98.7 Smooth Jazz No More

[Zacha341]

You can get some good classic R & B still on WGPR 107.5... especially on Saturdays... recall back in the day that was the original Mojo used to DJ.... now that was some good times!

For a wide variety of Jazz I do accujazz.com. Nice!!!

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.

[Zacha341]

I dislike "smooth" jazz too. There are few songs I like, but most smooth jazz is like "paint by numbers" to me and unremarkable and all sounding the same....

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.

[313WX]

You can get some good classic R & B still on WGPR 107.5... especially on Saturdays...

Yep, although their songs are a bit repititive for my taste, there are by far the better of the Detroit music stations.

[vetalalumni]

... 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.

Correct regarding Waymon Tisdale. He openly alluded to the dilemma.

...

For a wide variety of Jazz I do accujazz.com. Nice!!!

Dislike of smooth jazz is understood. For me, variety and a larger pool of options is optimal.

Accujazz --> http://www.accujazz.com is nice, however, being based in the US it has certain restrictions. Per their FAQs page:

Why can't I choose to listen to a particular artist or song?

Currently, every Internet radio station in the U.S. must abide by guidelines set forth in a federal law called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act [[DMCA), which places certain restrictions on what we can offer our listeners. [[If you're interested, you can view the text of the DMCA in PDF format here. The section that regulates Internet Radio is listed under Title IV, Sec. 405, "Scope Of Exclusive Rights In Sound Recordings; Ephemeral Recordings" on page 33 of the file.)

The webcasting license we operate under only allows "limited personalization" of our channels. This is why we only allow listeners to deselect a limited number of artists they don't want to hear, rather than allowing listeners to pick specific artists or specific songs they do want to hear. [[As far as copyright holders are concerned, allowing listeners to choose the specific songs they want to hear when they want to hear them might discourage those listeners from buying CDs.)

Hopefully we've found a solution that everyone will be reasonably happy with.

[firstandten]

Vetalalumni- I looked at the Accujazz website and its purpose for being. WOW! are we seeing the future of how music will be marketed in general and maybe even the end of commercial radio ?

[vetalalumni]

Vetalalumni- I looked at the Accujazz website and its purpose for being. WOW! are we seeing the future of how music will be marketed in general and maybe even the end of commercial radio ?

Maybe as we currently know it. Many artist market their own websites. This is in addition to their other marketing programs such as peddling CDs out of their car trunks The bigs [[traditional players) ain't all to happy about it either.

[smogboy]

The commercial radio market has been so drab for so long.

I still lament for those days when I could listen to a radio station and have a deejay use his/ her extensive musical knowledge choose a play list that was smart and informed. Does anyone remember the days when the deejay would even know a factoid or two about the artists they're playing? Whatever happened to the days when a deejay could actually make an artist because they were brave enough to stake a portion of their reputation on the air by playing unheard of songs? Lord knows all the personalities on the air are so generic one could swap them out from one radio station to another and it really wouldn't make a bit of difference.

I still remember being back in high school listening to the Electrifying Mojo when he started out on WGPR. He played eclectic music without any regard to genre- and he made it sound good. And when he left WGPR, there were those of us who followed him up or down the dial because we wanted to hear more of his musical knowledge [[and maybe a little bit of his Mothership & MFA schtick as well). He broke musical barriers by playing everything from Pink Floyd to Prince to Kraftwerk to New Order to John Coltrane. He knew something of each of them and played the song lists in such a way, it made musical sense. It wasn't just based upon playing one genre for hours on end.

And then when WDET ditched their eclectic format a few years ago, it signaled the end of getting free form music in Detroit for me. The closest thing we have now is Ann Delisi's Essential Music Radio show on the weekends where she can and will play whatever floats her boat. I love the fact that she's even opened it up to a Facebook community to offer up suggestions. But again, that's public radio.

Commercial radio has no appeal, educational value or musical value to me any more.

[Ravine]

Smoggers!! Good to see you, buddy!!

I posted a brief rant on the Tigers 2009 thread.

[Mackenzie68]

I miss good radio as well, in several flavors of music. Meanwhile, I make do with http://www.pandora.com and the like.

About "Public Radio." It isn't. Big business still pays [[sometimes little businesses too) and still gets their ads, just in a particular spot in each program. KKUP is the only publicly-supported station I know of with an FCC license. They run with all-volunteers, pay the rent and electric bills with donations from individuals only. They won't take donations from businesses, not even in kind. They don't use grant money either. And they have a marvelously motley collection of programming. Take a look at www.KKUP.com Radio the way I like it. You might, too.

[shock]

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

Wow the Bible is Garbage ?

[smogboy]

I miss good radio as well, in several flavors of music. Meanwhile, I make do with http://www.pandora.com and the like.

