Timeline

Alan Steadman’s award-winning show, Jazz Waves, spent 33 continuous years on air, cementing its legacy as one of the longest-running jazz radio programmes in the UK. Originally launched on Radio Tay (the Tayside regional station), the show became a major staple of Scottish broadcasting, building a fiercely loyal audience by mixing traditional jazz with a wide spectrum of modern jazz genres.

Alan launched the show on Radio Tay in January 1983. It broadcast continuously on the station for 30 years before moving to Dundee's Wave 102 FM for an additional three years, wrapping up its historic original run in January 2016.

Known for his expert curation, Alan used his platform to introduce generations of listeners to jazz music. His regional show famously featured interviews with global jazz legends who rarely spoke to the media, including Mose Allison and Leon Redbone.

After leaving WaveFM , Jazz Waves moved to Care Radio  and also appears weekly on Tameside FM in Manchester and Sentimental Radio online.  The show can lay claim to being the Uk's longest running jazz show with the same presenter throughout. 

Beyond broadcasting, Alan has been a driving force for live music in Scotland for over four decades.

Hospitalfield Jazz:  he promoted highly successful monthly live jazz nights at Hospitalfield House in Arbroath from 1990  until 2014.

 Alan received two awards :- one for Services to Scottish Jazz in 2011 and then in 2022 , a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Outside of his music curation, you may recognise Alan Steadman's distinctive Scottish diction from a different national institution. In late 2016, the Dundee resident beat out over 6,000 applicants in a nationwide competition to become the permanent voice of the BT Speaking Clock. He made history as the first non-English person to hold the role since the service launched in 1936.