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Stealth format flips

A

AnotherCat

WLOQ in Orlando is now "Smooth 103.1" , no "jazz". They were playing a lot of oldies and A/C music last time I was in Orlando a few months ago..generally a 1:1:1 radio of R&B oldies:pop vocals: instrumentals - mostly covers. Their website is in redesign and the playlist is not up yet.

My crystal ball says that they will evolve the playlist toward a soft A/C with a smattering of instrumentals..mostly crossovers like "Lily Was Here", "Songbird," "You Make Me Smile" etc and lite covers like Benoit's and Boney's latest. This will be a subtle evolution as they ease more lite pop in and more instrumentals out. As a heritage station that has such deep roots in the community an overt format flip would create quite a stir but loyal long time listeners will probably just accept this and not really notice how much they miss the instrumentals because by now they are disengaged, it is playing in the background and they aren't listening closely.

This could happen to other heritage stations too, and is probably the way The Network is going. Create a listener base that is passive and uses your station for background by playing the same songs over and over for such a long period of time that it is no longer necessary to listen closely. Then slowly shift your focus away from instrumental music and they won't even really react.

I could see the Wave, KKSF, WNUA - the heritage stations - going in this same direction too.
 
Sj was never a foreground format, even going back to the original New Age incarnation (remember "No Disc Jockeys"?) The scenario of "Smooth ___" leaving out the jazz could happen, but then again, aren't most jazz fans offended by "smooth jazz" anyway?
 
'LOQ always seemed like just easy listening/background music to me, not "Jazz." I see nothing wrong with them dropping the Jazz name....it sounded like elevator music to me anyway. A lot of the shuttle busses to Disney played it. I heard very few instrumentals on there a couple years ago. If this helps the "Smooth Jazz" format stay viable instead of it going away entirely...I can live with it. Most of the 'Smooth Jazz' stations are playing a lot of vocals and stuff like 'LOQ is anyway.
 
Heritage WNUA in Chicago has also dropped the "jazz"...they now use "smooth and relaxing" as their catchphrase!

DD
 
carolinaradio said:
'LOQ always seemed like just easy listening/background music to me, not "Jazz." I see nothing wrong with them dropping the Jazz name....it sounded like elevator music to me anyway. A lot of the shuttle busses to Disney played it. I heard very few instrumentals on there a couple years ago. If this helps the "Smooth Jazz" format stay viable instead of it going away entirely...I can live with it. Most of the 'Smooth Jazz' stations are playing a lot of vocals and stuff like 'LOQ is anyway.
Click to expand...

Looks like the same sucky 200 song BA playlist that's bringing down most of these Smooth Jazz stations believe it or not. :mad:

You guys just don't get the fact that playing good new innovative instrumentals was how the Smooth Jazz format was born (and flourished believe it or not) and stale cover instrumentals along with crappy AC vocals are what's bringing it down.

"...helps the Smooth Jazz format stay viable instead of it going away entirely...Most of the 'Smooth Jazz' stations are playing a lot of vocals and stuff like 'LOQ is anyway...." ???

If you think that this statement is true then I will say GOOD RIDDANCE SMOOTH JAZZ!!! (but really smooth AC because the "experts" don't know any better) :mad:

And I believe I'm not the only Smooth Jazz fan that feels this way. How many station flips have their been? Have you even noticed?
 
Salt Lake City's station (KBZN 97.9), quietly transition from smooth jazz, to smooth ac to pure ac like over night, while still calling it "The Breeze" and keeping the station logo. Now that's what I would call a stealth flip, lol.

Oh well, hopefully we'll be able to tap more easily into Internet stations from our mobile devices and cars in the future, where we know the format will be preserved. Matter of fact, I actually went to Walmart the other day and didn't see a huge selection of portable FM radios, which maybe a good sign of things to come. ;D
 
JoshB said:
Salt Lake City's station (KBZN 97.9), quietly transition from smooth jazz, to smooth ac to pure ac like over night, while still calling it "The Breeze" and keeping the station logo. Now that's what I would call a stealth flip, lol.

Oh well, hopefully we'll be able to tap more easily into Internet stations from our mobile devices and cars in the future, where we know the format will be preserved. Matter of fact, I actually went to Walmart the other day and didn't see a huge selection of portable FM radios, which maybe a good sign of things to come. ;D
Click to expand...

My gosh, you're right. Salt Lake's stealth flip is the most bizarre I have ever seen. They have the nerve to still use the same logo and the "smoothest place on your radio" slogan and call it "smooth vocals" with a total straight ahead AC playlist like Green Day! I've never seen such guts. That's really disgusting.
 
Whether the format was a background format originally or not it was much more interesting to listen to pre-BA. Acutally some stations were more background and some more foreground but they were all viable adult alternative listening. The instrumentals were original and did not all sound like they were recorded over the same click track and the vocals were compatible with the instrumentals and by a group of singers we could truly call our own who were not burnt out hand me downs from other formats.

Yeah..I saw that Salt Lake City playlist a few weeks ago and just kinda went ???
 
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