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WJJZ is dead - will the whole format be next?

M

Media_Maven

Inactive
Inactive User
Hi, this is my first post to this forum.
The death of WJJZ Philly, and the pending death of SJ is too important for me to remain silent.
SJ is, in my opinion, the last place on terrestrial radio where one can still find real melody & musicianship.
It'd be a real shame to lose it. But, let's face it - SJ has been broken for YEARS!
How long can you truly expect your audience to keep listening to the same tired playlist day-in, day-out, month after month, year after year?
Here's what I think: SJ doesn't need to be radically changed; rather, it needs to expand on the elements that made it quite healthy just 3 or 4 years ago.
There are fantastic artists & songs -- viable ones -- artists that could be the next "Sade" or "Chris Botti"; songs that would be the next "Smooth Operator" or "Soulful Strut'" -- they're out there, but too often, they're not makin' it to the air. You can probably name a few.
Here's how you fix SJ: We've got to put an end to the monopoly on the format. You know that one company controls SJ. Competition makes everyone try harder, and sound better. Competition will help the stations, the artists, the listeners, and the format as a whole.
But this means the industry MUST do something that until now it has been reluctant to do; it MUST take SMART risks.
Everyone's hurting financially now, but nothing will get better if the same people keep doing the same thing.
It's time to find those people who are passionate & committed to fixing the format. Maybe you know someone up to the task who isn't working in the format, or isn't even working in the field because so many doors are closed.
Maybe you're that someone.
If this resonates with anyone, please reply. I could go on for pages, but I'll stop for now.

Reach me at [email protected].

Thanks for your time,
Media Maven
 
We have a generation that doesn't make music. Everything is sampled, and then re-sampled. There are no musicians anymore, let alone bands. How can they relate to jazz or smooth jazz?
 
There is still a lot of great music out there...real music. You just haven't heard it because it's not on commercial radio. A lot of today's Smooth Jazz musicians were only 6 years old when Grover was playing "Mister Magic." Some weren't even born yet. So naturally being that young they would use a lot of today's available technology and sample. But there are a lot of musicians like Euge Groove who are old-school. On his latest CD "Just Feels Right" he doesn't use any equipment made after 1976. And you can tell! It's solid! Real music throughout. Even I thought it was 1976 for a minute...almost ran to the TV looking for "Happy Days" and "Good Times" (actually found them both on TV Land and Nick). So maybe it really IS 1976!
 
I hate that this happened to WJJZ and the staff there. To think the station has been on the air for 13 years. I guess this means no SJ station is safe now.

I agree with what everyone is saying so far, we need competition and new talent. Don't get me wrong, I like Kim Waters, Sade, Najee, and Grover Washington Jr, but I think people are getting tired of hearing the same thing. Not to mention, a lot of the same artist aren't coming out with much new material, but a lot of recycled oldies song. It's not just limited to smooth jazz or radio in general, but TV as well. They recycle the same crap and put it on multiple channels and stations, so it's either watch or listen to it or turn it off. There are a lot of days when I won't look at TV or listen to Radio.

I don't know how we the fans go about making change since, the mega radio corps make all the decisions and control what content is played on the air. There are a lot of great independent artist out there, but they'll never get public exposure because the big radio corporations won't play them. I guess the only way for them to get air time is through the Internet and possibly satellite radio. HD radio isn't looking too promising right now. :(
 
Right on, JoshB...what happened at 106.5 and to their staff is unnerving. Equally unnerving is the fact that Smooth Jazz could be blown out in market #6. Or any Top 10 market for that matter. My thinking is possibly another station take the format, or is the format perceived to be in too much trouble for any new sign-ons? Sounds like it might be too hard to get good Smooth Jazz talent who have a knowledge and feel for the music. They certainly couldn't or wouldn't take in music lovers like us. We'd get too frustrated about what's not being played and become trouble-makers. So they rely on people who really don't know the music but can create the feel the station wants from their liners and general presentation. But it seems a lot of listeners can tell, and I think therein lies a real problem with the format. Like a lot of formats in radio now, I don't think you'll be able to get a house/apartment or a car anymore even if you were full-time doing it. It's going to have to have a lot of great talent seeing SJ as a paying hobby. They'll have to up the ante on talent...because the music as it's dictated now won't cut it. They voice track talent in from other markets, but you can tell it. So those might as well be considered syndicated product (i.e., Loni Taylor in multiple markets?). It will be interesting to see how the Philadelphia thing palys out. If no new SJ is a result...the format is officially in trouble, except for in LA, Chicago and Detriot...maybe a couple of other markets (wherever KKSF is...escapes me in this writing). Only the biggest achievers will extend this format in its current form. But if it disappears in Philly altogether...most SJ stations outside the Top 10 are fair game.
 
