It would be great if their HD2 went back to smooth jazz.
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WMJX tweaking their playlist to be softer?
- Thread starter ssetta
- Start date
Then they are surely tweaking their format. They go softer, whereas WROR continues to be much more straight forward upbeat Pop Rock instead.
Funny, I remember that exact slogan used by 94.7 KTWV "The Wave" in LA when they were CBS-owned. They had morphed, but hadn't strayed too far from, a smooth jazz format, a format that seems to be scorned on these Forums quite a bit.
Smooth Jazz isn't doing well overall, especially post People Meter.
KTWV is doing pretty well, and is an exception to the rule. (Although they seem more R&B/Jazz than straight smooth Jazz.)
I was a faithful listener almost every evening from Jan 2006 till mid-2014 to KTWV. Then they did some staff cutting and started to screw with the format. I no longer listen to them. Now I seek out smooth jazz streaming channels from iHeart or Audacy.
Formats are not scorned. But we all recognize that Smooth Jazz is a difficult format to operate commercially today, as the age of most listeners is well outside the sales demos most advertisers seek.
So, if anything, the format is "discarded" just like Beautiful Music and Big Bands and other aged-out offerings.
Smooth Jazz was declining by the mid-2000s, and then the rollout of PPM finished off what was left of it.
Yet, KTWV seems an anomaly. Maybe it's that they added R&B? Maybe it's LA? Maybe it's sold in combination?
Maybe they simply morphed into an Adult R&B...
What changes in the format in particular did you notice?
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They dropped the music that made them "Southern California's place to relax and unwind" and moved to "adult urban" or some variant thereof. The change took place while they were still CBS-owned, so this is not Entercom's (sic) doing.
What was their eclectic mix of programming before going About R&B?
Smooth jazz mainly, but with vocals from several 90s and later artists of whom i had no knowledge till I heard them on The Wave. e.g., Dido, Simply Red, John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, Spencer Day. The Audacy streams of smooth jazz from their HD-2 subchannels do NOT replicate what 94.7 The Wave used to do.
It sounds like it used to be a nice format! BTW, speaking of formats, why has Top 40/Rhythmic morphed into being a format that does not plays music by African Americans, as opposed to including causation artists, such as they did when the format first came out as well? Should I start a new topic on this?
That's correct, but it was a gradual change. By 2010, the audience had aged tremendously, so they needed a way to bring down the demos. So they adjusted to "smooth adult contemporary." It brought down the demos, but also the ratings. So a few years later, perhaps around 2013, they tweaked again to Urban AC. That solved both the age and ratings problem. It's been extremely successful since then.
As for WMJX, they need to watch out for aging demos. Because what we've seen is the softer the music, the older the demos. That's what killed The Breeze in Philadelphia. It also killed the smooth jazz format.
I'm in that "aging demo"; not much I can do to change it.
But what's been driving this aging boomer away from the 'BZ morning news, sorry to say, are several things:
- the addition of unfamiliar music to hype or"enhance" a story that not really newsworthy to begin with. I don't know who their morning news producer is, but (s)he is nothing like Michael Coleman, a talented and creative individual to whom iHeart did not give a key to 'BZ's new Medford digs.
- Drew Mulholland needs to speak slower and enunciate better.
- Jim McKay needs to stop shouting when he reports on something.
- And Matt Shearer would be better at pISS108 instead of 'BZ.
You mean Caucasian, right?
Yes, autocorrrect strikes again!
I am at a restaurant right now and they have Magic 106.7 on the radio. I have not noticed any significant "softer" songs at all. Here are a couple that they just played:
"Take It On The Run"-REO Speedwagon
"It's Still Rock & Roll To Me"-Billy Joel
"That Don't Impress Me Much (Remix Version)"-Shania Twain
"Faithfully"-Journeu
They seem to be sounding as contemporary as always. at least to me anyway.
Perhaps playing Air Supply was a test to see how the audience responded?
"Take It On The Run"-REO Speedwagon
"It's Still Rock & Roll To Me"-Billy Joel
"That Don't Impress Me Much (Remix Version)"-Shania Twain
"Faithfully"-Journeu
They seem to be sounding as contemporary as always. at least to me anyway.
Perhaps playing Air Supply was a test to see how the audience responded?
Without deviating too much from the original topic, what are you talking about? Rhythmic CHR (a format I listen to quite regularly) still plays plenty of music from African Americans.
Another song that Magic played just this morning was "I Love You Always and Forever" by Donna Lewis. This song used to be on heavy rotation on Top 40/Rhythmic back in the day. I highly doubt that such a song would make it on Rhythmic CHR now. That was my point.
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