KMYT 94.5 Temecula Still Smooth Jazz (Except When It's Not)

[EJ204]

Smooth Jazz has disappeared from most markets in the U.S. But Clear Channel is still supporting the Smooth Jazz format in the Temecula Valley, between LA, San Bernadino and San Diego, on KMYT 94.5. I guess this is a high income area with new developments and recent retirees, a good place for Smooth Jazz. I listen on their streaming service I-Heart Radio. The station carries the Dial-Global Smooth Jazz format around the clock, with some local drop ins for traffic and news. I suppose they're supplied by Clear Channel's Total Traffic in LA.

But early this morning, I had KMYT's audio streaming on, and the station was playing R&B Oldies... Temptations, James Brown, Supremes. Either the station, with nobody in the building, lost its lock on the Dial-Global feed, switching to an R&B Oldies feed, or Dial Global messed up. In the past, a really out-of-format song will sneak in, such as a Classic Rock song by ELO. I figure someone at Dial Global, putting the playlist together, punched in a wrong song number or something. But that's only one song.

This morning, the R&B Oldies continued for a while. Even when I looked at the KMYT's website for "Songs Recently Played," they were all R&B Oldies. I thought the station may have flipped format, even though the logo still showed a saxophone next to the KMYT call letters, indicating Jazz. But then why would the Temecula Valley get an R&B Oldies format, playing songs that are 40+ years old, in a place where I doubt many fans of the genre live.

However, as I listen now, the station is back to Smooth Jazz. So it was all a mistake.

 

[wdb2003]

Nope its the Iheartradio app. They run different programing during the overnights and early mornings on a few stations. I noticed it when I was listening to KHJZ in Honolulu. Its a Rhythmic AC station but they were playing R&B Oldies overnight and early in the morning. Also WKTU in New York and WMIA in Miami run KANE during the overnights. Kane is not listed on WKTU or WMIA website so its a Iheartradio feed only. I also notice Steve Harvey radio show airs overnights on the weekends on a few Urban AC's. I figured it was a computer glitch too but its a different feed.

 

[EJ204]

Yes, I found out the late night R&B Oldies are only on the audio streaming and on i-Heart Radio. If you listen to the FM signal, it's Smooth Jazz 24/7.

I asked at the station and they said it's a corporate decision. They don't know why. But the odd thing is, i-Heart Radio also has a generic Smooth Jazz internet-only station. And that feed IS Smooth Jazz at all times.

 

[Kent]

Sorry to be coming into the conversation a little late, but this was a Clear Channel project to save on royalties, increase sales and promote specialty programming. The idea was that their music stations would air more spoken word programming, like Seacrest or Elvis Duran on CHR's, on iHeartRadio in off-peak hours because they had less music and more commercial avails. Plus, it would promote those shows on some of their music channels and their own special channels on iHeartRadio.

I'm not sure why they'd run urban oldies on KMYT and KHJZ, though. It doesn't seem like that would cut down on royalties in the least since a smooth jazz song and an urban oldie will cost exactly the same.

 

[davideduardo]

Sorry to be coming into the conversation a little late, but this was a Clear Channel project to save on royalties, increase sales and promote specialty programming.

FM or even AM music stations that are "chatty" do not pay any less in performance rights royalties than stations with limited talk.

 

[DaveBayArea]

FM or even AM music stations that are "chatty" do not pay any less in performance rights royalties than stations with limited talk.

For over-the-air that's true. But I thought he was talking about webcasts. I was just thinking that generally a smooth jazz webcast would cost less than an R&B Oldies webcast, because the royalties are paid per-listener/per-song right? In general the smooth jazz songs are longer, hence few songs per hour.

Or am I missing something here?

Dave B.