WJJZ didn't end up playing the same music at the end of it's 13 year run as it did at the beginning. When they
started in 93 the only vocals they played were by people like Basia and Julia Fordham. Then later in the 90's
they started throwing in Celine Dion, Phil Collins and the Four Tops. I didn't think the later groups belonged on a Smooth Jazz station. In the Sat. Radio world XM seems to adopt the early WJJZ mold with no pop vocals on its 'Watercolors' channel and doesn't use 'Smooth Jazz' but 'Comtemporary Jazz' or C-Jazz in their ID. Sirius's 'Jazz Cafe' is practically a clone of the later WJJZ with vocals by Terence Trent D'arby and Earth, Wind and Fire along with alot of the current smooth jazz hits. I don't know which is the real smooth jazz.
 
First, Hey, "CKLW800" - where are you? I'm in the Detroit area... (sorry, all, I don't yet know how to respond to one person only)
Simon is correct; in the early days of "New Adult Contemporary (NAC)", which would later evolve into what we now know as Smooth Jazz, you'd hear FANTASTIC jazz artists like Pat Metheny & Dave Grusin, and interesting vocalists like Basia, Swing Out Sister, Chris Rea, Level 42, and Michael Franks. I even recall hearing "Man Of Colours" by ICEHOUSE on KYOT-Phoenix in 1994. But sadly, such artists proved unable to build an audience for the format, and so we started hearing fewer artists like Lee Ritenour and more like Kenny G and Dave Koz. I actually believe the secret to fixing the format would be to re-introduce more Pat Metheny & Lee Ritenour (what I call the "Smoother side of REAL Jazz"), and also broaden the variety of vocalists on the format. I truly believe 80% of the current problem with SJ is that the fans of the format are absolutely sick of most of the songs -- as opposed to being sick of the artists. I also believe the secret to fixing the format is to change the ratio of instrumentals to vocals, as well as re-positioning the "image" that the term "Smooth Jazz" conveys to non-listeners. I have some ideas as to how to do this.

Please contact me if you'd like to discuss this further by emailing me at [email protected]

Thanks for reading,
Media Maven
 
Hey, Media Maven! I see your e-mail address and I'll respond, but since you asked me where I am on the board others will want to know, Marion...but most of the growing up was in Cleveland and yes...CK was it! WKNR, too. I hear you on all the Smooth Jazz stuff. You're dead on it. I notice I typed 106.5 in a post thinking about 104.5 in Philly. But 106.5 is a "Mix" station in Cleveland, which I think 104.5 in Philly will be. Anyway, satellite radio is a little too safe for me...I really expected more...not sure why they're playing it so safe. I really expect Watermelon Man by Herbie, maybe some old Bobbi Humphrey, Roy Ayers, Jean-Luc Ponty..groups like Passport, non-smooth Fattburger, a WHOLE lot more. Birdland by Weather Report. I think I heard Pat Metheny on Watercolors and some other surprises, but the new stuff i'm surprised it's so much like the radio stuff. The ultimate dream which eludes us is hearing OTHER tracks on the CURRENT releases. Like "Right Here Right Now" from Eric Darius (in addition to "Chillin' Out); "It Could Happen" by Brian Simpson (in addition to "Saturday Cool" and "It's All Good", "Sensuality" by Brian Culbertson (in addition to "Hookin' Up" and "Let's Get Started"); the latest Alex Bugnon CD "Free", Mike Phillips (great stuff!). You know...the musical adventure like CLKW gave us just by playing singles early or playing some that didn't play anywhere else and still the station soared. They had guts...a feel...a knowledge of the music there. Rosalie Trombley! Smooth Jazz needs a Rosalie! I guarantee you it won't be always smooth and relaxing...and I don't think listeners will mind. At $3.00 a gallon...I can't relax. I'm mad. I need FUNK!
 
