‘JBTV’ local music show going national

• Reprints

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:41AM

Chicago’s “JBTV” — a locally produced, weekly program featuring musician interviews and performances — is going nationwide. Starting Feb. 18, the one-hour show will air in more than a dozen major markets across the country.

The deal links “JBTV” (the initials nod to founder Jerry Bryant) to the NBC Nonstop network, a digital subchannel that grew out of New York’s WNBC as a localized, 24-hour news service and now includes Nonstop channels in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

Launched in 1984, “JBTV” has produced nearly 4,000 episodes. It can be seen on the air (NBC Chicago Nonstop digital channel 5.2 and WJYS-Channel 62), on YouTube, as a podcast or streaming at jbtvonline.com.

Thomas Conner, pop music critic