AS I DROVE I WAS LISTENING TO 98.1 WHE I HEARD A SMALL ID CALLING IT SMOOTH FM 98.1. DOES SOME ONE KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON OR IF IT WAS A MISTAKE??
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NEW FORMAT TO KIFM??
- Thread starter engineering1
- Start date
Re: NEW FORMAT TO KIFM; Smooth Jazz
As reported on the Smooth Jazz forum, KIFM moved from Smooth Jazz to Smooth AC this week.
As reported on the Smooth Jazz forum, KIFM moved from Smooth Jazz to Smooth AC this week.
whyyy?? ..i always liked smooth jazz 98.1 its a shame they left that format they were a great station to listen to i hope the format returns soon.thanks David
engineering1 said:
Almost all Smooth JAzz stations are gone, and KIFM was one of only a handful of hold-ons.
The reasoning is based on the fact that the format has evelved into mostly 55+ listeners, which is a group that is essentially never bought by agencies and large clients. As the under-55 has slowly shrunken, and billings have declined, many of these stations have changed format, although a few, like KIFM now and KTWV in LA have moved to a somewhat similar Smooth AC to preserve the texture.
"Smooth Jazz" was jazz for people who don't like jazz 
You can still hear "smooth jazz"....every time you call a major company and are put on hold.
radio-darn said:"Smooth Jazz" was jazz for people who don't like jazz
That's likely the best definition, with ;D or without
the smiley, that I have heard. When Frank Cody, Owen Leach and a number of others were called on by Metromedia to make a phoenix bird out of the crashed and burnt KMET, they looked for opportunities to develop a format which might have been too niched and esoteric. The looked at various rock subsets and a number of eclectic combinations before coming up with the format for KMET.... which was much more New Age than Jazz at the beginning. As the format went into syndication, ethnic influences in a number of markets helped steer the concept towards soft or smooth jazz-inspired music.
One thing that was not part of the formula was Beautiful Music, a format based on instrumental covers of CHR songs.
For the most part all FM's during the 60's and 70's were Beautiful Music or a variation there in. And most programmers will admit that most of the Soft Rock/Easy listening, Smooth Jazz, and Classical stations were ways to keep light music and make money. Dentist offices listened to beautiful music back then now they listen to smooth jazz or soft rock.
600kogo said:
I must disagree... the 60s saw FM used as the birthplace of underground rock, which became Album Oriented Rock, as early as 1966. That's because FM did not have much consumer penetration; it wasn't even available in most car radios until 1964, and tabletop radios and transistors got it not long thereafter. AM was where the money was; FM didn't make money in those days whether it was rock, jazz, big band or elevator music - there just weren't enough listeners and no advertisers wanted to throw their money away. That's why it was the perfect place for "experimental" formats like AOR. By the early 70s, the first FM Top 40 stations signed on, and by 1975 there were many, many more rock stations on the FM band than the "classic" Beautiful Music stations.
You are right about the dentists' offices, though
-- Doc
As I have data on stations per format, I have to disagree.
For reference, go to As I have data on stations per format, I have to disagree.
Go to http://www.davidgleason.com/Broadcasting_Individual_Issues_Guide.htm and scroll down to the end of the 1967 listings for Broadcasting Magazine and click on the FM Growth special supplement of Broadcasting Magazine from mid-1967 and look at how the medium developed in that crucial year.
One thing happened late in the decade which totally changed FM (and which, 10 years later had caused the loss of half of the AM audience) and that was the FCC mandate ending all but a few waivered simulcasts by daytimers and special cases effective the start of 1967. This had the effect of making owners look for new formats that would not hurt the cash machine that was the AM. We got oldies formats starting in about 1968 including Drake Chennault's "Hit Parade" lite Top 40 with gold product. There were hundreds of free-form rockers, and by the end of the 60's we had some successful Top 40 stations like WPGC in Washington which switched the focus from its daytime AM to the FM.
So, during 1967 we saw hundreds and hundreds of stations picking up new formats, ony a few of which were some form of what had been called Easy Listening and which became the more structured, almost always syndicated, Beautiful Music format. We even had FM country in LA on KGBS, as well as the levgendary KMET, Sol Levine's jazz station and quite a variety of other formats.
