I flipped over to KFNY this evening, and heard what sounded like Spanish language programming. Given that the audio was extremely garbled and difficult to make out, I assume that it may still be a while until the official programming hits the air. This marks the end of the Smooth Jazz run.
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102.9 MHz is officially testing Spanish language programming
- Thread starter fordranger797
- Start date
If I were a betting man, I’d say they’ll “officially” start programming on July 1st. Gives the engineer some time to work the kinks out of the audio chain over the weekend. Getting STL relays to work 50-60 miles takes some time and finessing.
My guess is the handover date from Ocean States Trust was on 7/1. They probably let them have it a few days early to allow a seamless transition on the 1st. After all, it wasn’t as if they were hoping to monetize the last few days of spot loads from Smooth Jazz to maximize profit.
My guess is the handover date from Ocean States Trust was on 7/1. They probably let them have it a few days early to allow a seamless transition on the 1st. After all, it wasn’t as if they were hoping to monetize the last few days of spot loads from Smooth Jazz to maximize profit.
That must be what I heard fading in and out on 102.9 mHz east of Yakima this morning. South Sound SJ had a nice playlist while it lasted (yes, I was able to listen to them via bobdavcav's old Global Tuners receiver, and another SDR out in Kittitas County that had a weak KFNY.) but of course it was a placeholder ala the early days of KMCQ. All of the spots were national as of last week, nothing local.
According to Mr. Clay Freinwald's July column, 102.9 will be taking the KZTM calls...
https://nwbroadcasters.com/clay07-19.html
https://nwbroadcasters.com/clay07-19.html
I highly doubt anyone else will pick up the format... smooth jazz was available commercialy for awhile in the last decade or to but it's died off.. there are so few commercial jazz stations left, and for good reason
For mainstream jazz, too few potential listeners for advertisers to reach. For smooth jazz, maybe enough potential listeners for a limited-coverage FM, but most of them are over 55.
Was hoping they would reach a demo of 1.0 with the Smooth Jazz placeholder, especially since 102.9 is so strong on the Washington Coast (Ocean Shores, Westport etc.) Lots of vacationers, retirees, people getting away from the hustle and bustle. Never happened. 0.6-0.7 max. Besides hilly terrain makes 102.9 fuzzy around plenty of suburbs in the Seattle area. Had Iheart sold 106.1 to the Trust and they flipped to a SJ placeholder, I'm sure the ratings would be in the 2ish range.
We also lost the Tri-Cities Smooth Jazz translator last month as they flipped to country. Even though the smooth jazz format is fantastic, nevertheless most people listening are retirees which are not in the main demos. KOAZ Albuquerque and WSBZ Fort Walton Beach get enough to get by - and they sponsor concerts in their respective cities, but how long before they go to radio heaven too?
KSWD-94.1 as a Soft AC gets high ratings because they do just fine with 35-54. They play some old material while also spinning a few newer soft songs.
The 'placeholder' format was adding new music as late as when they flipped to Spanish. Heard 'Spirit Dance' by Keiko Matsui (released in February off her Echo album) last week off the fuzzy Kittitas receiver tuned to 102.9. It wasn't just a 24-hour loop that played nonstop until they went to Spanish.
We also lost the Tri-Cities Smooth Jazz translator last month as they flipped to country. Even though the smooth jazz format is fantastic, nevertheless most people listening are retirees which are not in the main demos. KOAZ Albuquerque and WSBZ Fort Walton Beach get enough to get by - and they sponsor concerts in their respective cities, but how long before they go to radio heaven too?
KSWD-94.1 as a Soft AC gets high ratings because they do just fine with 35-54. They play some old material while also spinning a few newer soft songs.
The 'placeholder' format was adding new music as late as when they flipped to Spanish. Heard 'Spirit Dance' by Keiko Matsui (released in February off her Echo album) last week off the fuzzy Kittitas receiver tuned to 102.9. It wasn't just a 24-hour loop that played nonstop until they went to Spanish.
Had to chuckle at a TV spot the other day.. Lady gets into a taxi and the driver turns on the cab radio and asks whether she likes smooth jazz. The passenger wrinkled her nose and replied "Uh..no" Cab driver reaches down to change the station and mumbles.."Yeah, nobody does".
I think that was because the format is the same one that's available on the iHeart Radio platform, which is available on several HD2 signals all over the country. KFNY may indeed have had lots of listeners on the coast, but that's not technically part of the Seattle market, so those listeners wouldn't have counted for anything unless 102.9 wanted to superserve the Seattle-Tacoma market as well as the coast. Even then, if most of the listeners came from the coast, it would have only showed a 0.4 or so in the Seattle ratings.
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