behind his father’s business in Utica introduced him to the genre over 70 years ago. “Right away, I was hooked,” says Rayhill. Highlighting those years, Rayhill has had the honor of interviewing jazz legends Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton and others. The Jazz Appreciation Society of Syracuse also honored Rayhill in 2002 f or “his dedication to jazz and Central New York”.

Rayhill, a native Central New Yorker, resides in Fayetteville with his high school sweetheart, Joan, a jazz fan by marriage. “Music and jazz have always been a big part of our lives,” says Joan. They have four children.

Photo: Leo Rayhill

Credit: CNY Link 2007