Smooth Jazz Quickly Returns to Milwaukee Radio

[Double D]

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,74632.0.html

 

[wangchung]

SAGA Exec. VP/Programming STEVE GOLDSTEIN said, "...we are proud to have chosen another great cultural format that has a large following in the MILWAUKEE area. We have involved two of the top names in Jazz as hosts -- RAMSEY LEWIS and DAVE KOZ -- to ensure that the programming is vibrant and compelling."

:

 

[Double D]

I remember when 106.9 FM (then known as WFMI-FM) introduced SJ to the Milwaukee market back in 1995. Soon after, WJZI-FM entered the market with a superior broadcast signal, and subsequently WFMI-FM was forced to drop the SJ format in '97.

Looks like the BA Network will be used instead of Jones SJ. :

 

[AnotherCat]

. We have involved two of the top names in Jazz as hosts -- RAMSEY LEWIS and DAVE KOZ -- to ensure that the programming is vibrant and compelling."

Or at least ensuring that the listeners in Milwaukee always know what day it is.

AnotherCat on a Monday Night, Tuesday is one hour away, hope you have a great one.

 

[cklw800]

I read where Kepler says "the station has local plans too." Since I can't see him being in on this so early without getting all of his team on I'm thinking maybe they will have a weekend host doing 2 to 4 hours as a "local plan." Will be interesting to see what they do w/ middays and nights. I think the BA Machine will be all over markets thinking of dropping SJ, cranking up their sales pitch to stations. WDSJ in Dayton more than likely will be one of the stations in that CC cluster going into a trust. If WDSJ drops that format, look for BA to save the day there. Dayton's already BA'd full time, so there will be no casualties at that station. Jones doesn't have the star power that BA has. They have good jocks like many SJ stations had, but to listeners, they are transparent and might as well be local. Jones might have to bring on Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour or Bob James as hosts to chip away at BA.

 

[urban]

I forgot about WFMI. I was living there at the time and they filled a void but 'JZI had a better sound once they were introduced to the market. To me, it seemed like WFMI skewed to more of an "elevator-version" of smooth jazz to differentiate themselves from 'JZI at the time. Glad to see they've returned to fill a void albeit BA influenced.

 

[AnotherCat]

Does anybody care if musicians are reading the liner cards instead of other personalities except a really intense P1 listener. This format needs to bring in new listeners, not over-serve a dwindling hardcore group that they are running off with too much lite pop anyway. We had a free outdoor concert with Steve Oliver and Warren Hill here about 3 weeks ago and it drew a lot of people who had no previous exposure to this music. (It was sponsored by a mainstream A/C station so their listeners were there on top of pulling walk-ins who heard it from the beach) and all these people were so excited about how great this stuff was, the live version of course. They don't know who Brian Culbertson, Dave Koz, or Paul Hardcastle are..probably even Ramsey Lewis so it matters not to them. What they want to hear is songs that came out after they were born (the average age here is 35, same as the average age of the songs BA plays or plays covers of).

 

[Bill Harmonic]

Smooth jazz was not introduced in Milwaukee on 106.9 in 1995. The first station was WBZN at 100.7 which was licensed to Racine. It was called "Breezin 100.7" and the consultant was Gary Guthrie. It was more a combination of new age and smooth jazz which was the mix in the late 80's (a lot hipper than anything today and way before those bozo's from BA even knew the music was there). It was a heavy supporter of Narada records which was in town. The lite AC at the time also did a 7pm-Mid show of the same material called "Lights Out".

 

[Double D]

Smooth jazz was not introduced in Milwaukee on 106.9 in 1995. The first station was WBZN at 100.7 which was licensed to Racine. It was called "Breezin 100.7" and the consultant was Gary Guthrie.

You are correct, and I stand corrected.

If my memory serves me correctly, urban adult contemporary (at the time) V100 took over the frequency in May '91.

 

[Double D]

Observations after 1 week of BA on Smooth Jazz 106.9 FM - Milwaukee, WI.

Within the following thread, I listed a number of songs offered by Jones Smooth Jazz which really caught my attention in terms of their quality/appeal.

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=47318.0

Here is that list...

- MONTAUK MOON - MATT MARSHAK
- NIGHT VISION - PIECES OF A DREAM
- TELL ME THE TRUTH - J. THOMPSON
- UNDERSTANDING - EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL
- SUNLIGHT - MICHAEL TOMLINSON
- SIMPLY SAID - KENNY GARRETT
- CHILLIN OUT - ERIC DARIUS
- LEAVE IT WITH ME - ALEXANDER ZONJIC
- LATE NIGHT SESSIONS - FLUFF
- AT THE MODERN - JOYCE COOLING
- JUST FEELIN IT - MICHAEL MANSON
- RUNNING - ELIANE ELIAS
- TWENTY - THE RIPPINGTONS
- NORTHERN LIGHTS - THE RIPPINGTONS
- JUST BETWEEN US - NORMAN BROWN

So far, I have not heard one of these songs on BA!! Not a one!!

Although my initial impressions of BA were good, this opinion was only rendered when compared to the former Smooth Jazz WJZI-FM.

