Broadcasters: "Know your Radio Business"

The elimination of Smooth Jazz in Washington DC, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, and New York City have loyal listeners commenting on varioius blogs and phoning into radio stations. Fans are wondering have they forever lost a special sub-conscious friend. One of the blogs that has received tons of admirable comments about Washington DC's Smooth Jazz 105.9 is this one: http://talking-stuff.blogspot.com/2008/02/smooth-jazz-1059-is-gone.html.

The relationship between a radio station's format and listener is an intimate one. The marriage is much more special than a relationship with TV, Film, and other mediums. A radio format that's lasted for ten years -- or more -- becomes a "heritage radio station" meaning it is one with the local community that it serves. Smooth Jazz 105.9 was just that. I hosted a few on-air programs on SJ105.9 for 3 of those 14 years with decent adult ratings (#1 on Saturday night and #2 on Sunday afternoons).

Judging from the comments in the fellow blogger in the above link, Smooth Jazz 105.9 in Washington DC had quite a strong following. The January trend rated Smooth Jazz 105.9 as the sixth rank radio station in the market. Reasons why the intimate relationship were that the on-air hosts remained local during the 14 year run. What is meant by the hosts being local residence? Aren't all the radio hosts local? Most do know that announcers can be voice track (pre-recorded) or a satellite show from elsewhere. The fear in radio (amongst the many fears) for the past fifteen years for the local DJ is that a national satellite radio show or computer will replace them in a volatile industry. While money is saved with a computer or satellite show, radio's strength is being local. I am convinced that there is a greater connection when radio commits to being right there, especially in the larger markets. The audience will leave when it is not serviced. Radio's main ratings service is Arbitron, and they cannot measure how many people are actually listening, only have 2-5 thousand people participate in a monthly survey. When a station becomes a juke box with little contact with the radio host nor able to attend station events, then that station becomes a jukebox. The jukebox must contend with the internet, ipods, music choice, and so on. The radio station then loses it's nitche to involve the local listeners. If too many local radio stations in a market succumbs to distancing themselves from the local listeners then the listeners leave those stations.

Smooth Jazz 105.9 fm in DC did last a bit longer than most radio stations in the metro area, until 2007 when the Ramsey Lewis morning show out of Chicago was introduced to the morning. Smooth Jazz 105.9 FM local personalities were not only local, but they were veterans from top to bottom. The Smooth Jazz 105.9 management team also understood the necessity to market on television, newspaper ads, direct mail pieces, busboards, billboards, birthday calls, computer calls, on-air, and street promotions. Smooth Jazz 105.9 had a signature "trip-a-day giveaway" contest, giving away an airline trip 365 days a year. Benchmarked times were promoted for the next day's "trip-a-day" contest driving listeners to a timeslot. Close to a million unique names were on the database. Registration was completed on-line on our website driving listeners to our advertising banners there. The ultimate results from the total efforts were Smooth Jazz 105.9 fm was a consistent top ten station for 14 years.

Local listeners also frequented weekly basis at our advertised Smooth Jazz styled clubs in Georgetown(DC), Alexandria Virginia, and Largo Maryland...to name a few spots. We also had a good relationship with the elegant Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and the modern Strathmore Mansion in Bethesda, Maryland. Legend would perform there throughout the year. All of these well known local venues where DC, Maryland, and Virginia listeners often got together with their local radio hosts consistently hosting these events.

Other consistent events we had were "free" monthly ballroom concerts at 4-star hotels. We called these monthly concerts 'The Free After-Work Party" as they were held from 6:30 to 9:30pm each first Thursday of the month. Selected Smooth Jazz artists only. Pitched in the promos were "get there early to guarantee your seat". Our annual New Years Eve gala took place in Reston, Virginia, highly anticipated featuring a major Smooth Jazz artist. The package included a bottle of champaign, an overnight stay, free breakfast, late check out..."The Works". The summer kick off classic was the "Five-Day Capital Jazz Festival" with dozens of major Smooth Jazz acts at the Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Maryland.

You get the picture. We super-served our local listeners with the support of management. Cuddles to the hard working mobile promotion team at Smooth Jazz 105.9 in Washington DC. They not only clocked in more hours than other radio operations, but they were damn good. The Smooth Jazz promotion team always dressed up an event to fit our elite and classy "wine and cheese" listeners.

