Smooth jazz is a radio format that includes songs by artists such as George Benson, Pat Metheny, Kenny G, Luther Vandross, Sade, Robin Thicke, Anita Baker, Basia, Dave Koz and Chuck Mangione. It began in the 1980s as "adult alternative" or NAC (New Age Contemporary or New Adult Contemporary), a well-defined radio format, with jazz, new-age music and adult contemporary music. In the 1990s, the format became much more jazz-oriented, with very little new-age, and emphasizing young artists.
Around 2007, the format became less popular; it was abandoned by several high-profile radio stations across the United States, including WQCD (now WFAN-FM) in New York, WNUA Chicago (now WCHI-FM), WJJZ in Philadelphia (now WUMR), and KKSF (now KOSF) in San Francisco. Programmers say the audience for the format has aged beyond the prime demographic sought by advertisers. Despite the format's demise outside a handful of commercial radio outlets, a number of non-commercial and HD stations have taken up the music. It is still available on SiriusXM on Channel 66, known as "Watercolors" and on the Music Choice cable radio service. In addition, smooth jazz concerts, recording sales, as well as increased smooth jazz offerings on the Internet, continue to show strong fan support for the genre.
Early history Smooth jazz as a radio format has its roots in the construction of what were once called "beautiful music" stations, which generally played fifteen-minute sets consisting of instrumentals bookending a vocal song or two. The incubators of the format were specialty shows at night or on the weekends, in places such as Atlanta (WQXI-FM and WVEE-FM), Miami (WWWL-FM) and San Antonio (KTFM). The first jazz radio station to attempt to reach an audience beyond hardcore jazz fans full-time was New York's WRVR-FM, which was acquired by Sonderling Broadcasting in 1976. Under its new management, WRVR more than tripled its audience by emphasizing artists like George Benson and Pat Metheny that were crossing over to more popular formats. Other early pioneers included WLOQ in Orlando, Florida (which began programming such a format in 1977), Russ Davis in Atlanta and "Jazz Flavours", Al Winters and "The Quiet Storm", Ross Block, Dave Caprita and Stu Grant at Love 94FM with "Sunday Morning Jazz" in Miami and Art Good at KIFM San Diego with "Lights Out San Diego".
In 1983, "adult alternative" became a well-defined radio format, with jazz, new-age music and adult contemporary music. In 1987, the switch by album-oriented rock KMET in Los Angeles to KTWV "The Wave" made the format more popular.
After programmer Frank Cody began "The Wave" in Los Angeles and the simultaneous KIFM (San Diego) and the eclectic KKSF (San Francisco), the number of stations banking on "The Wave's" softer sound grew quickly. Those included "Breezin' 100.7" in Milwaukee and KHIH in Denver programmed by consultant Gary Guthrie, WNUA (Chicago) consulted by Cody, WVAE (a short-lived Wave network affiliate from 1987–89) and WJZZ in Detroit, WNWV in Cleveland (which began as a Wave affiliate but eventually moved to local programming), and the re-launch of WQCD (CD101.9), New York. Also Love94FM [WWWL, later WLVE] in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, an early innovator with its "Sunday Morning Jazz" show went totally smooth jazz by 1990, not long after The Wave in Los Angeles had switched to the format. The format had been deemed "new-age" originally and radio stations like WNUA Chicago and KNUA Seattle emulated the phrase in their call letters. For a short time in 1987–1988, Chicago actually had two such stations, as the "Wave" network was also heard on WTWV-FM, licensed to suburban Des Plaines (now WPPN).
In the late 1980s, research firm Cody/Leach conducted a study for WNUA–Chicago; it was through the verbatim responses from listeners that the name "Smooth Jazz" was identified. WNUA then adopted the slogan "Smooth Rock and Smooth Jazz", replacing the old slogan "Music for a New Age" as the station added more vocals and dropped most "avant-garde" instrumentals. Under the direction of General Manager John Gehron, "Smooth Rock" was dropped. Cody is credited with making Smooth Jazz a household name, giving rise to its nationwide proliferation through the firm Broadcast Architecture, the widely syndicated "The Jazz Show with David Sanborn" and his association with saxophonist Dave Koz. Cody was also responsible for overseeing the launch of the now defunct Satellite Music Network's syndicated "Wave" format.
Over a six-year period ending in 1993, the format increased its audience by 140 percent, and from 1992 to 1993, by 67 percent. Listeners were 71 percent white and 28 percent black. Advertisers recognized that adult alternative music tended to attract buyers of upscale items. The format became much more jazz-oriented, with very little new-age, and even while emphasizing young artists, the format kept its heritage acts as well. However, smooth jazz did add artists from adult contemporary music to increase its popularity with a larger audience; artists included Mariah Carey, Bonnie Raitt, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Michael Bolton, Tina Turner, and Janet Jackson. The smooth jazz format also added R&B; according to Cary Goldberg of JVC, Paul Hardcastle "brought a sophisticated, urban groove" to the format. She said, "Instead of bringing jazz to R&B, he's brought an R&B groove to contemporary jazz."