I still feel that way...BA's variety of older SJ songs is much better than the former Smooth Jazz WJZI-FM.

However, it apapears the number and variety of NEW songs offered by BA is dreadfully lacking!! As an example, Jones SZ was playing AT THE MODERN by JOYCE COOLING way back in January of this year. Songs like TWENTY by the THE RIPPINGTONS, or Noodle Soup by Four80East, which are prominently featured by JSJ, are nowhere to be found On BA.

To me, this is what sets JSJ far above the "syndicated" pack, making BA sound rather boring and mundane in comparison, IMHO.

(Cross-posted to..)

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,74632.10.html

 

[Nock]

sign up for their (Jones) smooth jazz listener survey through one of their affiliates web sites. Interesting information on how they pick some of their tunes as well as interesting reading as to who the listener is.

Nock

 

[cklw800]

Smooth Jazz Quickly Returns to Milwaukee Radio/Future of SJ Radio

Check this. In a recent R&R article Alan Kepler states that the future of SJ is vocals. Vocals by young artists to bring in younger listeners from other formats. More things like Corinne Bailey-Rae, John Legend, etc. So it looks like they won't take the avenue we had all hoped---hipper sounding instrumentals. In the article there is an admission of facing a challenge as to how the young listeners will respond to the instrumentals on SJ. My guess is that SJ will eventually be Smooth AC, with the instrumentals for the most part being thrown out in favor of the jazzy vocals and Urban AC/AC and maybe some appropriate AAA titles thrown in. The Blue Knights, Nite Flyte, Richard Smith, Lee Venters and other one hit instrumental wonders may be seeing better days. Saxophonist Paul Taylor's latest CD is loaded with vocals by LaToya London, Regina Belle, Terry Dexter and Lauren Evans. Straight out of the Urban AC mold. Such vocals are on all the popular SJ CDs but rarely released as focus tracks. Look for more of these to appear in the format versus hipper instrumentals. If there are any instrumentals in the SJ future they will be only the most recognizable and popular ones by Kenny G, Grover, Hugh Masekela and other classics. If they surprise us and go with groups like Streetwize for remakes of Urban smashes like "California Love" to get the younger listeners that might be cool. But I don't expect that yet. What I expect is a BA shift to Smooth AC, similar to what WJZI evolved from. This shift could open the doors for someone to come up with a splinter SJ format but they better work fast. BA might already be chomping at the opportunity to become a behemoth in various forms of a smooth format. They could go Smooth AC then separately update their original instrumental effort and sign up other affiliates. Of course, with their own hosts that may include the best of the individuals blown out of the format over the past year. Don't expect anything to happen on a local level without BA support, i.e., Ramsey and Koz as anchors with local midday and nights. But stations, especially CC stations, are said to be looking to do more voicetracking in midday and even afternoons in various formats, so local jocks might be a ways off for a challenged format like Smooth Jazz. The days of "borrowed" jocks from other stations within a cluster just to be "local" are pretty much dead in SJ. That failed practice helped the BA Network to launch its service and to make it cheaper for SJ stations to operate.

 

[AnotherCat]

I wrote a response to this Kepler article that Carol is apparently going to print. It's very risky to offer any thought that counters Kepler's dictates now that he totally controls the format and still wants more-more-more, and counters any opinoion that doesn't affirm his own as coming from "jazz afficianados who don't understand the realities of commerial radio" but we shall see. As mainstream A/C has been shifting more toward what used to be Hot A/C in order to accomodate current tastes of 25-44 listeners BA appears to be shifting toward mainstream-lite A/C with a 45-64 focus. After 12 years they have re-branded Lite and UrbanLite artists like Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight as being smooth jazz by continually using SJ sweepers when introing songs by these artists. So when they totally jump in that direction well...nature abhors a vacuum.

Actually the gist of this piece was also that SJ needed to focus on vocalists that were in their early 20s or younger. To bring the demos down from 55-64 to 35-44 so why is he chasing teens? Do these people really want to hear kids? I don't understand the Kelly Sweet thing at all, except that she has a lot of politics and money backing her. She got 'hold of a decent song but she has about a 5 note range, gasps for breath after every phrase and if you watch her vids on YouTube it's basically like watching a 2nd tier act at a high school talent show. Which is actually what someone I know who saw her opening for Koz said - he said he didn't pop 150 bucks and babysitter cash to watch a high school talent show. She does toss her hair a lot. Meanwhile vocalists who can sing can't crack the code and have to record oldies CDs to keep a toe in the marketplace!

Then again when you have no competition, have run everyone else out of the marketplace, and have a whole cadre of programmers who follow you in lock step exactly who is going to emerge. The future of real smooth jazz is not on the radio. Younger musicians have realized that radio is over and it's time to build your audience thru other venues. Time for our guys and gals to realize that too.

 

[AnotherCat]

mistake post..see above. I I hit quote instead of modify. ???

