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Will Smooth Jazz radio eventually die? Lets hope not!

S

SJFAN

With New York, Washington, Denver and Dallas dropping the format over the past year what does the future of the radio format bring? Chicago, Phoenix, Maimi, Los Angeles and Seattle still have strong smooth jazz radio stations.

Radio PDs and marketing directors need to now how to market their radio stations or they will die. Another problem with SJ radio stations is that they are hiring inexperienced sales staff who don't know how to sell smooth jazz.
 
Things don't look good but I also hope it doesn't die. It is going to take some aggressive programming and chances taken by programmers that really know the music. And an airstaff that shares the passion.

The public has been dumbed down by what is out there on the radio. Give the audience some credit and hopefully owners will have the patience to let an intelligent young programmer go with a sound that the public embraces. Musically the talent is there. It will be interesting to watch and listen.

But as a former radio guy and like many others, satellite radio and my Ipod take up most of my listening time. Those are the competitors.
 
SJFAN said:
With New York, Washington, Denver and Dallas dropping the format over the past year what does the future of the radio format bring? Chicago, Phoenix, Maimi, Los Angeles and Seattle still have strong smooth jazz radio stations.

Radio PDs and marketing directors need to now how to market their radio stations or they will die. Another problem with SJ radio stations is that they are hiring inexperienced sales staff who don't know how to sell smooth jazz.
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Well if the sales staff are anything like the bad car dealers I experienced yesterday no wonder. I won't say which one on here but jumpin' jahoosefers (or however that's spelled) get whatever you're selling RIGHT!
 
I have been a fan of this kind of music for over 20 years. That said, I will not miss this format if it disappeared from the airwaves--at least as it is presented today.

When the format first appeared, there were several different elements that made up the format--jazz, rock, folk, new age, world music, and adult contemporary songs that didn't fit on mainstream AC radio. Many of the songs were current as well.

What is heard these days are a lot of instrumental covers, old R&B hits, and plenty of uninspiring forgettable tunes mixed with overplayed "core songs that test well." All of this music is delivered by liners or voice tracked by someone from outside the market. That doesn't interest me.

There are some networks, such as Jones and XM's Watercolors that I like, but these too sometimes sound like they're on autopilot as well.

I realize that radio isn't in the business of promoting music. It's about selling advertising, and it isn't designed for people who enjoy more than 300 songs. That's fine--I get it. Thankfully, there are other options today.
 
The whole Smooth Jazz format was built around new and different. David Sanborn, Larry Carlton, George Benson, Lee Reitnour, Spyro Gyra. Plus Yanni, Windham Hill artists, Narada. Enya, of course. But these artists were selling cd's at the time. The Wave basically took artists from a number of genre' and put them together in a new, exciting format. Elements of CHR and AC evolved together in an exciting way.

Those artists are passe' now. AC and CHR aren't into them. So the inital appeal is gone. Added to that is the fact SJ will not play much that is new. And the vocals are old R&B. To re-develop the format, drop Marvin Gaye and the 4 Tops, throw in Amy Winehouse and other Alternative acts like was done in the 90's. Add back whoever is making a stir in the New Age community. Pick cuts from NEW Contemporary Jazz cd's. Given enough exposure, they may start selling again and be picked up by AC and even CHR. The format can be brought back to life. But it needs to go back to its roots.
 
Who ever thought about adding R&B to the format killed it. I don't want to hear R&B on a smooth jazz format. Smooth Jazz is a pure format. I remember when KOAI was on 106.1. I was 17-18 years old and was fascinated by this music. I never heard the same song twice in a day. KOAI just played music and it did not follow an airplay chart. Thats what the format needs to get back to. Damn the playlist, just play the good smooth jazz, a mix of new age and train sales people how to market the format.
 
salemjedi54 said:
Who ever thought about adding R&B to the format killed it. I don't want to hear R&B on a smooth jazz format. Smooth Jazz is a pure format. I remember when KOAI was on 106.1. I was 17-18 years old and was fascinated by this music. I never heard the same song twice in a day. KOAI just played music and it did not follow an airplay chart. Thats what the format needs to get back to. Damn the playlist, just play the good smooth jazz, a mix of new age and train sales people how to market the format.
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Isn't that amazing a format that you can listen to from 18 years all the way through the later part of ones life. How many formats can do this? As of now it appears none. I got hooked on the music in my mid twenties and very passionate about it in my late 40's. My parents subscribe to Sirius just for the contemporary jazz and both in their early 70's. Unfortunately what hooked me is long gone for now. What advertiser does not want that audience?

