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KUOW HD2 Launches New Music Service Planet Jazz.

CarAgencyGuy

CarAgencyGuy

Beginning Monday, April 18, at 12 Noon, KUOW will launch the pilot of a new music service called Planet Jazz. Planet Jazz will be home to a vast array of leading jazz and blues artists from classic to contemporary, available for streaming 24/7 at kuow.org, and on KUOW HD Channel 2 (HD2).

The launch of Planet Jazz is part of our preparation for a full-time jazz and blues service if and when the University of Washington acquires the license for the 88.5 frequencies-currently home to KPLU-from Pacific Lutheran University. The preview of Planet Jazz is intended to generate feedback from the community of jazz and blues music lovers, so that we can continue to refine and improve upon this potential service.

Please note: Planet Jazz was created so that KUOW is ready to deliver the highest quality service for radio listeners and is not intended to derail the efforts of Friends of 88.5 in any way.

The purchase agreement between PLU and the UW allows PLU to sell to Friends of 88.5, if they make a qualified competing offer by June 30, 2016. If Friends of 88.5 is successful in their bid, the UW will step aside so they can assume the license for 88.5. However, if the community group and PLU do not reach an agreement by June 30, KUOW must be ready to preserve 88.5 for the public radio audience as a full time jazz and blues music station.

We look forward to your feedback on Planet Jazz. Thanks for visiting kuow.org for more information and to share your thoughts.
 
CarAgencyGuy said:
so I wonder what happens to the money is they only raise 6.9 million?
Click to expand...

They would find another 100k somewhere, but that's not the real issue. They need to come up with more than just covering the sticker price, they need dough to cover operating costs. Pre-existing ad revenue will still be coming in on a limited basis, but doubtful it will be enough to sustain operations as they are now.
 
Does this in any way infer that KUOW would use this programming rather than hire existing KPLU Jazz/Blues programmers to "continue" the brand under "new ownership?"
 
Honestly, is it ego/hubris to spend $8 million on an existing freq, call sign when they could probably purchase an lackluster, current FM station along with LP boosters down the road as well? As others have said keeping the station solvent will be the hard part.
 
My opinion? This puts a little extra pressure on PLU to quit fooling around and close the deal with KUOW. KPLU is no longer the only jazz game in town.
 
The audio quality on the KUOW HD signals have been less than audiophile, since they have squeezed in four distinct services. I'm not sure how much my Subaru's HD radio contributes to the hollow, metallic sound we get with low bandwidth digital audio today, but it has made it hard to listen to for long. (And the HD radio is one of the reasons I bought the car!) Unless you enjoy the sound of fingers scratching on a blackboard (boy, does that analogy sound out of date, despite being pretty much what their HD audio quality sounds like to me!), the HD signals of KUOW and KING-FM, for that matter, are really not a pleasure to listen to, and decreasing the treble or midrange doesn't really improve it much.

I did note in KUOW's announcement that they are retiring two of their HD channels (fulltime BBC World Service and World Radio Network) to increase the bandwidth for the jazz service on KUOW-HD-2. I've only got access to HD radio in my car, and then halfway between home and work it drops out for the rest of the trip, after a little dip of a hill in the road. I'm maybe 14 miles north of their transmitter site.

I'm hoping Planet Jazz is not going to be full of legal IDs and positioning statements like they currently do every few minutes on KUOW. Perhaps they can monitor a solid jazz service like KJZZ Long Beach for an example of how to present it. Too many of those repetitive IDs really break the mood of a good music service (or even a conversation) when I can see what station I'm listening to if I just look at the darned receiver.

I wonder if they're thinking of renaming KPLU to KPJZ for "Planet Jazz"? Those calls sort of keep half of what would become their former identity. You could even nickname it "P-Js!"
 
Goldilocks94941 said:
The audio quality on the KUOW HD signals have been less than audiophile, since they have squeezed in four distinct services. I'm not sure how much my Subaru's HD radio contributes to the hollow, metallic sound we get with low bandwidth digital audio today, but it has made it hard to listen to for long. (And the HD radio is one of the reasons I bought the car!) Unless you enjoy the sound of fingers scratching on a blackboard (boy, does that analogy sound out of date, despite being pretty much what their HD audio quality sounds like to me!), the HD signals of KUOW and KING-FM, for that matter, are really not a pleasure to listen to, and decreasing the treble or midrange doesn't really improve it much.
Click to expand...

HD Radio subchannels share bandwidth with the main channel, which IIRC can be as high as 150kb/sec. So that's like 24-48kb/sec per subchannel. No matter how good the codec- that rate means it still sounds like crap. No tone control will fix that.

See http://www.engineeringradio.us/blog/2013/11/what-bitrate-is-needed-to-sound-like-analog-fm/ for more info.
 
Yeah, the HD channels work real well as the legal justification for having an FM translator. The FM translator will always sound significantly better, but more limited range. On the other hand, there is a very limited supply of FM translators that can cover most of Seattle.
 
I know Planet Jazz is only an hour old, but KUOW's Jazz24 HD2 is much better. Planet Jazz seems to be KUOW's attempt at being relevant in an area they don't specialize in.
I'll see how it progresses, but the main reason I hope KPLU doesn't come under the UW umbrella is that KPLU does a great job and has a certain TLC that KUOW seems to lack.
Neither KPLU's main jazz format or its HD channel sounds like it's just thrown together. To me Planet Jazz does. So far.
 
After listening the last couple days, I like Planet Jazz. They play many different styles of jazz. even jazz fusion. KPLU and KPLU HD2 Jazz 24 play the same style of jazz. Older style piano heavy jazz and way too many jazz vocals. I couldn't listen to them anymore. But that's just me. So far I'm a KUOW HD2 listener.
 
KUOW's Planet Jazz HD Channel 2 is just a hedge just in case Friends of KPLU cannot raise enough money.
 
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