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Popularity Of Smooth Jazz In 2026

C

cc333

I'm wondering if people actually still like this format.

An online Zoom class I've been taking inadvertently (but willingly) became a sort of test audience for my Part 15 station (I accidentally piped the monitor feed from the computer running the station into the Zoom meeting instead of microphone audio), and the other day, I played a bunch of Smooth Jazz (nothing too new; mostly vintage 70s and 80s stuff). I thought it sounded pretty good, but for the rest of the class it felt like it landed like a ton of lead bricks, and that made me feel like I offended everyone somehow.

Do people really hate SJ that much, or did I misjudge and overreact?

My "Smooth AC" format (an amalgamation of things, including KTEA in Cambria, CA and the KNX-FM 93 tribute TheMellowSound.net, among others) includes a handful of SJ pieces, and that's been pretty well received, so I must be doing something right.

What do y'all think?

c
 
If you "accidentally played a bunch of Smooth Jazz into the Zoom", people weren't necessarily annoyed at the song selection, but at your rudeness. Zoom calls are for people to talk/have meetings, and you playing "a bunch of smooth jazz" into the call means they can't do that.

Zoom also doesn't handle music well by default. They aggressively filter out "background audio" so the other participants probably heard gibberish.

So you could have been playing an INXS record and gotten the same reaction.

====

Smooth jazz was never popular. Even when it was a widespread radio format, it was a niche one that had its chief appeal to older Black audiences. So it did better in heavily black markets like Chicago and Philly, and only rarely didn't existed in largely white markets liek Boston.

In 2026, the smooth jazz industry has all but evaporated, so there's very little professional data. The music has mostly been relegated to the dustbin of history, like DooWop and the anti-war ballads of the 60s.

Keep in mind the "TheMellowSound" is a tribute to a format that ended 43 years ago, so the people who are fans of that are in their 70s and up, which is not the same demo as would be in your community college course.
 
The Smooth Jazz Network celebrated 40 years of the format last year:
www.smoothjazznetwork.com

Allen Kepler Celebrates 40 Years in Smooth Jazz

Allen Kepler, Founder of the Smooth Jazz Network, tells the story of how “smooth jazz” came to be in an interview looking back on his 40-year career.Kepler was involved in the think tank that created the term “Smooth Jazz” for the legendary station WNUA / Chicago back in the 80’s. Soon after, he...
www.smoothjazznetwork.com www.smoothjazznetwork.com
 
IMHO the old Arbitron diary had a "perception" issue. Some people wrote down what they thought they were supposed to. Once PPM came to the big markets, several formats were exposed to the truth that no a lot of folks listened. Smooth Jazz was one of them.

Atlanta has Smooth Jazz 101 - 100. Until the last ratings they were beaten at least 2 to 1 (6+) by Clark University's WCLK. This book is the first time in a non Christmas period that I can remember WJZA beat them with a whopping 0.3 verse 0.2 (6+). Last month to smooth jazz was beaten 0.7 to 0.2 (6+).
 
cc333 said:
I'm wondering if people actually still like this format.
Click to expand...

Given that we still operate in a country where the government limits the number of stations a company can own in each city, quite often smooth jazz doesn't make the cut. Advertiser demand for the listener demo isn't there, and advertisers are the ones who pay.

If listeners paid for radio, the situation might be different. If you subscribe to Sirius, one of your choices is Watercolors on Channel 66. You can listen to smooth jazz 24/7. There are lots of other streaming options for people who love smooth jazz. When I take an airport shuttle, it's often the music being played.

I don't know that there's any "hate" for the format, but there's not a lot of passion for it. Not to the degree you might see for other genres.
 
Is it true when Kenny G was popular the format did better? I took my wife to Chastain (I am not sure of the Corporate Name now) to see him. The place was packed and we had scalpers offering twice what we paid for our tickets in the parking lot.

BTW: it was an excellent show.
 
I'm aware that it's rude, and I was very apologetic when it first happened, but, by chance, the teacher is a self-described "radio nerd," and he liked it enough that he wanted me to keep doing it. He and my other classmates (all four of them) are pretty laid back about it, and they don't mind me doing it, as long as I cut it off when class begins at 5 PM.

luperm said:
Pretty well received by who? Your family? People sitting on your front lawn? How far does your "Part 15" station reach?
Click to expand...
My teacher and classmates. My station otherwise only reaches my neighborhood and not a whole lot more.