While there were say three or four owners of the WJZW Smooth Jazz 105.9fm during the 14 year span, never did the owners nor Program Directors spoil the flow. I credit our captain veteran personality Al Santos for maintaining the status quo. Al Santos make sure that our focus of being a community station would not change. Santos has been with the station for 12 of the 14 years. Al hosted the highly rated sold out Smooth Jazz Sunday Brunch from 9a to 2p and was our mid-day host weekdays from 9a to 3p.

Below is Al's farewell letter on 3/3/08:


From: Al Santos
Sent: Mar 3, 2008 7:18 PM
Subject: The future of Smooth Jazz in the DC area

The recent changes at Smooth Jazz, 105.9 have brought so many emails of inquiry… Where are you? (“you”, meaning the entire staff which this past Friday, was terminated) What happen? Did they move the station? Where can we hear Smooth Jazz? Will you ever return? What of the Sunday Brunch and Lights Out Washington?The music, which was played at 105.9 (Smooth Jazz), is no more. That came to an end this past Friday afternoon (Leap Year Day) at 3 PM with the announcement of the new music format, “True Oldies”.None of the air-staff saw it coming, until, one by one we were called into General Manager Jeff Boden’s office to be given the news. Actually I was the only one who had a suspicion of what was going to happen, when at 10:30, during what would be my last shift on Smooth Jazz, a listener emailed me with something he’d read on DCRTV.COM about an impending format change. I can assure you, the final 2 hours on the air for me were anything BUT, “Stress-Free”!The decision to take 105.9 in a different direction was, more then likely, made by the company which owns 105.9, Citadel Broadcasting. Several emails from listeners have suggested mounting a letter writing campaign but, my suggestion to those would be to show the same respect and class in your letters and/or emails you’ve demonstrated in your years with the old format.I echo Chris Core’s feelings about not having any bitter feelings toward Steve Allan, Jeff Boden or even Farid Suleman, the head of Citadel Broadcasting and wish them well.Smooth Jazz has been a part of the Washington, DC radio landscape for 14 years… a long run in the world of radio formats… will it return? Perhaps. Radio is an ever- changing landscape with companies breathing live into music formats some thought DEAD! Case in point, in “Jazzy100” which in 1993 was displaced by “Oldies100”, was resurrected, 2 years later on 105.9 as, “Smooth Jazz”. (I hope it doesn’t take THAT LONG for some other radio company in town to breath life into it again)As far as, “what next?”… As for myself, I’ll take some time to try and figure that out. I’d like to remain in the DC area, which has been home since my arrival here in late 1995. The others effected by this situation (Jay Lang and Vanniece Johnson), have expressed the same feelings so, hopefully you’ve not heard the last of us but, in what capacities, God only knows. (Hey, wasn’t that a Beach Boys “oldie”? Grrrrr…just kidding!)>Respectfully yours,>Al Santos

Thank you my drag-racing friend Al Santos. The Smooth Jazz Sunday Brunch was ecletic and unique that fit that relaxing Sunday perfectly, and will be missed.

There have been many journalists that have made attempts to write a historical perspective about Smooth Jazz. Read this article in the link below from Washington Post's Marc Fischer http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030700946.html.

Unfortunately Marc makes embarrassing false statements. The song "Feels So Good" by Chuck Mangione was the first Smooth Jazz hit Marc? A little late in time to be the first Smooth Jazz hit. Mr. Fischer is another of the many writers that distort history. Marc probably thinks that "Hound Dog" was an Elvis original, and "Shout" a Beatles original. The Post's deadline must have come to quickly for Marc to call the experts. Marc Fischer just printed whatever came to mind.

Marc could have easily googled the biggest selling "Jazz Album of All Time" before the Breathless CD by Kenny G in the early 1990's to find out two big smooth jazz hits by George Benson from that CD. The CD was titled "Breezin'" by George Benson. "This Masquerade" and "Breezin'" were the two big radio airplay and chart toppers. Marc what about Grover Washington Jr.'s "Mr. Magic" in 1974. You could throw in many artists with multi-hits prior to "Feels So Good". Some of the pioneers of Smooth Jazz are Michael Franks, Steely Dan (Their Album had several Smooth Jazz hits), Ronnie Laws, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, and Patti Austin to name a few.

