102.2 Jazz FM (also known as London Jazz Radio and JFM) was an Independent Local Radio for London run by GMG Radio. The station was based in and broadcast from Castlereagh Street in London. The station experimented with its core playlist over its fifteen-year history, incorporating smooth jazz, mainstream jazz, soul, jazz fusion, acid jazz, blues and rhythm and blues. In 1994, the station changed its name to JFM to encourage more listeners who were put off by the 'Jazz' in the station's name. Richard Wheatly was appointed in 1995 to turn the station around when there was only three months' money left to run the station. He made a number of sweeping changes to the playlist, selling a sister station and changing the name back to Jazz FM, as well as starting up a record label and spin-off business deals and opportunities which helped Jazz FM swing into the black and make a profit in 2001.
In July 2002, after a relaxation in ownership rules from the publication of the Communications Bill, the Guardian Media Group's (GMG) radio division was able to purchase the station for £44.5 million. GMG made more changes to the playlist, shifting to more R&B, soul, easy listening and adult contemporary music during the daytime. In 2004 with the agreement of Ofcom, jazz was dropped from the daytime schedules, but a requirement of 45 hours per week of jazz was retained, this to be played during the night.
In June 2005, GMG Radio replaced the station with adult contemporary station 102.2 Smooth FM. GMG cited a number of reasons for replacing Jazz FM, including poor listening figures, not making money, the 'Jazz' name putting off potential listeners as well as not enough jazz for jazz purists. The Jazz FM name was retained by GMG for the relaunched ejazz.fm website service which was renamed jazzfm.com on the same day as the launch of Smooth FM. The station broadcast on digital satellite, online and on spare DAB capacity in Yorkshire, South Wales and the Severn Estuary where 102.2 Smooth FM and the defunct Smooth Digital service would have been duplicated.
On 28 February 2008, GMG Radio announced the potential return of Jazz FM in London on DAB radio, digital satellite and the Internet as a relaunch of the current jazzfm.com service. The station relaunched on 6 October 2008.
History The station was launched as a result of a ten-year campaign by musician Dave Lee and Jasper Grinling (CBE 1978; Chairman, London Jazz Radio plc, 1989–91) who was inspired after listening to a Los Angeles jazz radio station, which has turned into a classical station. In 1980, Lee wrote the following to the Independent Broadcasting Authority: "Dear Sir, I hereby apply for a licence to open a jazz radio station in London."
With competition from Kiss FM for one of the Londonwide incremental radio licenses, the IBA awarded the London Jazz Radio group the licence on 12 July 1989. Ron Onions, the former editor-in-chief of LBC, was appointed station director.Ron Onions, "Media: Jazz FM - Between the Lines", The Guardian, London, England, 05 March 1990. As Jazz FM the station launched on 4 March 1990 with an Ella Fitzgerald concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Fitzgerald was flown in by the station to perform the concert, at which she sang with the Count Basie Orchestra; the concert was her last appearance in Europe. To promote the station, Jazz FM paid out £750,000 for advertising on ITV.
Jazz FM faced insolvency in its early life. Broadcast Investments made an offer of £348,000 to purchase the station. Broadcast Investments withdrew the offer when Golden Rose Communications made a higher offer of £500,000 for the station. Golden Rose Communications took over the station in 1991. Former finance director Alastair Mackenzie stated that in an interview in 2002 that the station had run out of money three times in 1991, and he also helped with a management buy-in of the station for £435,000 in 1992.
Jazz FM's licence was put up for renewal in 1993 by the Radio Authority. As well as Jazz FM, there was a bid for the licence from Euro Jazz London, which included ex-Jazz FM employees. Jazz FM retained its licence to broadcast.
In 1994, the name of the station was changed to JFM by the station's management in order to appeal to more listeners who may have been put off by the name "jazz" in Jazz FM, and who thought that Jazz FM only played jazz records. The station spent £500,000 on publicising the name change. Richard Wheatly was appointed chief executive officer in 1995 to revive JFM which was running out of money due to both JFM and sister radio station Viva AM, a radio station for women. When Wheatly joined JFM, the station had three months cash remaining in the bank. Golden Rose Communications was floated on the stock exchange in the early part of 1995. Wheatly sold Viva AM which was losing £100,000 a month before the sale for £3 million to Mohamed Al-Fayed as part of his cost-cutting plans. After 15 months of being branded as JFM, in the autumn of 1995 the name reverted to Jazz FM after Wheatly asked the Radio Authority for approval to change the name of the station back from JFM to Jazz FM. The change back to Jazz FM was reported to have cost £900,000.
Golden Rose Communications opened a jazz themed restaurant, Cafe Jazbar in Liverpool in April 1997. The restaurant was operated under a joint venture with Regent Inns. A travel service in partnership with Thomas Cook Group and British Airways was also set up. There were plans for jazz retail outlets named "Jazshops" to sell CDs and merchandise.
In December 1997, Golden Rose Communications planned to make a bid for Melody 105.4 FM which failed. The station was purchased by EMAP and rebranded Magic 105.4 FM.
