The latest victim of circumstance is KHJZ in Houston, which is now a Top-40 Station as KKHH-Hot 95-7. The void is now taken over on the HD side; Meanwhile, workday music leader KODA (99.1) is also broadcasting Jazz on HD. Special radios are required, you had to go to Radio Shack or The Sharper Image to buy those; Other Victims that have already fallen to the flip are Baltimore, DC, Denver, N.Y., and Dallas. Your city could be the next to fall and to be sold by the mexicans. Don't let it happen. Support Non-Commercial Public Radio, and let's bring it back.
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Most Smooth Jazz Stations are disappearing right before our own eyes.
- Thread starter TroyG
- Start date
what are you saying? smooth jazz should be a format NPR stations pick up? "listener supported smooth jazz?" hmm. could work. would listeners gladly pledge to hear smooth jazz on the radio? i know of a friend of a friend of a friend who knows a small college radio station in a rural market slowly morphing their daytime format into smooth jazz. not sure if they do pledge drives or not or underwriting.
Troy Goodwin said:
Your timetable is off. Houston switched months ago, due in no small part to the performance of smooth jazz in the PPM measurement environment.
Baltimore switched about two weeks ago... being the most recent.
There are no Mexican owned stations in the US. It's illegal. I don't get your point, anyway.
Non-commercial listener suppoted stations have a hard if not impossible time with music formats. That's why pubic classical stations have, for the most part, moved to talk based formats because the talk formats get donations and the musical ones can't pay the bills. While some public stations have put classical on an HD 2 channel, it's a secondary issue.
Well, let's get right to the point-Smooth Jazz is doing well in West Coast Cities, like L.A., San Diego, Phoenix, Seattle, & San Fran. It's also popular in Upscale Cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, & Detroit. The only reason why it is'nt doing well here in Houston is They Mix Smooth Jazz with Phil Collins, Steeley Dan, The Police, and Celine, et al. These artists should belong on a soft AC station-like it should be.
I gotta be frank; As you can see, Mexicans CANNOT own TV/Radio stations in the USA. But US Companies like Univision & Libermann do program spanish-language shows on their stations. Univision has a minor stake in Televisa, Latin America's largest broadcaster. I think companies like CBS or CC could divert poorly-rated stations and sell them to Univision, among many others.
I think Smooth Jazz happens to be the most beautiful music worth listening to at work, But the issue is all about what happens outside, and the main reason why most of these stations across america that made the flip is this: The Money, and the products they sell to drive listeners to. That's why Smooth Jazz has made a big downhill fall
I gotta be frank; As you can see, Mexicans CANNOT own TV/Radio stations in the USA. But US Companies like Univision & Libermann do program spanish-language shows on their stations. Univision has a minor stake in Televisa, Latin America's largest broadcaster. I think companies like CBS or CC could divert poorly-rated stations and sell them to Univision, among many others.
I think Smooth Jazz happens to be the most beautiful music worth listening to at work, But the issue is all about what happens outside, and the main reason why most of these stations across america that made the flip is this: The Money, and the products they sell to drive listeners to. That's why Smooth Jazz has made a big downhill fall
It's not doing well in Atlanta..close to the bottom of the pack 25-54 and 35-54, not that hot 35-64 either. WNUA, Love 94 and the Detroit station are heritage stations that listeners play in the background out of habit...they don't play much smooth jazz anymore though. Mostly oldies.
I think stations like Love 94 (In Miami), WNUA(in Chicago), and V-98.7 (in Detroit) have been on the air for the 20+ years, playing the same elevator music that makes people feel well-relaxed at work. These 3 stations does have the same staying power as does stations out on the left coast.
Troy Goodwin said:
All of them seem to do, although some do it more than others. I think the main problem with the format (any other format on commercial radio today) is that it's boring. Instead of introducing new talent (and there is a ton of it out there) we are bombarded with the same artist like Kenny G, George Benson, Sade, Boney James, thrown in with Phil Collins, Al Green, and hell now even Alicia Keys and Fergie. There was a thread started comparing SJ back in "golden ages" compared to now and a lot of the old stuff that sounded pretty good isn't played either, instead we get a real narrow playlist and people are getting bored with it.
I understand the stations wanting to attract a larger audience by playing those "pop artist", but at the same time, they are running away their original audience, and making a product that will only be appealing for a little while, before people start getting bored again. You've got to have some kind of balance. I believe XM Watercolors, KIFM in San Diego, and KWJZ in Seattle do a pretty good job of this by looking at their playlist, but there is always room for improvement.
Here's what I don't get, how did it work for so long, and up until a year or so ago, it all of sudden became hard to sell? Advertisers should be drooling over the kind of demographics the format attracts, mostly middle-age, affluent folks with a lot of disposable income. SJ is also a "safe" format, and like you mentioned it's one you can play in offices and at work, so you get that audience as well. I find it hard to believe that it is a hard format to sell, especially in markets like Washington, DC and New York, where you have a ton of affluent listeners and office buildings.
It became hard to sell when the "cluster" mentality became the norm. A SJ station not only needs it own sales staff but one that can sell the story it provides. There are to many cases where it's easier in a group setting to pitch the AC or the oldies station than it is to go after the SJ audience. The other factor is the low common dominator brand of programming that has come home to roost. This is a format that grew on the new music and attention to the P1's. They paid the bills and helped to spread the word. The P2 audience that is now common place doesn't really care. They just come for the tempo and texture so the format has lost it's foundation and what got it to the dance in the first place. The format and music are still very viable but the perception has changed because most owners and managers got lazy and believed all they had to do is listen to the research, spin the hits and the sun would shine again. NOT!
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