The Pioneer radio station Marc is KJLH in Los Angeles Marc. KJLH marked the absolute beginning for the "Smooth Jazz" format. KJLH played the music mixture common to the Smooth Jazz format, which is R&B, Latin Jazz, International Artists, Reggae to mix in with dominant Smooth Jazz tunes. KJLH pioneered the format in 1968. Marc I really cannot understand how you missed the first format label that preceeded the popular "Smooth Jazz" brand right in your own back yard. "Smooth Jazz's" immediate predecessor was called the "Quiet Storm". Legendary Broadcaster -- and owner of Radio One -- Cathy Hughes coined the "Quiet Storm" phrase. "Smooth Jazz" was a carbon copy of the "Quiet Storm" that flourished for nearly twenty years from the mid-70's to the early 90's. How could you miss that one Marc, as the format was in nearly every major city including on heritage WHUR in Washington DC. Do you live in Washington DC Marc, or this country. The Quiet Storm was also popular radio formats in Europe and Japan, in case you lived in those areas from the 70's through the 90's.

The long time "Smooth Jazz" format was born out of the death of the "Quiet Storm" 24-format (Quiet Storm is now normally a nighttime program on many stations). Smooth Jazz's beginning came after the wave of Programmers changed formats from the "Quiet Storm" to various forms of Urban due to the popularity of R/B and Hip Hop music. The Broadcast Architecture's "NEW" Smooth Jazz format was simply a void filler format.

Today, broadcast companies are panicking, feeling the pinch of diminishing advertising sales. The niche 'wine and cheese' lifestyle advertiser common with a "Smooth Jazz" sell, radio stations no longer have time to search for. The Smooth Jazz format is not a tough sell, there are just not enough generic advertised products that will sponsor Smooth Jazz. Broadcast companies want advertiser-friendly music formats that play the biggest charted hits is the reason why an ecletic format like Smooth Jazz will have to take a seat despite the consistent top ten ratings. Most of the now defuncted "Smooth Jazz" formats were replaced with CHR or Pop/Rock/R&B oldies formats. These are hard times for advertising-based business as consumers are not buying the products advertised and the first thing that a business pulls back on is advertising. Businesses that rely on advertising are not doing as well as years past today.

• The financial reality of Smooth Jazz radio can best be illustrated by an article written by former Smooth Jazz Programmer Director Nick Francis:

My two cents, backed up by years as a commercial radio PD (post-consolidation) and as an ex-Smooth Jazz programmer to boot.Commercial operators don't care about programming; all they care about is audiences. Specifically----audiences that can easily be SOLD TO ADVERTISERS.If someone came up with a 24/7 format of pigs farting, and the audience was big enough and in the right demo, the radio industry would be all over it.It's not about programming. All four of those SJ stations (NYC, DC, Denver, Houston) had sizeable audiences. The problem is that the audiences are too old. When the majority of your listeners are over 50, you might as well hang it up. The overwhelming majority of ad buys are in a few "money demos" (18-34, 18-49, 24-44, 25-54, 35-54). If your station's core audience lies outside of thosedemos, there will not be enough buys available from the ad industry to support you. WQCD had a larger cume than the majority of NYC stations, yet they rankedpretty close to the bottom in billing and revenue. That is the reality on the ground these days. (And the pressure on PDs and sales managers from corporateheadquarters is god-awful; it is the main reason I bailed out of commercial radio.)Where smooth jazz programmers failed, IMHO, was in not finding a way to find some kind of mix that would appeal to a younger listener (35 rather than 50 yearsold). The only station that I know who moved in that direction was KIFM in San Diego. And they're succeeding.I understand everyone's aesthetic disdain for smooth jazz, and for the most part, I share it; but I really don't understand all the righteous gloating and smirking here, particularly from the broadcasters. (A bunch of people have lost their jobs--friends of mine, good people, and good broadcasters too). It's as if some of you feel vindicated by these events. Vindication for what? Your good taste in music? Can you tell me with a straight face that non-comm jazz radio doesn't have essentially the same survival issues within its own sphere? Do youreally think you're superior radio programmers? Please. Have a little mercy, people. You may be the next one voted off the island.That Kenny G joke is 15 years old, by the way. zzzzzzzzz

Nick Francis - KPLU Music Director