[ Anyway, satellite radio is a little too safe for me...I really expected more...not sure why they're playing it so safe. I really expect Watermelon Man by Herbie, maybe some old Bobbi Humphrey, Roy Ayers, Jean-Luc Ponty..groups like Passport, non-smooth Fattburger, a WHOLE lot more. Birdland by Weather Report.

Check out Beyond Jazz on XM, they are playing everything you mentioned.

Nock
 
Nock! Nock! Who's there? Thanks, man! I heard it...couldn't believe my ears! Progressive jazz lives! I didn't know what "Beyond Jazz" was, didn't really venture there. But I'm there now! THAT'S what I'm talkin' bout!!! The futute of SJ/radio; maybe grabbing "syndicated" or blocks of programming from satellite for broadcast...kind of like TV does? Wouldn't it be great if SJ radio bought programming from XM...like maybe 4-5 hours of "Beyond Jazz" on Sunday nights or something? Maybe in the near future as people find more innovative programming on satellite? For those who don't want to pay for satellite, maybe radio will pick it up and get ratings in return? "Sex In The City"...look where it started...and where it is now!! And geting numbers all over!
 
I always enjoy 95.5 WNUA's version of smooth jazz. And it's even better that they've got one of the best DJ's on it too - Danae Alexander. She is sure something! Also, I am not for one tired of the same smooth jazz songs! I still don't know what most of them are since a lot don't even have any lyrics! I personally think that Hawaii needs at least one smooth jazz station, if not more. It appears that smooth jazz works well near bodies of water for some reason. Look at former KWSJ 98.7 The Oasis in Wichita, KS and former WJZN 98.9 in Memphis, TN - also former KVJZ V-106-3 in Des Moines. Face it, the format obviously doesn't work where there aren't bodies of water near where there are people that enjoy listening to it.
 
^ I don't know about that, I mean, I think KYOT 95.5 in Phoenix is doing pretty well and it's in the middle of the Sonoran desert. As for Hawaii, I think Honolulu will be getting a smooth jazz format, but it will be on HD-2, so you'll need an HD radio.
 
the 106.1 hd feed is you guessed it Smooth jazz i have it on now

but what good will this do Nobody can listen to this in cars or on a walkman

Sad that Market #6 dont have smooth Jazz
 
update its coming back to 97.5 ;D


WJJZ: The Biggest Comeback Since Lazarus
Oct. 13, 2006



Greater Media will flip classic rocker WTHK (the Hawk)/Philadelphia to smooth jazz some time next month. The Reading, Pa. Eagle reports that Greater Media purchased the property from Nassau in July of this year; it is currently licensed in Trenton but is expected to move into the Philadelphia market in the near future. The move will restore the call letters WJJZ, and presumably quell the firestorm of public outcry from numerous and extremely vocal disenfranchised smooth jazz fans in the market after Clear Channel abandoned the format in Philadelphia at the beginning of last month.

"We are very excited about bringing smooth jazz back to the Philadelphia market," Greater Media Philadelphia VP and market manager John Fullam told The Eagle. "We sensed a lot of disappointment among listeners and advertisers when WJJZ changed its format last August. It's gratifying to be able to relaunch a station with such a loyal following and that has been successful for so long in Philadelphia."
 
Smooth Jazz isn't doing bad

The reason Clear Channel eliminated WJJZ 106.1 was not because it was doing poorly. It was because they were starting the Wake Up With Whoopie show, and they wanted another outlet for it. WJJZ 106.1 certainly wasn't preforming as it did in its heydey, but it wasn't failing either. It was usually in the top ten, but usually better than 12. There was still a large audience for Smooth Jazz.

There was a very loyal following which, although silent when happy, came through very loudly when their station was eliminated. PHILLY.COM had 20 pages of angry posts.

Greater Media brought the format back, at 97.5, because they knew it would not do bad in this market, and it made a lot of people very happy. I know it sounds rediculous, but some of the new WJJZ ads on the station have people crying because they are so happy that their radio station came back.
 
I find I enjoy the music on the new WJJZ more than the mix that was on 106.1. More contemporary jazz instrumentals and fewer Motown vocals.
 
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