Even at the beginning of the decade, I recal on major market (it was around 10th in rank then) had one classical, two multi ethnic (multiple foreign language or bilingual shows), one jazz, several MOR vocal based formats (which would eveolve into AC at some point) and, of course, a couple of easy listening stations. There were no smooth jazz stations that I recall, anywhere (the term was coined in the late 80's for the Smooth Jazz station in Chicago, by the way) and most jazz stations played the big names like Ornette Colemen, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy, etc., who could hardly be called smooth. Heck, even most Brubeck was not "smooth" by the definition of that word used in radio.
I also worked briefly in te DC market in '69, and despite several Beautiful Music stations, we had an all oldies outlet, a Spanish language FM and a variety of other things that were not Beautiful music or relatives of Beautiful, including Progressive rock and the first steps towards what would be AOR, as well as very well done WPGC-FM with high energy Top 40.
For reference, go to As I have data on stations per format, I have to disagree.
Go to http://www.davidgleason.com/Broadcasting_Individual_Issues_Guide.htm and scroll down to the end of the 1967 listings for Broadcasting Magazine and click on the FM Growth special supplement of Broadcasting Magazine from mid-1967 and look at how the medium developed in that crucial year.
One thing happened late in the decade which totally changed FM (and which, 10 years later had caused the loss of half of the AM audience) and that was the FCC mandate ending all but a few waivered simulcasts by daytimers and special cases effective the start of 1967. This had the effect of making owners look for new formats that would not hurt the cash machine that was the AM. We got oldies formats starting in about 1968 including Drake Chennault's "Hit Parade" lite Top 40 with gold product. There were hundreds of free-form rockers, and by the end of the 60's we had some successful Top 40 stations like WPGC in Washington which switched the focus from its daytime AM to the FM.
So, during 1967 we saw hundreds and hundreds of stations picking up new formats, ony a few of which were some form of what had been called Easy Listening and which became the more structured, almost always syndicated, Beautiful Music format. We even had FM country in LA on KGBS, as well as the levgendary KMET, Sol Levine's jazz station and quite a variety of other formats.
Even at the beginning of the decade, I recal on major market (it was around 10th in rank then) had one classical, two multi ethnic (multiple foreign language or bilingual shows), one jazz, several MOR vocal based formats (which would eveolve into AC at some point) and, of course, a couple of easy listening stations. There were no smooth jazz stations that I recall, anywhere (the term was coined in the late 80's for the Smooth Jazz station in Chicago, by the way) and most jazz stations played the big names like Ornette Colemen, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy, etc., who could hardly be called smooth. Heck, even most Brubeck was not "smooth" by the definition of that word used in radio.
I also worked briefly in te DC market in '69, and despite several Beautiful Music stations, we had an all oldies outlet, a Spanish language FM and a variety of other things that were not Beautiful music or relatives of Beautiful, including Progressive rock and the first steps towards what would be AOR, as well as very well done WPGC-FM with high energy Top 40.
DoctorWu said:
I was answering Kogo's mistaken assertion that most FMs in the 60's were "Beautiful Music" or its derivatives. In essence, as you say, the same point you made!
Garrett said:
The first reference in Broadcasting Yearbook was the 1961-62 edition with this:
KJLM (FM) (Feb. 4, I960): 98.1 mc; 4.5 kw.
6907 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, 38. Phone
Webster 6-7225. E. Edward Jacobson (original
owner).
Rep Good Music Broadcasters.
E. Edward Jacobson, pres; Hal Harrison, prom
mgr; Leon Samberg, gen mgr & chief engr; Don
Odum, coml mgr & prog dir
You can go to http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive-BC-YB-IDX/search.cgi and put in the calls (or anything else you want to search for) and check it out.
Lopaka said:
True, it first appeared in the 67 Broadcasting Yearbook as
KDIG (FM) Feb 4, 1960: 98.1 mc; 4.5 kw. Ant
650 ft. 7946 Ivanhoe, La Jolla, Calif. 459-4107.
E. Edward Jacobson.
E. Edward Jacobson, pres; Roger W. Dawson,
gen mgr.
Neel Mehta said:
Stevie was still "Little Stevie Wonder" when this went on the air. Here is the listing from 1966 BC Yearbook
KJLH (FM) Sept 16, 1965: 102.3 mc; 1 kw.
Ant 120 ft. (CP 3 kw. Ant 150 f t . ) . 1041 Pine
Ave. (90813). 435-4868. John Lamar Hill (acq
1965).
John L. Hill, owner; Gary L. Lake, gen mgr;
Jerry S. Hahm, gen sis mgr; Jack L. White, prog
dir; Barbara Ambruster, prom mgr; AI Mutter,
chief engr.
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