how bout smooth vocals, and kick ass jazz fusion rock, without the elevator.
Maybe not fusion rock but something with a little life to it and an actual melody would have helped a lot - those "snooz jazz shuffle" fomula songs don't appeal to anyone anymore.
I hate it when really good people lose their jobs but "smooth jazz" got stuck in this rut where the stations only played the
slowest track on the CD or the cover song and a bunch of 30 year old vocals. Other formats evolved to meet the needs of
new people entering the lower end of the target demo - this format never did. The owners all listened to this consultant say
"it has to be smooooth and relaxing and not exciting or obtrusive" and as it got blander and blander more listeners left.
The thing that is so sad about this situation is that the PD, MD and staff at this station were good and they were creative thinkers. Had they been willing to take some risks (like playing uptempo music and real NAC vocals) they could have built an
audience over the last few years and that might have triggered an evolution as other stations saw that it worked but
fear of change and evolution was such a part of the industry culture they were scared to step out of the box even a little.
You don"t see an A/C, CHR, or Country station that still plays by the same rules they did in 1987 or 1995. Smooth Jazz format
did and that's what killed it.