TheBigA said:
I don't know that there's any "hate" for the format, but there's not a lot of passion for it. Not to the degree you might see for other genres.
Click to expand...
I see. It seems like people are more passionate about Beautiful Music, even (not that that means much).

PTBoardOp93 said:
Keep in mind the "TheMellowSound" is a tribute to a format that ended 43 years ago, so the people who are fans of that are in their 70s and up, which is not the same demo as would be in your community college course.
Click to expand...
Oh, I know. So far, my amalgamated mellow sound-like format has been fairly well received by people younger than I am (I'm in my mid 30s) and by people a little bit older (early-mid 40s). I doubt it'd have mass appeal beyond that, especially among younger demos, but this seems like a promising start given the small subset of Gen Z with an interest in pre-Internet popular culture and technology.

That said, I'm not trying to get a huge audience as the whole Part 15 project is mainly for my own enjoyment, so if only a small handful of people ever hear it (regardless of their age), that's fine with me.

c
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
If you "accidentally played a bunch of Smooth Jazz into the Zoom", people weren't necessarily annoyed at the song selection, but at your rudeness. Zoom calls are for people to talk/have meetings, and you playing "a bunch of smooth jazz" into the call means they can't do that.

Zoom also doesn't handle music well by default. They aggressively filter out "background audio" so the other participants probably heard gibberish.

So you could have been playing an INXS record and gotten the same reaction.

====

Smooth jazz was never popular. Even when it was a widespread radio format, it was a niche one that had its chief appeal to older Black audiences. So it did better in heavily black markets like Chicago and Philly, and only rarely didn't existed in largely white markets liek Boston.

In 2026, the smooth jazz industry has all but evaporated, so there's very little professional data. The music has mostly been relegated to the dustbin of history, like DooWop and the anti-war ballads of the 60s.

Keep in mind the "TheMellowSound" is a tribute to a format that ended 43 years ago, so the people who are fans of that are in their 70s and up, which is not the same demo as would be in your community college course.
Click to expand...
I beg to differ.. KOAI in Dallas and WNUA in Chicago were top ten stations at the height of the format. What ruined the format is adding all the R&B into the format and it chased off the hard core fan. This is one reason why I don't listen to OTA music radio now because one of my favorite formats is gone.
 
I don't like vocals in smooth jazz, and I don't like a lot of noise. The way it sounded in the 70s and 80s is what I like.

I don't know about Sirius/XM but I had the opportunity to hear what turned out to be Muzak in a nursing home. The Muzak web site showed what was being played and I was able to determine the nursing home was using City Lights.

Some more popular smooth jazz tunes I like are "Feels So Good" by Chuck Mangione and "Morning Dance" by Spyro Gyra.
 
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secondchoice said:
Is it true when Kenny G was popular the format did better? I took my wife to Chastain (I am not sure of the Corporate Name now) to see him. The place was packed and we had scalpers offering twice what we paid for our tickets in the parking lot.

BTW: it was an excellent show.
Click to expand...
I never liked Kenny G. Not the way he plays the sax, or the annoying synthesizer that backs him up on his recordings.

I did like his backup musicians on a video I saw some years ago. Those guys were playing real jazz, not smooth jazz.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I never liked Kenny G. Not the way he plays the sax, or the annoying synthesizer that backs him up on his recordings.

I did like his backup musicians on a video I saw some years ago. Those guys were playing real jazz, not smooth jazz.
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IMHO back in the day Kenny did expose a lot of folks to Smooth Jazz from other types of music. Especially with his Christmas Album.
Smooth Jazz was a commercialization of Jazz. I am pretty sure a lot of Jazz purists hate it. But there were some folks that discovered Jazz via Smooth Jazz.
 
Found it. In or around 1980 I remember hearing "I'll Never See You Smile Again" by Bob James and Earl Klugh. I don't remember how I found out who did it or what it was called, but the beautiful music station at the time was identifying songs.

 
secondchoice said:
IMHO back in the day Kenny did expose a lot of folks to Smooth Jazz from other types of music. Especially with his Christmas Album.
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There are ice cream trucks scattered around southern California that play his music through tinny PA speakers while winding their ways through the neighborhoods of L.A. county.

Imagine hearing that trademark sax swirling about from all directions, faintly and reverberantly blowing in on the wind like some medicated musical breeze, eternally and forever tranquilizing the verdant, palm-laden landscapes of residential suburbia.

It's a vibe you can't understand without having seen the film L.A. Story.