Nock
 
Smooth Jazz RADIO will die. Smooth Jazz MUSIC will live. The format as we know it will evolve into Smooth AC. Whether that survives with Urban AC stations in the same market is to be seen. WNWV (Cleveland), KTVW, KWJZ and KIFM stand the best chance for survival if they can stay away from the BA Machine. WNUA is CC as is WLVE Miami. KYOT in Phoenix is as well. They may be the last holdouts because of the CC/BA affiliations. But if their ratings tank it won't matter. WNUA is lucky. They've been at it longer but they have the ability to break away from BA and still be successful. Many Chicagoans remember WNUA's better sounding days but they will survive on heritage. They're pretty local too.
 
cklw800 said:
Smooth Jazz RADIO will die. Smooth Jazz MUSIC will live. The format as we know it will evolve into Smooth AC. Whether that survives with Urban AC stations in the same market is to be seen. WNWV (Cleveland), KTVW, KWJZ and KIFM stand the best chance for survival if they can stay away from the BA Machine. WNUA is CC as is WLVE Miami. KYOT in Phoenix is as well. They may be the last holdouts because of the CC/BA affiliations. But if their ratings tank it won't matter. WNUA is lucky. They've been at it longer but they have the ability to break away from BA and still be successful. Many Chicagoans remember WNUA's better sounding days but they will survive on heritage. They're pretty local too.
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What about KKSF? Does KKSF stand a chance for survival?
 
Someone posted earlier that the CONsultants killed the format. SJ was a format that crossed racial boundaries, but the research showed that a lot of black folk listened to the format. So they added the R&B and some of the soft 80's AC stuff. That was the death of the format. The CONsultants turned it into ordinary radio. Smooth jazz was not ordinary radio. The listeners wanted Yanni, Enya, Chick Corea and Swing Out Sister, but we got Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross, and Phil Collins. The format will live on online, OTA HD and Satellite, but I'm sure by the end of the year their will be about 5-8 OTA FM Smooth Jazz stations.
 
I'm not sure about HD and Satellite. XM has become increasingly conservative over the years and Watercolors was never very innovative, they stuck to the relaxing stuff and whispery voices although they did have a longer playlist. Lee Abrams' exit at XM does not bode well for creativity and innovation. They have been becoming more similar to corporate radio over the last year and whoever is at the helm now will continue in that direction. If the merger goes through the XM channels that duplicate Sirius services will undoubtedly be phased out. Sirius' SJ channel plays just as many oldies and pop vocals as a corporate radio station and is programmed by former BA/Clear Channel people.

HD radio is corporate. The HD signals that are being thrown at disenfranchised listeners in format flip markets seem to be duplicates of the sound that made the format unviable in the first place. covers and oldies..with some Phil Collins and Celine Dion in between and maybe a Kenny G.
 
"Smooth Jazz RADIO will die. Smooth Jazz MUSIC will live. The format as we know it will evolve into Smooth AC. Whether that survives with Urban AC stations in the same market is to be seen. WNWV (Cleveland), KTVW, KWJZ and KIFM stand the best chance for survival if they can stay away from the BA Machine. WNUA is CC as is WLVE Miami. KYOT in Phoenix is as well. They may be the last holdouts because of the CC/BA affiliations. But if their ratings tank it won't matter. WNUA is lucky. They've been at it longer but they have the ability to break away from BA and still be successful. Many Chicagoans remember WNUA's better sounding days but they will survive on heritage."...cklw800


Right on the money but the smooth jazz radio that dies is that ugly sounding animal that has morphed into a monster and it should go away to clear the decks for something new. The stations that are noted above do well because they also have great marketing and promotional budgets which is a key factor in their survival. WLVE is already more vocal oriented, has been for some time, and many of the others will follow. KIFM is the leader and the most original of the format. It always amazed me that in this sea of BA lemmings, more GM's did not look at the direction San Diego took to find their way out of the darkness. AnotherCat's worry about what platforms and how this is going to come around is very valid. The first thing we have to remember is that content is king. It's how the format started and the content will have to be correct for it to return fulltime. We certainly have the people who can do it but we have to be diligent in our efforts. I had an interesting conversation the other day with the head of a large syndication operation in an effort to get my project on multiple signals. He asked me if it was only for smooth jazz stations and I said "No". He added that was good because he said that he could not take it to his boss as a SJ project because they felt that the format is so out of favor right now and they are not looking for anything to put on those stations. I told him that my idea was programmed more toward AC or Triple A stations than anything else and he was interested. I believe we have come full circle and the great music that is being produced on a daily basis will see the light on terrestial radio only on a Sunday morning or evening or perhaps as a 7-12/M-F evening daypart on a station that wants something different. That's the way it started on KIFM and WQXI many moons ago. The non-comm's could be very important. We'll see what happens to the satellite programming after the merger takes place. The internet problem is another pile that needs to be cleaned out as soon as possible. It's to the artists benefit to help this platform along instead of trying to beat it over the head like a baby seal. Spoken like a true broadcaster! The black and white is that we have many possible avenues to explore when it comes to a delivery platform. All of them are not ideal but they're the cards that have been dealt. The thing we control, and it's very very important, is the content. Plain and simple. There are many different ways to go into a direction but we have to take those steps. Pick one and get on with it. Great case for learning from the mistakes of the not so distance past but it's all about content. What we put together, how we put it together and where we get it heard is up to us. I'm in...how about you?
 
