How would you fix Smooth Jazz?

[cklw800]

Re: How would you fix Smooth Jazz? (IT's BEEN FIXED)

Smooth Jazz has been fixed. BA has created a new network. New and existing stations will affiliate with it. Non-performers in the format can blow out talent, strap the network on and operate like AM stations that run Rush, et. al. all day. Sellers will be able to sell it better, because only top-notch talent in the format will be heard and only the best researched music will be heard. Stations that had contemplated the format can now go forward since good and knowlegeable talent in the format is hard to find. BA will have them. It will be the same as the AM stations...only the nation's top talent all day with a smattering of local talent maybe. But SJ will be affordable again with BA's network. Look for many new stations but look also for air staff to be axed from current stations. Look also for Smooth Jazz to return to Philly via this network. It may make a first-time appearance in Boston, too...and return to Fresno and other places where it was blown out. Not on the same stations obviously, but from other stations in the market looking for what little pie is there with little expense. Look for BIG changes in SJ radio in 2007. It's been fixed. Mind you it's not because I agree with this...I just think I've been schooled because of what I've observed and have been through.

 

[wangchung]

Dump Broadcast Architecture for a start. They're turning the format into a niche of AC. Plus, if I'm a non-Clear Channel operation, why do I want to put money in their pockets for giving me a format that's diluted and becoming very boring.

My favorite SJ station is KIFM. Play the hits while challenging the listeners with fresh artists and music...THAT'S what this format needs more of.

 

[salemjedi54]

I WOULD DUMP ALL THE R&B SONGS OFF THE FORMAT. NOW IF THERE ARE R&B ARTISTS THAT HAVE SONGS THAT FIT THE FORMAT, PLAY THEM. I REMEMBER THE OASIS 107.5 IN DALLAS PLAYING JANET JACKSON'S THATS THE WAY LOVE GOES. I WAS INSTANTALLY TURNED OFF. KEEP THE FORMAT PURE. DUMP THE PLAYLIST IDEA AND LETS PLAY ALL THE SONGS OFF A PARTICULAR COMPACT DISC. IF THE PD AND MD FEEL THE MUSIC IS GOOD PLAY IT. I JUST DON'T SEE WHY JAZZ, GOSPEL, AND CLASSIC ROCK STATIONS SHOULD HAVE PLAYLIST...BUT THATS JUST ME.....

 

[Quattermass]

I would throw in some of the standards here and there, not heavy but a sprinkling to see how it meshes and I think it would.....some other material by the usual suspects would also help, not the same Sade songs over and over again....it seems a lazy way to program the way it's done now at a number of smooth jazz stations...

 

[JimmyJames]

Personally, I think WBRH 90.3 in Baton Rouge is doing an AMAZING job of smooth jazz. Sadly they don't stream or I'd recommend everyone tune in. That station is a work of art, and sounds excellent.

 

[jazzjock]

DROP THE PRETENTIOUS DJ CRAP..

The format sounds so elitist when a DJ finishes a track and launches into a "of course the melody is enhanced by the sombre trombone of Albert Smith as it juxtaposes sounds with the melancoly harmonica of Bert Jones." !

If you want more people to listen to Smooth Jazz, then make it more relatable to them. Dont talk to them as if they are stupid.

That'll go a long way!

Jazzy

 

[Mike Sheridan]

DROP THE PRETENTIOUS DJ CRAP..

The format sounds so elitist when a DJ finishes a track and launches into a "of course the melody is enhanced by the sombre trombone of Albert Smith as it juxtaposes sounds with the melancoly harmonica of Bert Jones." !

If you want more people to listen to Smooth Jazz, then make it more relatable to them. Dont talk to them as if they are stupid.

That'll go a long way!

Jazzy

Thank goodness I haven't heard that on any station that I have listened to. I do enjoy hearing about big names that played on a session, a little background if you will.

Smooth Jazz probably won't work everywhere but it needs to be promoted. Find out what you audience is in to and do that. Also promote the artists both local and national who are playing in the area. Maybe even do some appearances at the local college music department to introduce your station.

Some of the A/C like Basia, Kenny G. and others are not all that bad. I'd stay away from Motown, I can't see where Motown fits in any Smooth Jazz station. Some of the new Acid Jazz might fit as well as the Pop stuff on the Melt CD. It's a matter of using your ears to tell you what fits. Rather than music testing I like the idea of inviting listeners to an informal event to talk about the music they enjoy. A kind of advisory council that would change members every once in awhile.

Our Smooth Jazz station went NPR when a commercial station took on the format. They were a smaller station with lower power and could not make the format work for them even though I thought they did a decent job. I think it could be done here again but it seems like a lot of the local smooth jazz groups are not around anymore. I like the format and have always wanted to work in it.

I agree with someone who said you have to have a passion for it. It would seem that either radio is way off the mark right now or people have very limited interest in music, limited to the 250-300 songs that we are all tired of.

 

[JeffMcDermott]

I don't know smooth jazz, I just know what I like. Here are some free-form opinions from someone closer to being a "typical listener" as a 20-year radio vet can be.

When I worked record retail back in 86-87, and a "contemporary jazz" artist had a new release, my friends and I would choose the most "obvious" tracks (don't know that they were releasing actual singles from these albums). We would do this to cherry pick songs to be played for certain customers. "Smiles and Smiles To Go" by Larry Carlton, "Maputo" by Bob James & David Sanborn - these songs sold the rest of the album for us. I don't hear that when I turn on the local satellite outlet for smooth jazz - I don't hear hooks that say "hit single" to me.

I understand the "singalong" factor, but it cheapens the music, for me personally, when someone puts out a watered-down cover of an old r&b song just for the sake of getting greater chances at airplay. Again going back to my retail days, we noticed this phenomenon with Najee and didn't like it. To me, it's like being served a vegetarian hamburger.

I have to agree with Pickle from earlier - too many drum machines.

My friends who play in a jazz/funk/soul combo turned me on to their idea of jazz, and I heard all these monster HOOKS! This band had excellent taste and tight arrangements; I was actually excited to be exposed to these classics that I knew by name but never by sound. Cannonball's "Mercy Mercy Mercy," Miles' "Milestones," Monk's "Well You Needn't" and even War's "Low Rider" and AWB's "Pick Up The Pieces." It made me actually go out and seek jazz records at the library, online or wherever, to get more of this wonderful stuff (and make playlists suggestions to my friends in the band). Kenny Burrell's "Chitlins con Carne," the Crusaders' "I Felt The Love," "Sun Song" by Stuff - these are "hit singles" without the singles.

I'm guessing "smooth jazz" doesn't inspire much passion in its listenership - it's background music. I'm guessing most offices that tune in smooth jazz stations want background music. And that leads to what may be the format's biggest stumbling block - I'd be a damned fool to advertise on a "background music" station, not matter how much money the demo/psycho carried. Car dealership ads generally drive radio advertising, and most of those screamers would turn off the listeners of Chris Botti. That leads me to believe that, as a format, smooth jazz needs to come into the foreground, on several fronts, to survive.