Smooth Jazz in Jacksonville & Savannah Sign Off...

We recently learned that more Smooth Jazz radio stations have signed off the air. WJSJ & WSJF in Jacksonville, Florida have dropped Smooth Jazz for a "Rhythmic" adult contemporary format. Additionally, WSSJ in Savannah, Georgia has replaced their Smooth Jazz programming with gospel music. Dear lord!

Once again we are receiving phone calls and email from disgruntled Smooth Jazz fans. Of course, we invite them to tune in to our global broadcast for free anytime day or night and we can’t really hide our excitement about the fact that SmoothJazz.com and SmoothLounge.com are now available on Apple’s iPhone (FlyTunes.fm) in amazing digital clarity, so we pass that info along as well because that puts our stations in their cars with a simple mp3 plug in.

SmoothJazz.com was created from my personal experience with a similar situation here in Monterey, CA. So, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that I am empathetic and that I do care about the concern these station losses are causing in their communities. Not only did I feel the loss as a listener, but also it was particularly painful for me as an employee. It’s hard to make a living when your job is working for a fickle industry like radio in a smaller market where you never know what you’ll be walking into each day. It was a revolving door of crazy.

I moved back to this area from L.A. where I was working on the air at The Wave (KTWV). It was the early 90’s, Southern California had just experienced an earthquake, the Rodney King thing was causing a ripple effect and the entire Southland was ablaze with fires. You didn’t have to twist my arm to get me to move back to the beautiful Monterey Peninsula where I grew up. I was in my mid-twenties and I thrilled to be hired as the program director for the area’s first Smooth Jazz station. In ten years we started and lost the format 4 times! Each time a new station owner wanted to put Smooth Jazz on the air, they’d call me.

During my "off" times when the format was dormant, I’d drive up to KKSF in San Francisco and fill in for their DJs. In 1995, I started a concert production company. When Smooth Jazz was on the local FM dial, we’d do well with the concerts. When the format wasn’t available locally, our concerts would suffer. Around the same year, I founded SmoothJazz.com. Audio on the Internet was a mere dream at that time, but I believed good things were to come in that regard.

I was growing very tired of the heartless ways of corporate radio and the transformation of broadcasting into narrowcasting. Getting a fresh start on the Internet was an exciting notion and as far as I was concerned, couldn’t happen soon enough.

The very last time I worked for an FM radio station was the most disrespectful experience I had ever had in the industry. It was 2002, I was hired by an adult contemporary station and asked if I would help them change the format to Smooth Jazz in the evenings. They wanted me to build their music library and entrusted me with control of the project. For the entire summer of that year, I would go in to the radio station at night and meticulous rebuild their audio library one song at a time in their computer system. The year had already been challenging for me personally because my mom had fallen and shattered her elbow, but worse, she appeared to have suffered from brain damage. I was taking her to every specialist in the area to determine the extent of her condition. Yet, I was so committed to the format and the community that I would continue to go in every night and put in more music. I should also point out that I was on payroll for this station and so I wasn’t making any extra money for helping them with this project.

I remember walking in one August night and noticed a new bumper sticker on the glass window of the on-air door. It said something about classic rock… I actually did one of those double takes and walked around the building because I thought that maybe I went into the wrong studio. I was tired and perhaps I wasn’t paying attention. The building had 3 stations broadcasting, I could have gone into the wrong on-air booth... but that wasn’t the case. The owners had changed the format moments earlier to classic rock. Just like that.

I found out by a bumper sticker on the studio door. Why wasn’t I told in advance? Because I would have called in the TV news like I did the last time it happened a few years prior at another frequency. Or so they thought…

But as I tracked down my gear and packed up my goods, it sunk in slowly that my 20 some year love affair with FM radio was over. Just like that. Some have said that if corporations were individuals they’d be considered sociopathic by nature... Unfeeling, uncaring and amoral… What do you think?

For me it was an awakening... a cold shower of reality for which I’m grateful because otherwise I would have continued my enabling relationship with terrestrial radio.

Honestly, Smooth Jazz is flourishing on the Internet and not just on SmoothJazz.com. If you combine our listener hours with those of our on-line competitors, Smooth Jazz is one of the most listened to, if not the most listened to format of music on the Internet. Don’t be fooled when your local radio stations try to tell you that the format is old and dying. Maybe the way their consultants drove it into the ground by not broadening and expanding the artist roster, but that is simply not the case for those of us continuing to embrace the passionate spirit and lifestyle vibe of the format.

If you really want to try to do something to express your displeasure with your local station changing format, here are a few suggestions:

1) Contact the FCC and let them know that your community will be adversely affected by the loss of the format. Radio, after all, is supposed to be servicing the community and in turn they can monetize their broadcast with advertising. If enough people do this, the government agency may investigate. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints_general.html

2) Research your market and find the lowest rating radio stations and contact them and encourage them to pick up the format. If you are in a position to do so, offer to advertise your company, product or service on their radio station if they change formats to Smooth Jazz.

3) If you still have Smooth Jazz in your market, support them by going to their advertisers and telling them that you heard about their company on the Smooth Jazz station. Also, do your best to show up at station events and support local Smooth Jazz concerts.

In closing, here’s an email that I received today from a Houston Smooth Jazz fan:

"I’ve been listening to SmoothJazz.com recently on my computer at work and at the computer at home since the recent demise of KHJZ here in Houston. I had listened to SmoothJazz.com several years ago after the previous jazz station here in Houston flipped formats, but rarely listened after KHJZ began broadcasting. KHJZ is still broadcasting over the Internet, and if you want to run out and buy an HD radio, they’re broadcasting in HD. However, I am so angry over the format flip and their obscene assumption that I can just buy an HD radio to listen to them, I won’t listen to them online. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there for what I wanted to write to you about.

What I really wanted to tell you is how much I’ve enjoyed listening again. I’ve heard a wider variety of Smooth Jazz than KHJZ was playing (just as you suggested in your blog). I have a nice collection of CD’s but listening to just them doesn’t keep me abreast of the new music coming out. So I’ve been enjoying the variety of good music. I also passed the link to your website to another friend who used to listen to KHJZ and I think he’s tuning in also.

The other thing I wanted to comment on was how glad I was to hear the Barry Sea Project this morning. First time I’ve heard them played on air, other than a couple of ads for their CD on KHJZ. I like their sound, and their CD is on my wish list. I hope to hear them live next time they are on my side of H-Town. Keep up the good music!!!"

Thanks,
Nancy Saxon

Sandy Shore-President/Founder
SmoothJazz.com