Our Local Smooth Jazz Station

[Beatles4ever]

It seems that here lately they have started playing music that,in my humble opinion,is not what I would consider "smooth jazz".For instance....the version of "On Broadway" by George Benson.Any opinions?

[Dawn]

Yes, on the smooth jazz stations I've listened to in the past year, they've been mixing more and more soft rock and R&B into their playlists. For instance, one of the most-played songs now is Mariah Carey's We Belong Together, which I don't consider a jazz song at all. Usually, though, they mix in older pop/soft rock such as Boz Scaggs, Hall & Oates, Ambrosia, Christopher Cross, etc. I think a little bit of that adds a nice variety, but I hope they don't stray too far from the instrumental smooth jazz artists like Norman Brown, Paul Taylor, Nils, Fattburger, Paul Brown and Nick Colionne.

[m c dornan]

But then a lot of purists wouldn't "smooth jazz" to be jazz either...

[Dawn]

Just yesterday I heard Spandau Ballet's True on KTWV, the smooth jazz station out of L.A. I don't know...some of the non-jazz choices they play I can kind of justify, but there's nothing jazzy about True at all.

[Beatles4ever]

Well....I tuned in a few weeks ago....and my beloved station has gone totally hip hop.

[daniel]

Even when I was working in radio 5 years ago the morning man on the Smooth Jazz station in the building felt a lot of the stuff they were playing had nothing to do with jazz. Our joke was that if it had a sax in it, it was jazz! (I think they even played "Careless Whisper" once or twice)

[Dawn]

daniel said:

Even when I was working in radio 5 years ago the morning man on the Smooth Jazz station in the building felt a lot of the stuff they were playing had nothing to do with jazz. Our joke was that if it had a sax in it, it was jazz! (I think they even played "Careless Whisper" once or twice)

Yep, I've heard Careless Whisper a couple of times on KTWV! That, to me, is pushing the definition of jazz a little too much, as there's not a thing jazzy about that song. Another one they play that puzzles me is Cheryl Lynn's Got to Be Real. That's disco, not jazz or even jazz-pop!

[daniel]

Well, the station I was around never got that odd, but there were a few "Soft Rock" tunes they mixed in that were just as bad. A lof of the stations in that format are consulted by a firm called Broadcast Architecture -- I can tell right off the station here in Cleveland is a client of theirs because they use the identical liners and imaging we were using in Fresno. I keep expecting them to say "Smooth Jazz 96-7", they're that similar.

[Dawn]

Mark and I had KTWV on in the car yesterday evening, and they played Groovin' by the Rascals! I thought Careless Whisper was stretching it, but Groovin'? Great song, but how on earth is that considered jazz?

[daniel]

Listening to WNWV the other day I heard an artist we played in Fresno that would set off the morning man... Simply Red! He had a whole dissertation on them that I've long since forgotten but it was quite comical at the time. I also forgot most of the monologue that went along with Patrice Rushen's "Forget Me Nots", but it was just as humorous. Something along the lines of "Oh, I wish Miles Davis had learned something about jazz from Patrice Rushen!"

[Ken]

I can't recall if there was ever a 100% Jazz station in the Vancouver area. We do have 103.5 - QM FM, which, originally was an easy listening station which at times did play some lite jazz type of stuff. It has been a soft rock station for the past several years.


There has been alot of changes in Vancouver's radio market in recent years with format changes, DJ's being fired / hired etc.