If KIFM is so good (and not saying it is not decent)...and they are owned by the same folk who own(ed) Smooth Jazz in Denver, then why did they not or were not able to save the format in the Mile High City?

It comes down to this, though BA has crippled the format, it has less to do with the music and MORE to do with the image of selling the station.

It is not "sexy" to buy Smooth Jazz...and though the affluency of the listener of the format is much more attractive then other demos, it is NOT attractive to the agencies who represent advertisers.

So if you want to really know the the reason of the demise of the format, look no further than the purchasers/buyers of the advertising for the advertiser.

Why do you think 18-34 is so coveted? Because the illusion of the sexiness of their dollars and image...the reality is that 25-54 and 35-64 have the disposable income to make big and expensive purchases, but they are not perceived as attractive and viable to those making the ad buys and decisions.

Perception has become reality.

When a 20 something agency rep is trying to convince their luxury auto client to buy the CHR instead of the Smooth Jazz station because they (the rep) knows the format better and personally likes it (just one example that has happened way too much) that displays the ignorance/bias and complete lack of understanding of your client...but that is what happens when all an agency's criteria for a buy is #'s, and they don't look beyond them to the qualitative of a station...but those agencies are often not in the market and are too lazy to do further research to do what is in their clients best interest, and not their own.

Truth is, there was nothing wrong in making Smooth Jazz more mass appeal and by playing some crossover...for those that think the format should have never dabbled in those waters is akin to saying Rock stations should never have embraced AAA artists into their format...and like in Smooth Jazz, of those different artists, you only play a select few that fit the texture and essence of your station.

Issue wise musically, the thing that hurt the format were the damn cover tunes that were instrumentals, that gave off the percepetion of elevator music...though BA and others argued it helped create familiarity. it did do that to a degree, but the negatives I saw in testing cover tunes was off the charts. Familar sure, but familiar enough to turn off listeners.

Combine those factors and you have two of the reasons Smooth Jazz failed...a third was that the format was not getting any new/younger audience to replace those aging out of the 25-54+ category. Hot AC has CHR, Classic Rock has Modern Rock, AC has CHR (to some degree) Oldies has a combo of Hot AC, CHR, and Rock, and even AC. What does Smooth Jazz have? No "feeder" format, like a farm team in Major League Baseball.

Those are the reasons...not because we played too much Kenny G, or too much Urban AC vocals, or too little David Arkenstone or Musical Star Streams (I am being a bit facetious), but many think the format should not have evolved. If SJ had not evolved some, we would have been having this conversation 10+ years ago, or better, the format would never have been more than specialty programming on Sunday for the local AC or Classic Rock station.
 
What I really hope comes out of this may have already started. Listening to Candy Dulfer's and Kirk Whalum's latest CDs, they cut loose on several tracks. So do some artists on other current releases. Maybe the artists/labels are seeing that other less restrictive avenues are available to expose their music. As the format whithers away to Smooth AC or some hybrid, the artists won't see the light of day on terrestrial radio. They'll need creative local and syndicated specialty shows and the Internet. These avenues will help keep them from being forced to being so formulaic. Like it started out. For the artists the radio thing is going to have to be blown up. Not all of them will conform to having more vocals and covers on their releases. Witness Kenny G (although he has an avenue for airplay as a BA host). But other artists will be able to claim their artistic independence if the current radio format were just blown up completely and we go to specialty programming and Internet. Maybe money can be saved on royalties if there was syndication on terrestrial and it being streamed on the Internet. Then money can be saved to promote it properly. Like Bill H said, we have to get a vision and go for it, and I think the environment will change and some broadcasters will see this is the way to go and let us create. With radio going as it is something's got to give. Change has to be made or it's going to be like these bank failures. Imagine if local specialty C-jazz shows on terrestrial radio stations around the country were streaming the great new music and artists that could be discovered. For only a little while it was fun to listen to different SJ streaming stations around the country and their spin on the music. It was so different. Now streaming is boring hearing the same programming. It makes no sense. Can you imagine the hours of listening if there were different shows on around the country? It would be like old AM DX-ing at night hearing the regional music. Today's generation wouldn't know they were doing old AM style DX-ing, but they'd like it. All those musical choices just from specialty shows streaming on the 'Net! The thought of it is exciting!
 
