Popularity Of Smooth Jazz In 2026

[PTBoardOp93]

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.

Yes, Smooth Jazz also did well in most California markets, despite lower black populations there. What you say about profitability makes some sense because KTVW was the highest rated station in the CBS/Infinity Los Angeles cluster at the time.

But SJ did poorly, if it ever existed, in markets like Dallas, Boston, Oklahoma City and Buffalo.

I've reproduced the list of the top 10 smooth jazz stations below, by 12+ share, in the fall 1998 report from Radio & Records. It's a bit of an eccentric list, but the best through line I could draw was high black population. Obvisouly you're right, SF and Anchorage are exceptions to that rule, but Norfolk, Detroit, Cleveland and Philly definitely fit.

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.

That comment gives some credence to my comment about black listeners over-indexing SJ, because NYC's population circa 1999, was only about 18% black.

 

[fybush]

But SJ did poorly, if it ever existed, in markets like Dallas, Boston, Oklahoma City and Buffalo.

Buffalo? True. There were two brief attempts, one on the ever-flipping 92.9 as WSJZ and one on rimshot 107.7 as WBMW, and neither lasted long.

But Boston was a different story. For most of the 90s while I was at WBZ, our neighbor across the parking lot was WOAZ, "the Oasis," which hung in there well enough to survive at least one consolidation-driven shuffle of frequencies and formats.

If I had to guess, I would say it was some combination of having the kind of upscale market with lots of therapists' waiting rooms and yuppie commuters - and possibly also the lingering memory of beautiful music on WJIB, which survived until 1991 with the same sort of urbane vibe that WOAZ later traded on.

 

[davideduardo]

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.

The PPM did not begin "officially" until 2008-2009, so that decline in 2005-2008 was entirely due to format burn-out and aging.

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.

Yet KTWV very successfully transitioned from "All Kenny All The Time" to what is today one of the highest rated and highest revenue stations in the market.

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.

But those stations did vastly worse than the better programmed stations that moved with the times. Remember, radio is not an art form. It is predominantly an advertising medium that involves getting as many people to listen as possible... in the right age groups.

 

[crainbebo]

And WJZT (shown as #1 in the previous post) was a Jones station for years. It's now The Joy FM. But at that time, it was on 100.7, then moved to 97.9.
Seattle has nowhere near the population of African Americans, and KWJZ survived for many years as a smash success in the market. Those Vacation-a-Day Giveaways helped. Nearby Portland had two smooth jazz stations over the years (KKJZ-105.9, from 1994-2002, and KIJZ-105.9, from 2005-2007).

 

[anwar]

I love Smooth Jazz but am in my late 60's so advertisers wouldn't care about me. I have Watercolors on SXM as my main go to channel. I remember back in the 90's there were Smooth Jazz stations all around me (Wilmington DE) - Philly, Atlantic City, Ocean Pines MD, Baltimore, DC, and NYC. Now they are all gone. There are still several big Jazz festivals in this area -Reading PA and Rehoboth Beach DE with people like Rick Braun, Brian Culbertson, Kirk Whalum etc. with good attendance. So there are still some followers and there is still new music coming out.

 

[crainbebo]

Tickets are already on sale for Seabreeze 2027. This sounds crazy, but I'm already pondering getting a ticket and flying to FL for the first time, next April. Bucket list event for me - with many of the artists I grew up with, and many of the current folks too. Double points if Dave Koz shows up. Given my impending move to Red Lodge MT, I would have to go Billings-Dallas and then transfer to a Dallas-ECP flight (Panama City airport).
Many factors have to go into the travel...including calling a sub for a week AND I WILL NOT, NADA, ZILCH, NYET, BE ABLE TO GO if the week is filled with *state testing*.

Are there any closer smooth jazz festivals? Maybe in Colorado?

 

[kevtronics]

Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti (pronounced "boaty") has his own cruise for his fans. But he misses an opportunity by not calling the ship it's on "Botti McBoatface".

Botti At Sea 2026 – Every Day is Paradise. Every night is a night on the town!

bottiatsea.com

 

[radiofan2023]

Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti (pronounced "boaty") has his own cruise for his fans. But he misses an opportunity by not calling the ship it's on "Botti McBoatface".

Botti At Sea 2026 – Every Day is Paradise. Every night is a night on the town!

bottiatsea.com

He's stressing about the setlist, because he doesn't want to go overboard playing new songs!

 

[Kent]

But SJ did poorly, if it ever existed, in markets like Dallas, Boston, Oklahoma City and Buffalo.\\

Smooth Jazz lasted about 20 years on two different signals in DFW. You don't last that long if you're doing poorly. I don't think it ever set the market on fire, but it had solid and stable numbers for most of its lifetime.

Smooth Jazz lasted almost 10 years in Oklahoma City. I remember in the Fall of 1990 when KTNT 97.7 dumped its CHR format. A couple stations tried to fill the void when KKNG went from beautiful music to soft AC, and KTNT was one of them. The other was WKY 930. The original format of "The New Trend" was straight up jazz. It didn't go to Smooth Jazz for about another year. WKY and KTNT successfully killed off KKNG in about two years. In the mid-90's, KTNT averaged just below a 4 share 12+. Not necessarily huge numbers, but it usually finished in the top third of stations in the market.

I've reproduced the list of the top 10 smooth jazz stations below, by 12+ share, in the fall 1998 report from Radio & Records. It's a bit of an eccentric list, but the best through line I could draw was high black population. Obvisouly you're right, SF and Anchorage are exceptions to that rule, but Norfolk, Detroit, Cleveland and Philly definitely fit.

Something to keep in mind is that success has always been relative. Dallas/Ft. Worth had about 15 more stations than Norfolk/Virginia Beach in 1998. A 4.8 share 12+ in DFW would've put you around #6 in the Fall of 1997. KOAI averaged about a 3 share that year. While that wasn't a huge number for the time, you could still make money with numbers like that, partially because most stations hovered between 2.5 and 4.0 shares. Having a share like that might be the kiss of death in a small market, but, given how everybody else ranked and the number of advertisers in the market, you could do fine with those numbers in DFW.