98.7 Smooth Jazz No More

[jackie5275]

I was surfing the FM dial yesterday to discover 98.7 changed its format as of 5 pm yesterday from the smooth jazz they'd played for at least 10 yrs. to what seems to be a Top 40 95.5 imitation station. I went to the Smooth Jazz website where it was indicted that Smooth Jazz would be available online and on HD2 only. The new station is calling themselves "The 987 Takeover". I guess another reason to pay for satellite radio.

[jtf1972]

Radio is awful in Detroit. It's bad everywhere, but Detroit seems to be particularly bad. I like classic R&B... There is just no station to listen to that you aren't turning off within 5 min.

Thank God for the ipod.

[Meddle]

98.7 smooth jazz? When did that happen? That was always a hard, hard rock station, WABX, then WLLZ [[Whole Lotta Led Zepplin).

[Ravine]

As a lover of serious jazz, I detest "smooth jazz" [[although if Jackie enjoys it, I respect that, and I am sorry for her/his disappointment,) but that's not why I'm posting; I just want to ask Meddle where he, or she, has been for the last, oh, ten years.

[buildingsofdetroit]

If you love jazz, Ed Love on WDET usually spins good stuff. Granted, it isn't 24-7 jazz.

[Meddle]

has been for the last, oh, ten years.

600+ miles away.

But I did find out one day by accident that WABX is being used in Evansville, IN and is still a rock station.

While I was up there, WJZZ was one of the better Jazz stations.

[msamslex]

I was surfing the FM dial yesterday to discover 98.7 changed its format as of 5 pm yesterday from the smooth jazz they'd played for at least 10 yrs. to what seems to be a Top 40 95.5 imitation station. I went to the Smooth Jazz website where it was indicted that Smooth Jazz would be available online and on HD2 only. The new station is calling themselves "The 987 Takeover". I guess another reason to pay for satellite radio.

I'm disappointed in the format change. When I was driving around Friday they were screaming that they were in their van or truck whatever it was, riding around to different locations, a we've arrived, come find us thing. I forgot where they said they were but no way I'll be listening! No way!


I've always had 98.7 on in my car but I don't have satellite radio,[[I have an older model car) and I won't be buying one either. I'm sure it's nice to have the variety on satellite radio but it's another bill I don't need.

[Ravine]

Well, then!! Asked & answered!!

You mentioned WJZZ. They had their moments, but [[in my opinion) what Detroit's airwaves really need is an FM station that plays real jazz-- not soft-core "smooth" jazz-- 24 hours a day. One can find it, at night, on 90.9 [[WRCJ, I believe) and, on week-nights, 101.9 WDET [[Ed Love's show,) but nowhere during the day.

I suggest a Hostile-- and I do mean Hostile-- Takeover of one of the "Young Country" stations by a horde of bop-loving programmers.

[Meddle]

and I do mean Hostile-- Takeover of one of the "Young Country" stations by a horde of bop-loving programmers.

I suffered culture shock for years after W4 went hillbilly.

[professorscott]

Not sure how Ed Love got into a thread about an ex-"smooth jazz" station. Ed Love plays real jazz; he talks too much, but the music is excellent so I put up with the banter.

WVMV was not a jazz station; I'm not sure where the term "smooth jazz" originated, but "smooth jazz" isn't jazz. The first song they played after the format switch from hard rock was "Smooth Operator" by Sade, also the last song they played before they dropped the format the other day. Now, I love Sade, and that's a nice song, but jazz it decidedly is not.

By the way if you like eclectic music of any and all kinds, WDET is a great station for it, when they're doing music at all. I would hold that up as the exception to the "Detroit radio is abysmal" argument, which in general is otherwise true.

Now that we've had a fairly long period during which there is almost no local ownership of media and the top few companies own all of it - television, radio, what's left of newspapers - you can start to understand why the government for, oh, maybe a century thought this centralized control was a bad idea and tried to fight it.

I listen to the radio only for a purpose - I go out of my way to catch Ann Delisi or Jay Butler, for instance, and if I'm driving at rush hour I listen to WWJ to get the traffic. But other than that, I've got my Lloyd Cole and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Sam & Dave CD's in the Focus, and that is how your Professor rolls. If I had to depend on radio for my day-to-day music fix, I'd tear my hair out.

[reddog289]

Didn't 106.7 change formats just recently? to hip hop.

[Ravine]

Ed Love plays good, real jazz, but the problem I have, with Ed, is that he gets fixated on things, at times.
He could have you believing that Joe Farnsworth & David Hazeltine play on goddam everything.

[Meddle]

Dave Brubeck, Maynard Ferguson, Herbie Hancock, Michael Franks, Oscar Peterson, Al Jarreau, Lonnie Liston Smith, Chic Corea, Cedar Walton

All names I remember from the WJZZ days

[reddog289]

I remember WJZZ. Wasn't it at 105.9 right above the dial from WQRS?.

[Meddle]

Can't remember, but I think QRS was 105.1, then JZZ, then W4, then a bunch of Bible Thumper garbage.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Dave Brubeck, Maynard Ferguson, Herbie Hancock, Michael Franks, Oscar Peterson, Al Jarreau, Lonnie Liston Smith, Chic Corea, Cedar Walton

All names I remember from the WJZZ days

Those were the days, with my fav DJ Rosetta Hines doing the spinning.

[CountrySquire]

98.7 smooth jazz? When did that happen? That was always a hard, hard rock station, WABX, then WLLZ [[Whole Lotta Led Zepplin).

