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.
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.
[1] 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).
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".
The format had been deemed "new-age" originally and radio stations like WNUA Chicago and KNUA Seattle emulated the phrase in their call letters.
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.
[9] New stations in 1995 included KCIY in Kansas City, Missouri; KMJZ in Minneapolis; WSJZ in Buffalo, New York; and WJCD in Norfolk, Virginia.
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.
[15] 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.
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 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[16] returns for smooth jazz stations than the traditional diary system had.
Smooth AC stations played more of the vocalists popular on smooth jazz stations, such as Luther Vandross, Sade, Robin Thicke, Anita Baker, and Basia, while incorporating more mainstream and urban AC material from artists such as Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, and Maroon 5 and limiting instrumentals to two or three cuts an hour (and usually restricting airplay of instrumentals to artists such as Kenny G, Dave Koz and Chuck Mangione who had crossover pop success).
Other stations followed suit, including the late WLFM-LP in Chicago; WXJZ in Gainesville, Florida; KIFM in San Diego; and WNWV in Cleveland, which relaunched under its former "107-3 The Wave" identity as a Smooth AC on January 4, 2012.
By 2009, as smooth jazz continued its rapid decline on the commercial radio airwaves, a growing number of non-commercial stations (including some LPFMs) have taken up the music and added it to their programming.
The show took its name from the early-evening program pioneered in 1976 by WHUR-FM in Washington, D.C. and duplicated with great success as a 24-hour format from 1979 to 2012 by KBLX-FM in San Francisco.
Among the markets featuring full-time AM smooth jazz outlets are Seattle, Washington (KZIZ 1560 AM) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (WDAS 1480 AM, simulcasting WUMR 106.1 FM HD2).
Some examples include WRRM Warm 98 in Cincinnati, WZUN-FM in Syracuse, New York, KVIL in Dallas, Texas, WMXC in Mobile, Alabama, and WSOL in Jacksonville, Florida.
An oddity in this category is WLAV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a classic rock station which features a "cool jazz" brunch show on Sunday mornings.
The network soon spread to 25 markets across the US, with among its more notable affiliates including WJCD in Norfolk, Virginia; WJZL in Lansing, Michigan; WQJZ in Ocean Pines, Maryland; KJZS in Reno, Nevada; WKYL in Lexington, Kentucky; KORL-FM in Honolulu, Hawaii; WAEG in Augusta, Georgia; and WAUN-FM in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
WLFM-LP in Chicago also began as a 100% satellite-fed Broadcast Architecture affiliate, but soon went to mainly local programming during weekdays with the satellite feed filling most of the remainder of the schedule.
The current air talent lineup on the Smooth Jazz Network includes Kenny G and Sandy Kovach (formerly of WVMV "V98.7" Detroit) mornings, Miranda Wilson middays, Allan Kepler during afternoon drive, and Maria Lopez evenings and overnights, with weekend personalities including Norman Brown, Paul Hardcastle, and Allan Kepler's Smooth Jazz Top 20 Countdown.
Elements of the smooth jazz format are also present in the Timeless Cool format distributed by Timeless Cool Music, Inc., which features a mixture of smooth and traditional jazz with adult standards by artists like Ray Charles, Madeleine Peyroux, and Bobby Darin and adult alternative performers such as Jack Johnson, Amy Winehouse, and Annie Lennox.
[28][29] In 2021, CHKX owner Durham Radio reached an agreement to acquire CIRH-FM in Vancouver, which it then re-launched in 2022 with a smooth AC format as Wave 98.3.
Upon takeover by the Guardian Media Group in 2003, the station started to create playlists predominantly consisting of easy listening soul and pop.