Education
Instead, he attended the Maryland State Teacher"s College at Salisbury, Maryland, and became a radio announcer for WTBO in Cumberland, Maryland.
Instead, he attended the Maryland State Teacher"s College at Salisbury, Maryland, and became a radio announcer for WTBO in Cumberland, Maryland.
He produced jazz concerts at the White House, the Newport Jazz Festival, and for movies and television By arranging concerts where people of all races were welcome, he is credited with desegregating Washington District of Columbia nightclubs. Conover is credited with keeping interest in jazz alive in the countries of Eastern Europe through his nightly broadcasts during the Cold War.
As a young man Conover was interested in science fiction, and published a science fiction fanzine, Science Fantasy Correspondent.
This brought him into contact with horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The correspondence between Lovecraft, who was at the end of his life, and the young Conover, has been published as Lovecraft at Last (Carrolton-Clark, 1975.
Reprint 2004). Conover"s father had intended for him to attend The Citadel and follow his family"s tradition of military service.
He later moved to Washington, District of Columbia, and focused on jazz in his programming, especially the Duke Ellington hour on Saturday nights. His guests on this program and Saturday morning shows included many important artists, such as Boyd Raeburn.
Conover came to work at the, and eventually became a legend among jazz lovers, primarily due to the hour-long program on the called Jazz Hour. Known for his sonorous baritone voice, many would argue that he was the most important presenter on Conover was not well known in the United States, even among jazz aficionados, as the did not broadcast domestically except on shortwave, but his visits to Eastern Europe and Soviet Union brought huge crowds and star treatment for him.
On a trip to Moscow a taxi driver recognized him by his distinctive deep-toned voice.
He was a celebrity figure in the Soviet Union, where jazz was very popular and the was a prime source of information as well as music In 1956, Conover conducted a series of interviews with jazz luminaries like Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Stan Getz, Peggy Lee, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Art Tatum. His interview with Tatum is noted as "the only known in-depth recorded interview with the pianist".
These interviews were selected by the Library of Congress as a 2010 addition to the National Recording Registry, which selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
He died of lung cancer. He had been a smoker for 57 years.
In 2015, the University of North Texas announced its Willis Conover Collection would make digitized copies of Conover"s programs available online.