 

[AnotherCat]

I wrote a response to this Kepler article that Carol is apparently going to print. It's very risky to offer any thought that counters Kepler's dictates now that he totally controls the format and still wants more-more-more, and counters any opinoion that doesn't affirm his own as coming from "jazz afficianados who don't understand the realities of commerial radio" but we shall see. As mainstream A/C has been shifting more toward what used to be Hot A/C in order to accomodate current tastes of 25-44 listeners BA appears to be shifting toward mainstream-lite A/C with a 45-64 focus. After 12 years they have re-branded Lite and UrbanLite artists like Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight as being smooth jazz by continually using SJ sweepers when introing songs by these artists. So when they totally jump in that direction well...nature abhors a vacuum.

Actually the gist of this piece was also that SJ needed to focus on vocalists that were in their early 20s or younger. To bring the demos down from 55-64 to 35-44 so why is he chasing teens? Do these people really want to hear kids? I don't understand the Kelly Sweet thing at all, except that she has a lot of politics and money backing her. She got 'hold of a decent song but she has about a 5 note range, gasps for breath after every phrase and if you watch her vids on YouTube it's basically like watching a 2nd tier act at a high school talent show. Which is actually what someone I know who saw her opening for Koz said - he said he didn't pop 150 bucks and babysitter cash to watch a high school talent show. She does toss her hair a lot. Meanwhile vocalists who can sing can't crack the code and have to record oldies CDs to keep a toe in the marketplace -Taylor did give Regina Belle some love and Euge has a Jeffrey Osborne song at the end of his CD that is a straight down the center urban ballad. But these artists aren't young and pretty and they don't have big label money behind them so they won't see the light of day.

Then again when you have no competition, have run everyone else out of the marketplace, and have a whole cadre of programmers who follow you in lock step exactly who is going to emerge. The future of real smooth jazz is not on the radio. Younger musicians have realized that radio is over and it's time to build your audience thru other venues. Time for our guys and gals to realize that too.

 

[cklw800]

Great points, 'Cat as always. I hope you do get some R&R ink. I have to agree. I don't see radio bouncing back with this format as it was. As long as the ones in control feel we don't know the realities of commercial radio we won't get our chance to prove them wrong. They control the whole thing. Radio as we know it is over. With the new music fees rolling in, we will see fewer music stations and more creative versions of talk radio. Maybe a nice combo of talk and music so it is cost-effective. Or more features about music, without playing the music itself. We're going to have to learn to let go here. These guys will keep re-inventing and come up with everything but what will really satisfy listeners and bring them back. Radio's future is programming for people who use radio occasionally, as a convenience. That won't require a lot of music. The smooth jazz guys had money and people who believed or were thoroughly convinced. Until people like us get lucky enough to have that combo of money and luck, we'll be on the outside looking in.

 

[Double D]

Re: Smooth Jazz Quickly Returns to Milwaukee Radio/Future of SJ Radio

Check this. In a recent R&R article Alan Kepler states that the future of SJ is vocals. Vocals by young artists to bring in younger listeners from other formats. More things like Corinne Bailey-Rae, John Legend, etc.

Very unfortunate to hear that vocals are allegedly SJ's future...as a strong supporter of innovative, fresh-sounding SJ, I couldn't disagree more!!

As an example, if I hear John Legend once more, i think I'm going to vomit...literally!!

 

[Nock]

Re: Smooth Jazz Quickly Returns to Milwaukee Radio/Future of SJ Radio

Check this. In a recent R&R article Alan Kepler states that the future of SJ is vocals. Vocals by young artists to bring in younger listeners from other formats. More things like Corinne Bailey-Rae, John Legend, etc.

Very unfortunate to hear that vocals are allegedly SJ's future...as a strong supporter of innovative, fresh-sounding SJ, I couldn't disagree more!!

As an example, if I hear John Legend once more, i think I'm going to vomit...literally!!

Just got back from a week visiting the mouse in central Florida. Had the opportunity to listen to both WLOQ in Orlando as well as WSJT in Tampa, I have always thought WSJT was a well programmed station until now. They are going with "the evolution of cool" as their image. I heard this sweeper and segued right into Prince? Also heard my share of John Mayer and Destiny's Child. Nothing against these artists however it sounded sooooo out of place after Brian Culbertson, Kirk Whalum etc.

The Evolution of Cool ------ Not.

Nock

 

[orange434]

wsjt is a disaster now...in a market like tampa it makes no sense why they would go with so much straight-ahead AC and R&B stuff. rob thomas, natasha bedingfield, mary j. blige, i even saw nelly furtado on there...huh? just trainwreck radio going into a smooth jazz instrumental.

but if you think they are bad...check out wsmj in baltimore's playlist. it's not even describable. if this is the direction ba is taking the format, you can turn out the lights.

 

[AnotherCat]

The big hype big money promo song at SJ right now is "We Got Love" by Ryan Shaw. It basically sounds like a bad outtake from the Dreamgirls soundtrack. Guess the thing now (re-John Legend, Gnarls Barkley and now this one) is to replace some oldie vocals with new songs that sound like oldies. This guy has a really abrasive voice and is very, very "pitchy." But he's on a major label that's got some bucks to spend and as Scott Shannon used to say - The penguins are lining up and flapping their wings. :

Now that I saw the Kelly Sweet video I understand the hype there. She can't sing very well but she does look good in bed in her underwear.