About "Public Radio." It isn't. Big business still pays [[sometimes little businesses too) and still gets their ads, just in a particular spot in each program. KKUP is the only publicly-supported station I know of with an FCC license. They run with all-volunteers, pay the rent and electric bills with donations from individuals only. They won't take donations from businesses, not even in kind. They don't use grant money either. And they have a marvelously motley collection of programming. Take a look at www.KKUP.com Radio the way I like it. You might, too.

Actually I don't mind the ads whether they be on commercial radio or public radio as long as the deejays that they hire are allowed a fair amount of leverage in selecting their songs. And those people should be hired for their musical knowledge. If the ads are a necessary evil for us to hear some new music, get a little more cultured by being exposed to some new stuff and even re-hash some good ol' tunes- then I'm somewhat okay with it.

The radio forum should have some of the public's interest in mind- regardless whether it be talk radio, weather, sports or music. But again, I'm probably asking for Utopia in this day of the Clear Channels & offbeat FCC rulings.

[vetalalumni]

Some of my friends that love metal, or rock in general, prefer pandora. I'd like pandora to expand their available CD/album selection base. Pandora is visually appealing.

[Drummer21]

Sorry to see the change. There is a void in the market now. Sad to see Smooth Jazz lovers left without a place for their choice in music. For a little different twist on Smooth Jazz check out
www.caponelive.com

[KENSINGTONY]

I noticed that 106.7 had a format change when I went to catch the NASCAR race on it and all I heard was some rapcrap.

[jackie5275]

Not wanting to get into the true jazz/smooth jazz debate, my disappoint is more so that this was one of two radio stations on the Detroit dial that I could find that actually played music during the morning drive time. I prefer to listen to music during the morning drive rather than a few songs surrounded by all that extra cirricular junk on the other stations.

[Danny]

No More ALL THAT JAZZ for v 98.7. Where's another station that plays jazz.

[HazenPingree]

Now what are they going to play at every post office in the city?!

[Ravine]

Andy, since you asked about the Post Office... When you are in there, keep your ears open for the "We've Been Paying Dozens Of People To Sit And Do Nothing For Months Because We Abolished Their Jobs And Can't Figure Out What To Do With Them Except To Force Them Out Into The Street As Temporary Carriers" station.

[reddog289]

Thinking of it I first heard "smooth jazz" on WJOI 97.1. Not a big jazz fan myself Yet Dave Brubek was played enuff for me to be told that that was smooth jazz or mellow jazz, Not to be confused with "hard jazz or fusion". Good thing I could leave that part of the shop and listen to Riff, Wheels, or 89X. Maybe even Honey Radio if the static wasn't bad.

[border5150]

I think 98.7 went to smooth Jazz in early '96 or late '95.

[border5150]

True. either both the "nuts in the morning" and "I gotta telecomm degree from Specs Howard, so I'm an authority to say too much about too many things that I know far too little about like the harpies on The View" formats have to go or terrestrial radio as we know has to go.

[danofcamden]

WRCJ plays Jazz every night at 7pm 90.9 http://www.wrcjfm.org/. they even make a brief mention of the loss of the smooth jazz on their home page. the jazz hosts have their bios on the site too.

[Beatrix]

Maybe we need something like "Radio Free America". Watch out people, once again it's about money, not about people. "When it comes to money, people loose everytime".

[patmc16]

I can't remember when WLLZ went to the JAzz format. Was it 1988?

Based on when I heard the change on my lunch break and where I worked at the time, it had to have been sometime between Labor Day '95 and June of '97.

I was a WRIF listener at the time but would check out WLLZ once in a while. I remember turning it on and they were playing Anita Baker. I thought it was a joke and listened for a few minutes. Haven't been back much since.

[mallory]

You can thank Broadcast Architecture and its president, Allen Kepler for the destruction of the smooth jazz format. Broadcast Architecture is an overpriced consultancy who claims to be the be-all when it comes to smooth jazz. According to Mr. Kepler, he pretty much invented the format, except for the name "smooth jazz." He has these stations playing a mixture of pop vocals and smooth jazz, and if he doesn't like it, it doesn't get played. Only HE knows what is and is not smooth jazz. Case in point, NONE of his stations were alllowed to play Alexander Zonjik, except for V 98.7. Because, according to Mr. Kepler, smooth jazz listeners do not like the flute. But you can bet that the few stations left in his care play "Just My Imagination" by the Temptations incessantly. Why? Because HE says it belongs in the format. We all know it doesn't but HE says so, so there!

Many cities across the country have had to part with their smooth jazz stations, including Detroit, Chicago, Philly, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, and ALL consulted by this joke of a company.

Your best solution is to check out smoothjazznow.com. It plays such a great variety of what smooth jazz should be, without a ton of pop vocals. It is programmed by a guy who fired Broadcast Architecture when he took over a station many years ago. Can't get it in your car [[yet), but online, it is a breath of fresh air.