From reading some of the post on other parts of Radio-Info, the fall of the format basically is because it is an older demo format. Too me that just does not make sense. The format can make money if the sales people really sit down and think who they need to market the format to.

According to some here in Dallas/Ft. Worth, KOAI had high black adult listenership, and that was a turn off to some advertisers. That's crap.

I'm just trying to figure out how SJ can be saved, but if all the SJ stations are sounding like KOAI did in its last days, then good riddance. I admit that I have Good Ole Day Syndrome when it comes to KOAI 106.1. It was perfect. Plenty of Bugnon, Chick Corea, Najee, Joe McBride, Sanborn, Swing Out Sister, Basia and others. I miss that station, and unfortunately we will never have that type of station again.
 
It's more that SJ de-evolved into a background music format that is extremely boring to listen to. Even upper demo folks who grew up with pop and rock prefer less snoozy fare. Most (not all, but most) stations sound outdated (who else has air talent that try to sound like old time MOR guys), lack content ("I'm Dave Koz on your Thursday Afternoon, hope you're having a great one and I'm smoothiing it out for you with more smooth jazz on the way"), Play unnoticable music, and have no entertainment or fun factor at all. The music is still thrilling, the current format sounds like what we were afraid we would listen to if we became our parents when we grew up. A 50 year old now is a totally different animal from a 50 year old in 1977!

People might play it in the background because they always did. People are creatures of habit, which helps the heritage stations (WAVE, WNUA, KKSF). People tend to stick to what they know even if it's less than it was.
 
salemjedi54 said:
From reading some of the post on other parts of Radio-Info, the fall of the format basically is because it is an older demo format. Too me that just does not make sense. The format can make money if the sales people really sit down and think who they need to market the format to.

According to some here in Dallas/Ft. Worth, KOAI had high black adult listenership, and that was a turn off to some advertisers. That's crap.
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I'm glad someone agrees with me. This format is not an older demo format. Radio companies don't want to sit down with their sales staff and sell the format. Too many igonrant woman in their 20s are account executives these days and can't sell smooth jazz. Maybe radio station companies should invest more to get better trained sales staff who are more experienced and mature.
 
A lot of the sales opportunities for smooth jazz went south when cluster selling became the norm for many groups. It wasn't the fact that the sales people were to young (or women?) but more to the point that there weren't enough who had any interest in selling the format. My station was a typical example because the sales weazels made more by selling the AC and the other formats were simply step children and after thoughts. SJ stations need their own sales team to make it, plain and simple. Also the people who ran my station really did not understand the opportunity they had to sell to the urban audience the station collected. Either that or they just didn't care or did not want to go through the process. As to being an older format, no one has come up with the magic formula to start attracting younger demos. Granted most of us did not have the chance to even try let alone implement anything that might have had a chance to succeed. I believe to do that we have to add the excitment back into the blend with music, local personalities (not the BA kind) and information revelant to the audience. There are many opportunities to do this music uptempo, downtempo or any way you see fit but there are two kinds of listeners to SJ. Everyone comes for the tempo and texture. The P2's don't know one artist from the other (and could care less about the AC artists unless they are comfortable with the mix) but they know what they like and feel and what they hear makes them feel good. Don't jar the tempo and texture and they will be right there. The P1's, which are the listeners you should cater to (opposite of the BA mantra), love the tempo and texture but also want new music, variety in the library and a very limited number of crossovers and very few covers. The format is still there because this music is not going away. We just have to find the avenues to get it smokin' once again.
 
Bill Harmonic said:
I believe to do that we have to add the excitment back into the blend with music, local personalities (not the BA kind) and information revelant to the audience.
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How true this is. I provide a download link to an email group I have for the show I do. Interesting how the mailing has grown as each starts to share the link. One of the most interesting comments I keep getting is how much they love the fact that I either front or back announce every artist i play and provide interesting information relevant to the artist or format. Something the format long forgot. How else can we sell music which we need to keep the pipeline full>

Nock
 
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