Ken Wiley, who guided KPLU and KNKX listeners through vintage jazz history for four decades on his show the Art of Jazz, died on Feb. 5 after a long illness. He was 88 years old.
Every Sunday until his retirement in 2023, Wiley, known for his unmistakably gruff voice and relaxed delivery, shared his passion for jazz and bottomless knowledge of the music’s history. Wiley had legions of loyal fans and, throughout his tenure, helped turn KNKX into one of the country’s most well-known jazz stations.
Born Dec. 17, 1938, in Tacoma, Washington, Wiley was known to his family as Tad. A trombone player, Wiley was deeply influenced by his middle school band teacher, saxophonist Bob Main. At Stadium High School, his journey in music continued under the watchful eye of Bill Cole, the band director and a skillful trumpeter who supported Wiley as he put together his first jazz band.
After graduating in 1957, Wiley attended University of Puget Sound, where he studied music and English. For the next 30 years, he worked as an educator in Tacoma Public Schools.
When he wasn’t teaching, he was playing trombone in a variety of groups around the Pacific Northwest, including the Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band, the Great Excelsior Jazz Band, and the Ham Carson quintet, which performed for many years at The New Orleans Creole Restaurant, Gaye Anderson's iconic jazz venue that existed in Pioneer Square.
In July 1982, Wiley’s friend suggested he investigate a job in radio. He knew that Pacific Lutheran University had a station, and encouraged him to call the KPLU program director. Wiley’s first Art of Jazz show aired shortly after, and long before KPLU was a jazz-focused station.
On Art of Jazz, Wiley shared his extensive and well-curated collection of vintage jazz vinyl, largely from the ‘20s to the ‘40s and often with a few seconds of phonograph needle hiss before the start of a tune.
Wiley started and ended every show with Duke Ellington’s “Cotton Tail,” and in between, he'd play blues queens like Memphis Minnie, vocal pop-jazz quartet the Hi-Los, warm-toned saxophonist Stan Getz, and many more. Wiley also contextualized the music with pertinent history and colorful anecdotes.
“It was on his show that Ken introduced me to my now all-time favorite vocal group, the Boswell Sisters, for which I’ll be forever grateful...We’ll not see or hear his like again,” said Dick Stein, longtime KPLU/KNKX jazz host who retired in 2020, in an email.
In 2024, upon Wiley’s retirement, former KPLU program director Scott Williams told The Seattle Times that despite having no radio experience, Wiley had “a nice voice, was passionate about jazz and was a great storyteller. He certainly made the Art of Jazz an important part of the station’s identity.”
In 2003, Seattle nonprofit Earshot Jazz inducted Wiley into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame, honoring his decades of service to the Pacific Northwest jazz community, and beyond.
Wiley is survived by his wife, Jeanie, as well as eight children and 14 grandchildren, his brother, Richard Wiley, sister-in-law Virginia Wiley, a niece, Pilar Wiley, and a nephew, Morgan Wiley, according to an obituary published in The News Tribune.
Listen back to the archived episodes of Wiley’s show, Art of Jazz on KNKX On Demand
KNKX will pay tribute to Wiley during Sunday’s Tree of Jazz from 3-6 p.m., a show launched in 2024 inspired by the foundation he built.
