As far as smooth jazz radio is concerned 2008 went out much like it started. Beginning the day after Christmas, Clear Channel’s WLVE (Love 94) in Miami switched from Smooth Jazz to what it is calling Rhythmic AC. What that really means is the station, now dubbed 93.9-FM MIA, ‘Move to the Music’, will be playing inoffensive and semi-current hits from the likes of Leona Lewis and Rihanna plus a clutch of instantly forgettable oldies from Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez. Frighteningly the word is that Rick Astley's ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ has already been heard.Although the Smooth Jazz format will soon be available on the station’s HD2 sub-channel the move is entirely consistent with the genre’s ‘on air’ demise. Following on from the loss of smooth jazz radio in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia Washington DC and Jacksonville, the closure is just one more in a sequence that has decimated the market right down the I-95 corridor. There is little doubt that, when the casualties in Houston and Denver are added in, the prognosis is indeed dire.
Leaving aside the growing band of smooth jazz starved radio listeners, the principle victims in all of this are those mainly independent artists who struggle to find an outlet. Consequently let’s thank heavens for the publicists, websites and streaming radio stations who are prepared to offer a voice to those performers who otherwise would now never be heard.
It’s a Smooth Jazz Therapy prediction that 2009 will be the year when the phoenix that is Smooth Jazz rises from the flames to find a new on-line home. Check back here often to follow how it happens.
By: Smooth Jazz Therapy, written and produced by Denis Poole.
Smooth Jazz Therapy
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