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Ashtyn Hansard
BY ASHTYN HANSARD
Digital Media Director
On Feb. 10, 2026, Professor Hank Jones and Dr. Mike Pierce ended their Tarleton State University radio show, “Essential Jazz,” which had been up and running for 15 years.
Being a music lover myself, I thought it best to give this show a good farewell and see what it was really like working on such a long-term project.
In January of 2011, Jones was approached by Eric Truax, the manager of Tarleton’s radio station at the time, and asked if he would be interested in hosting his own show after already having some experience with the station.
After hosting the show solo for a while, Jones was approached by Pierce one day, who mentioned that he had heard Jones’ show and liked his pick of music. After talking about it for a moment, Jones asked Pierce to join him in hosting “Essential Jazz.” The rest is history.
Although Jones and Pierce didn’t really know each other well when they first started hosting together, their love for jazz music helped blossom their friendship.
“What I loved about [“Essential Jazz”] was basically, for two hours every week, we would sit in the studio and play jazz albums,” Jones said. “In your daily life, that would be a fun thing to do, but who has two hours to sit around and listen to albums with a friend? And we got to do that for 15 years.”
Pierce felt the same way when it came to getting to explore more of the genre he’s already spent so much of his life with.
“At home, I was usually doing something else while listening to the music and missed some of its nuances,” Pierce said. “Being on the show really increased my appreciation of jazz. Both of us had CDs that the other didn't so we both grew in our range and knowledge of the music.”
Playing jazz music wasn’t the only thing Jones and Pierce did on the radio. They also had discussion topics that focused on jazz history and culture, such as the lives of the musicians and the cultural ethos of the period of jazz they were covering.
While hosting “Essential Jazz,” Jones was teaching literature to Tarleton students, while Pierce taught mostly American history. Both Jones and Pierce found their love of jazz and knowledge of the genre bleeding into their teaching.
“I regularly played music in my classes that reflected eras of history,” Pierce said. “So, for the twentieth century, I played Louis Armstrong's ‘West End Blues’ to show the influence of jazz, then Bing Crosby singing ‘Brother Can You Spare A Dime’ for the Great Depression and Charlie Parker for ‘Be-Bop' and the social changes brought about by World War II.”
While Pierce has a direct correlation between his lessons and his love of jazz, Jones has more of an artistic approach in the way he teaches literature and includes jazz music.
“There are occasions where the jazz music informs the literature that we’re reading,” Jones said. “Being able to teach literature and being able to play jazz, to me…I’m putting art into the world, and I think that if it connects with you, if it moves you, then it’s going to make your life a little better.”
While Jones and Pierce became experts in the station over time, their first shows were a bit of a rough patch for the hosts.
“In the beginning, it was just the strangest experience in the world. When I started doing it by myself, just being alone and trying to figure out what to say about the music, it was really hard to do,” Jones said.
“The first show I did was a solo effort because Hank couldn't be there,” Pierce said. “I had another DJ actually play the CDs because I was intimidated by all of the controls.”
“Essential Jazz” has finished its run on KTRL 90.5 FM, but it’s not the end of jazz on the station.
During the last show of “Essential Jazz,” Pierce had DJ Michael Dooley, also known as Woodstok Farley, sit in on the show as Jones could not attend due to personal circumstances. It was later announced that Farley would be taking over the show himself.
Farley’s show, now named “Essential Crossroads,” will mix the jazz, blues and rock genres together during the 1-3 p.m. slot on Tuesdays.
This show will carry on the love of jazz that Jones and Pierce showed the station, as well as mix together Farley’s love of rock and the blues. You can listen on KTRL 90.5 FM or stream online at tarletonradio.com.
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