Orchard Cove couple makes connections on and off air

Nancy Connery and Judith Stone, 11-year residents of the Orchard Cove senior living community in Canton, enjoy people. For many years, they have used music as a way to connect to others. While it’s a well-known truism that music is the “universal language,” Connery and Stone’s approach is different. Lacking strong musical performance abilities themselves (by their own accounts), the couple has been running their own jazz radio show.

Nancy Connery and Judith Stone

Far from following a carefully mapped out path, their side gig as DJs came about through a series of lucky (and unlucky) adventures starting 26 years ago. Beginning the story, Connery said affectionately, “We’re going to blame that on Judith.”

Stone had made an unusual request for her upcoming birthday: a chance to present on the radio. Both women had busy lives then, working in hospital administration, and neither had any contacts in the industry. Their efforts to find people who could help came up empty; no one had any leads to offer.

Finally, Stone heard about a woman who had a radio show in the Catskills region of New York. Stone reached out to her but quickly discovered an important detail about radio work: Most stations manage their own sound engineering because there aren’t resources for a separate engineering department. Since neither Stone nor Connery had any engineering skills, they were back to square one.

Eventually, they found a sound engineer in Brighton who ran a radio station who agreed to give them three hours of program time each week. After the initial excitement, the actual experience proved grueling. Not only was the station headquarters located in a dicey neighborhood, but the studio was a fire hazard. Also, the women realized that the station (now long closed) was a pirate station, meaning it was unlicensed and operating outside Federal Communications Commission (FCC) control.

Stone kept going anyway — until the day she suddenly realized that a stranger had entered the office without her noticing.

Alone at the time, she was shaken. Connery started coming along to keep her company during the long program hours, but the whole project became less rewarding. In addition, as radio novices, they hadn’t realized that three hours is a lot of space to fill.

A lucky alternative presented itself: Stone learned that the student radio station at Brandeis University was searching for someone to head a show in Yiddish. Having grown up in New York City speaking Yiddish to her grandmother, Stone grabbed the opportunity.

Other than having to follow normal FCC rules about avoiding certain words, the show had no topic requirements. Stone talked about whatever interested her, sometimes bringing her 90-year-old mother along to converse with on air.

However, the radio station headquarters had only distant parking and a steep staircase. The two-hour Sunday program dominated the couple’s weekends, making it more an inconvenience than a pleasure. When the possibility arose for a one-hour show during the week, Stone made the switch.

Her show, “Home Cooking Jazz,” continued on WBRS for 20 years. Connery noted that unlike Stone, who has a “great voice for radio,” she herself “wasn’t a natural,” so she avoided going on mic. She later found she enjoyed chatting with Stone on the show about whatever they happened to be thinking about. She also supported the show by sending out weekly newsletters that alerted subscribers to the playlists as well as giving updates on jazz shows, restaurants, and some political material.

Connery’s musical tastes generally run more to pop, but Stone has been a jazz enthusiast since her childhood in New York City. Influenced by her older siblings, she accumulated an “enormous” collection of jazz recordings, which she relied on for the show.

Her special favorites are Chris Connor, a singer who was especially well known in New York City in the 1960s and 70s, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday. Both she and Connery follow current performers Donna Byrne and Diana Krall.

During the pandemic, broadcasting from campus was shut down, so Connery and Stone navigated the tricky adjustment to doing a Zoom show, aided by iTunes. Things stabilized, but another hurdle appeared after the campus re-opened.

On returning to the studio, they discovered it had been completely re-done with new equipment and technology. While that may seem like a positive development, Connery and Stone found the learning curve was steep.

Last fall, their difficulties culminated in a problematic show, upsetting some listeners. For Connery and Stone, the experience was a deal-breaker, and they decided to leave Brandeis.

Judith Stone and Nancy Connery

Given their feelings of frustration and disappointment, they were thrilled to be presented with a plaque from WBRS honoring their “outstanding dedication to our listeners.” In addition, a staff member started assisting them on his own time to identify a new platform and set up broadcasting on it.

The exact details are still being worked out, but the hope is that Connery and Stone will be using a different station to stream their show, an option which bypasses FCC oversight.

They joke that the show will be called “Radio Free Nancy and Judith.” In reality, it will keep the same “Home Cooking Jazz” name when it returns to the air sometime this summer.

With all the roadblocks, some might wonder why Connery and Stone persist. The answer seems to be the connections it promotes with others.

“It is very satisfying,” said Connery. “We know our listeners.” Stone noted that giving shout-outs to people is something they especially enjoy doing: “People love it when we do that.”

Connections and communication are central to the daily lives of these Cantonites. The two clearly are partners in making connections as well as in life.

Whether warmly greeting Orchard Cove staff members, chatting people up about the importance of the upcoming midterm elections (and distributing bracelet reminders), or keeping in touch with Newton friends, Connery — also a Canton Public Library trustee  — and Stone are actively engaged in all their communities.

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Posted by Candace Paris on Apr 17 2026. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.