Aircheck: KNJZ "Smooth Jazz 100.3" Alton-St. Louis, 18 April 1994

In April 1994, St. Louis heard the debut of "Smooth Jazz 100.3" KNJZ. It was the third time the city had a commercial station of its type, and the first one to use the "Smooth Jazz" moniker.

During the weekend prior to the start of the station, KNJZ stunted by playing only Kenny G, and encouraged listeners to tune in the following Monday for the new format. Kenny G was also heavily featured in their television ad campaign. The station lasted just over a year and four months, changing formats in September 1995.

Recently I found a promotional cassette featuring a small sampling of the kind of music one would hear on KNJZ. It is my understanding that this tape was sent to households in specific ZIP codes (i.e. more upscale sections of the metro area) to market the station. I have included a jpeg of the cassette as well as the recording itself. The link to that recording can be found here: http://www.4shared.com/mp3/IjvMDbZ5ba/KNJZ_Promotional_Cassette.html

In addition, here are nearly two hours of KNJZ, recorded at the launch of the format on 18 April 1994, encoded at 192/44.1, and at these links:

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/VaOU0fL_ba/01-KNJZ_18_April_1994-A.html

http://www.4shared.com/mp3/6xxFbqXIba/02-KNJZ_18_April_1994-B.html

Sounded like a normal big market smooth jazz station for that time. A lot of "standard" SJ music, i.e. the Al Jarreau, Sade, George Benson, Kenny G, Richard Elliot stuff. Thanks anyways for the clips!

That was interesting to hear. Thanks for sharing both the information and the audio.