The smooth jazz music mix included 70 percent instrumentals and 30 percent vocals. Programmers no longer regarded the music as merely "background". The format's most successful stations included WNUA, KKSF, KOAI, WNWV and KIFM, as well as WQCD, which had a significant rating increase in Fall 1993.
In 1994, smooth jazzStill referred to as "adult alternative" in Billboard until the magazine began using the term for album alternative experienced the largest increase in the relationship between audience share and advertising revenue ("power ratio"). Although the format was increasing in popularity, M Street Journal counted 43 stations in the format, down from 64 in 1989. But new stations such as KKJZ in Portland, Oregon and KLJZ in New Orleans experienced immediate success. New stations in 1995 included KCIY in Kansas City, Missouri; KMJZ in Minneapolis; WSJZ in Buffalo, New York; and WJCD in Norfolk, Virginia.
Smooth Jazz has gone on to be recognized as a successful radio format, first emerging in name in the mid- to late-1980s (often, they would be transitioned from existing "new-age" stations) and subsequently spreading into most radio markets within the United States as well as to other countries.
Smooth jazz radio today
Recent problems The smooth jazz radio format continued to grow and thrive through the 1990s and early 2000s, though in the late 2000s most markets began losing smooth jazz stations. In a number of media markets, this format is no longer available over the air except online, via Music Choice (an option made available by some cable television providers such as Comcast), and on HD Radio. Currently, the most prominent of the few remaining commercial (and independently programmed) smooth jazz stations are WSBZ "The Seabreeze" in Destin, Florida, and WEIB in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Three of the originators of the smooth jazz format - WQCD in New York City, WNUA in Chicago, and KKSF in San Francisco - have all changed format in the last decade. The format has also disappeared from the commercial radio dial in most other major and medium markets in the United States, and has completely vanished in Canada, where the format was less common at its peak due to relative lack of content to fulfill Canadian content regulations.
However, smooth jazz or some variant thereof has made a minor comeback in some markets, via AM stations (see below), FM HD Radio side channel/analog translator combos, or so-called "Franken-FM"s (actually low-power analog television stations on Channel 6 which serve a double function as radio stations due to the audio portion of the broadcast being audible on 87.75 MHz, possible because the FCC has not yet required low-power TV stations to convert to digital transmission). One such Such "Franken-FM" has popped up in Chicago (WLFM-LP, which has since changed format several times) and Anchorage, Alaska (with a more traditional jazz/blues flavor as KNIK-LP, using the call sign of a former smooth jazz station there which had flipped to adult contemporary). The format made a second comeback in Chicago in December 2014 via an FM HD side channel/analog translator combo. Similar FM HD side channel/analog translator combos also briefly allowed the format to return to the airwaves in markets such as Detroit, Orlando, Florida, and Honolulu, Hawaii; all of these have since changed format.
In January 2012, in a rare case, a former smooth jazz station actually returned to its former format after the replacement format had failed. WNWV/107.3 in Cleveland had dropped its long-running "Wave" smooth-jazz format in favor of adult alternative after Christmas of 2009, under the ownership of Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting. On January 4, 2012, new owners Rubber City Radio Group restored the "Wave" format to the analog radio dial in Cleveland as a Smooth AC outlet, after a period of stunting with Christmas music. In 2013 the station evolved back into smooth jazz, although the word "jazz" was not included in the station's imaging. The format changed once again, albeit rather abruptly, at the start of 2020.
Reasons The decline in popularity of the smooth jazz format has been blamed on a variety of factors, including lack of exposing compelling new music, over-reliance on instrumental cover versions of pop songs similar to the mostly-defunct Beautiful Music format, and Arbitron's PPM reports showing lower ratings returns for smooth jazz stations than the traditional diary system had. Lack of revenue and the genre not being viable during the Great Recession have also been cited as reasons. Many purists of the format also feel that the smooth jazz interpretation has strayed too far from its roots in contemporary jazz and new-age music by over-relying on soft urban vocals, with R&B artists such as Beyoncé Knowles and Aretha Franklin now staples of many smooth-jazz playlists. Others indicate that the repetition of the same tracks on stations—particularly those owned by Clear Channel Communications (now iHeart Media)—and the reduction of artists recording tracks resulting in fewer tracks for airplay may have also contributed to the decline.
American saxophonist Dave Koz responded back in November 2009 to the claims that the smooth jazz radio genre was in decline by stating that although the audience has aged and not enough young people were embracing the format, making it harder to gain advertising revenue, the genre is still seeing the support in record sales and audiences at shows. He also suggested that the format may move from a genre covered by big FM stations to one covered by smaller stations, in particular Internet radio stations, which were showing an increase in popularity.
Some of the former terrestrial smooth jazz stations, including the former KHJZ in Houston, the former WVMV in Detroit, and the former WLVE in Miami continue to offer smooth jazz programming as Internet streams or as offerings on their HD subchannels. Some stations which are still providing smooth jazz and are still popular in their respective markets, including Jazz FM in the United Kingdom used to integrate traditional and popular jazz and jazz standards alongside smooth jazz tracks in their playlists and the internet only radio station Best Smooth Jazz hosted by Rod Lucas.
The Smooth AC format