Eventually, you go stark raving mad.
 
kevtronics said:
The Smooth Jazz Network celebrated 40 years of the format last year:
www.smoothjazznetwork.com

Allen Kepler Celebrates 40 Years in Smooth Jazz

Allen Kepler, Founder of the Smooth Jazz Network, tells the story of how “smooth jazz” came to be in an interview looking back on his 40-year career.Kepler was involved in the think tank that created the term “Smooth Jazz” for the legendary station WNUA / Chicago back in the 80’s. Soon after, he...
www.smoothjazznetwork.com www.smoothjazznetwork.com
Click to expand...
The term "smooth jazz" came out of a one-on-one perceptual research project conducted in Chicago by Owen Leach, partner in Broadcast Architecture. A listener to pre-launch sample tapes said, "that sounds like smooth jazz". The station owner did not want to license the "smooth jazz" brand, so it became "smooth jazz" instead.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Smooth jazz was never popular. Even when it was a widespread radio format, it was a niche one that had its chief appeal to older Black audiences. So it did better in heavily black markets like Chicago and Philly, and only rarely didn't existed in largely white markets liek Boston.
Click to expand...

Oh, I think you're overstating it. Smooth Jazz was very popular in plenty of not-so-black cities. KTWV Los Angeles, where it originated, was one of the most profitable stations in the CBS Radio chain. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are not markets with large African-American numbers. But KTWV, KIFM and KKSF were quite successful in the 25-54 demo. Someone once said that WQCD was an ideal FM station. It had an audience that was about 1/3rd white, 1/3rd black and 1/3rd Hispanic, just right for NYC.

But the success didn't last long. Eventually the audience aged out of the 25-54 demo. However, services that don't care about the age of the audience have Smooth Jazz as one of their important formats. You know that Sirius XM values its Watercolors channel because it has hosts most of the day. Formats that aren't as popular just run music and liners. Accuradio has more than a dozen Smooth Jazz channels, all-instrumental, mostly guitar, mostly keyboards, mostly brass, and more. Even channels like Smooth Jazz Sunday Brunch and Smooth Jazz Classic. iHeart's Smooth Jazz channel is commercial-free, something the company only does with a few formats.
 
secondchoice said:
IMHO the old Arbitron diary had a "perception" issue. Some people wrote down what they thought they were supposed to. Once PPM came to the big markets, several formats were exposed to the truth that no a lot of folks listened. Smooth Jazz was one of them.
Click to expand...
Smooth Jazz as a format did not have what we called "phantom listeners". Those were folks who used a station as a second or third choice, and did not remember to write them into their diary. Either you listened a lot or did not listen at all. So, while most stations got a "kiss" in the way of a cume increase when the PPM came out and registered those phantom listeners, Smooth Jazz did not get a new cume group, and so those stations lost share rather than gaining.
 
I listen to WSBZ (The Seabreeze) almost every day, so I am an outlier. I've always dreamed about flying to Florida...and not for WDW/Universal, but for the Seabreeze Jazz Festival. I'd be pumped to hear the saxophonists and guitarists of my childhood in-person. And some great SJ artists out there are recent to the genre (and '90s/'00s FM smooth jazz may have been an influence on going into the music industry). Lawson Rollins, Nicholas Cole, Lindsey Webster (reminds me of Diana Krall), Adrian Crutchfield, and Ryan La Vallette, all recent in the last 5-10 years but making the genre more modern than ever.

Pieces of a Dream is still coming out with new stuff ("We Got This" is an AMAZING cut, and quite groovy). And so is Brian Culbertson, whose 1995 smash hit "Come to Me" is one of my favorite smooth jazz songs of all time. Dave Koz also has his summer horns (and still has his radio show on weekends on a few select stations).

Most of us are correct about how smooth jazz fell down the wayside by 2005-2008. The PPM took these #1 and #2 Arbitron stations in major markets (like 98.9 KWJZ) and put them at the bottom. Then it got way too tight, even adding smooth classic hits ("In the Air Tonight" is smooth jazz?!?! Why did KWJZ play this song?), and the audience got out of the core age group.

Strangely, the smaller-market SJ stations had a better variety, particularly those who were on the Jones satellite network. Internet Archive (via our own Spiritof67) has dozens of airchecks from JRN affiliates, Steve Michaels (Hibbard) was the PD, and he later went to 103.7 the Oasis in Albuquerque, thus the great playlist there as well.
 


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