Jazz FM Regional and ILR FM applications Area Year Successful Applicant Reference North West 1993 (launched 1994) 100.4 Jazz FM(licensed as Jazz FM 100.4, launched as JFM 100.4) Central Scotland 1998 Beat FM North East England 1998 Galaxy North East South Wales 1999 Real Radio Yorkshire 2001 Real Radio West Midlands 2003 Kerrang! 105.2 Glasgow 2003 Saga 105.2
Beginning in 1998, Jazz FM wanted to expand its operation across the UK. The station made bids to run stations on FM frequencies in Central Scotland, the North East of England, South Wales, Yorkshire, the West Midlands, and Glasgow. Jazz FM withdrew from bidding for an FM licence in the East Midlands because chief executive Richard Wheatly believed that a dance station would secure the licence. The East Midlands FM licence was awarded to Saga 106.6 FM which started broadcasting in 2003. Jazz FM did become a member of the MXR consortium and did launch on DAB multiplexes operated by MXR as well as Switch Digital multiplexes in London and Central Scotland.
The station signed a deal with Clear Channel Communications in February 1999. The deal not only invested £3 million into the station but also allowed Jazz FM to advertise on unused advertising billboards.
On 12 December 1999, Golden Rose Communications changed its name to Jazz FM plc. In January 2002, Jazz FM plc made a £20 million bid for London talk radio station London News Radio. The bid was backed by the Guardian Media Group (GMG) and Clear Channel International. If the bid had succeeded, the station would have combined London News Radio's operations with its own to save money. The station was later sold to the Chrysalis Group for £23.5 million. In May 2002, GMG made a bid of £41 million to Jazz FM plc at 180p per share. The bid came on the day the draft Communication Bill was published.
Jazz FM plc's largest shareholder, Clear Channel, had been waiting for a 220p-per-share bid, but agreed to the 180p-per-share bid in late May. Herald Investment Management, which had a 7.7% stake in the company, and Aberforth Partners were unhappy with the 180p-per-share bid. On 6 June, GMG raised its bid to 195p per share to secure the institutional shareholders who were holding out for a better bid. Richard Wheatly announced that he would leave Jazz FM once the takeover was complete. The offer was declared wholly unconditional on 5 July. In December 2002, GMG moved its sales operation from Clear Channel Radio Sales to the Chrysalis Group, inline with the sales operation for other GMG Radio stations.
Jazz FM TV Plans for a Jazz FM TV channel to start in the middle of 2004 were reported by websites from 2003. The channel would have been a mix of music videos and documentaries.
Making way for Smooth FM
In 2005, GMG dropped the name "jazz" name and rebranded Jazz FM Smooth FM. Chief Executive John Myers said, "As sorry as we are to say goodbye to Jazz FM, it's a sad fact of life that it has never made a profit in its 15 years of existence." However, in 2001 Jazz FM plc did make a profit before tax for the six months to December 2000 of £60,000, with most of the profit coming from Hed Kandi and other Jazz FM Records CD sales, a move of Jazz FM's sales team to Clear Channel's control, saving Jazz FM plc £1 million every year and increased revenues from advertising due to higher audience figures. Jazz FM also announced in 2001 that it had made full year profits before tax of £134,000 to 30 June 2001.
Other reasons given for rebranding included disappointing RAJAR figures, that the Jazz FM name discouraged people from listening, and that the station wasn't playing enough jazz for the purists. The latter situation was solved by GMG Radio when it invested in the ejazz.fm website and changed the name to jazzfm.com at the same time 102.2 Jazz FM became 102.2 Smooth FM. Included in the investment would be two dedicated jazz stations.
The North West version of Jazz FM was the first to rebrand on 1 March 2004, followed by the London version (including the Freeview and many of the DAB feeds) on 7 June 2005. During the last few weeks before the start of Smooth FM, Jazz FM changed its jingles slightly from "Smooth Jazz and Classic Soul" to "London's Smooth Favourites" as an indication to listeners of the change to come. Jazz FM in its previous form closed on Friday 27 May 2005. The last track it played was "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Ella Fitzgerald.
Return to the airwaves
The station continued to broadcast after the launch of Smooth FM under the Jazz FM name as jazzfm.com on the Internet and on Digital Audio Broadcasting in West Central Scotland at a higher bit rate.
On 28 February 2008 GMG Radio's chief executive John Myers announced that Jazz FM would return in London, the North West, and the West Midlands on DAB. Myers also said it would make more sense to have a dedicated radio station for jazz listeners than the 45 hours of jazz on Smooth FM, as required by the licence granted to them by Ofcom. The closing of theJazz on Digital One was one reason for the return of Jazz FM. The relaunch of jazzfm.com, under a three-year deal with The Local Radio Company, happened on 6 October 2008.
Playlist When Jazz FM launched, the station played a mixture of mainstream jazz, with the daytime schedules dedicated to smooth jazz and soul. Specialist programming from Jez Nelson and concerts were broadcast in the evening and at weekends. In 1992, the policy changed, and all non-jazz programming was taken off the schedules.
In 1994, alongside the change of name to JFM, the core playlist was changed under agreement with the Radio Authority to give a more mainstream sound of soul, jazz fusion, and blues music, with a requirement that only 25% of music played on the station had to be jazz.
In 1995, when the name changed back to Jazz FM, smooth jazz and fusion were reduced. More popular mainstream jazz was put in the playlist.