I liked the format once in awhile, it was good to leave on in the background and they did not have too many loud commercial periods. Meddle WABX was on 99.5 and Ceased to exist in 1983. I can't remember when WLLZ went to the JAzz format. Was it 1988?

[nickstone]

Now, it's important to remember that V98.7 was one of the last five of the once massive network of cookie-cutter smooth jazz stations throughout the US, so they did hold on for quite some time and the blame can't fall all on Tom Sleeker's shoulders, but there were mainstream-jazz or pop-jazz before the "Smooth Jazz" network came about, that stayed around for quite some time. Independent stations, granted, but most were at that time [[the network thing didn't reappear the way it is now until about 15 years ago, give or take a few). The "Smooth Jazz" network dumbed-down and diluted the genre by interrupting the format to play Celine Dion, The Spinners, Phil Collins... basically they interrupted the pop-jazz format to play easy-listening... in time, the genre had become so diluted that the network had no face or identity [[much like, say, boiled potatoes), and it in turn lost its appeal. Let's not forget that WJZZ, in many ways a predecessor of what the Smooth Jazz format COULD have been, was around for decades. It's not that people don't like pop-jazz, it's that the network ruined its own format.

[Mama Jackson]

I had 98.7 on my presets in the car and on the computer. I too, heard of the "takeover" while driving, and not to pleased with what I heard. Aren't there enough stations playing club music? This will be just another blank preset on my vehicle radion dial. Radio is ushering in it's own demise by going with so many national stations.

We in Flint currently do not have a daily newspaper, just a few local radio stations to get local news from [[softball news-never any hard core news) and I am afraid without the "checks and balances" of news providers "keeping them honest" what the crooks will be up to.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Now, it's important to remember that V98.7 was one of the last five of the once massive network of cookie-cutter smooth jazz stations throughout the US, so they did hold on for quite some time and the blame can't fall all on Tom Sleeker's shoulders, but there were mainstream-jazz or pop-jazz before the "Smooth Jazz" network came about, that stayed around for quite some time. Independent stations, granted, but most were at that time [[the network thing didn't reappear the way it is now until about 15 years ago, give or take a few). The "Smooth Jazz" network dumbed-down and diluted the genre by interrupting the format to play Celine Dion, The Spinners, Phil Collins... basically they interrupted the pop-jazz format to play easy-listening... in time, the genre had become so diluted that the network had no face or identity [[much like, say, boiled potatoes), and it in turn lost its appeal. Let's not forget that WJZZ, in many ways a predecessor of what the Smooth Jazz format COULD have been, was around for decades. It's not that people don't like pop-jazz, it's that the network ruined its own format.

Very good points. The Spinners were a great R&B group. I didn't equate them with jazz.

[firstandten]

Now, it's important to remember that V98.7 was one of the last five of the once massive network of cookie-cutter smooth jazz stations throughout the US, so they did hold on for quite some time and the blame can't fall all on Tom Sleeker's shoulders, but there were mainstream-jazz or pop-jazz before the "Smooth Jazz" network came about, that stayed around for quite some time. Independent stations, granted, but most were at that time [[the network thing didn't reappear the way it is now until about 15 years ago, give or take a few). The "Smooth Jazz" network dumbed-down and diluted the genre by interrupting the format to play Celine Dion, The Spinners, Phil Collins... basically they interrupted the pop-jazz format to play easy-listening... in time, the genre had become so diluted that the network had no face or identity [[much like, say, boiled potatoes), and it in turn lost its appeal. Let's not forget that WJZZ, in many ways a predecessor of what the Smooth Jazz format COULD have been, was around for decades. It's not that people don't like pop-jazz, it's that the network ruined its own format.

It seems that the smooth jazz format is catching it all over the country with stations disappearing fast so I guess this should have been expected. On satellite radio you never hear the music termed as smooth jazz rather you hear it as C-jazz C for comptemporary. I know people have a dislike for "pop jazz" saying its not real jazz. That's ok I can buy that , however I rather like the genre and I remember what the late Waymon Tisdale said when some fans who knew him for his basketball cracked on him about being a smooth jazz artist. He said something to the effect that I can play jazz but with the 4 or 5 people that would come out to see me I couldn't make a living at it. And I believe thats the case with many of the smooth jazz artists. They are very good musicians that know that playing hard jazz doesn't pay the bills anymore.

[piczka]

Another tragedy for our great city. There is still a smooth jazz station on cable and satellite, commercial free.

[rajdet]

I am with Ravine on this one, the whole concept of smooth jazz rubs me the wrong way. I consider jazz to more akin to classical music than pop. Why even go that way to water it down for the masses? I also agree with you too Firstandten, I know a few world class musicians who have to have day jobs to feed their families.

[texorama]

How's the reception on WEMU 89.1 from Ypsilanti in different parts of the metro area? Should come in at least in the western portions depending on equipment, and I've gotten it nearly to downtown. All jazz, all the time [[except for news blocks and part of the weekend).

Sort of liked the smooth jazz personally, especially with vocals--there's a good-sized constituency for it in the city itself, I think. The format grew out of the so-called Quiet Storm stations of the 1980s. I'm sure another version will come along soon.

[vetalalumni]

There are still many smooth jazz resources:

• http://www.kifm.com/ [[select the LISTEN LIVE! link on the top left hand side)
• http://www.last.fm/tag/smooth+jazz [[select the ---> button)