RE: WSJZ Smooth Jazz

["Dave Markson" <dmarkson@att.net>]

The switch from NAC to Talk sure has caused lots of discussion.  Although I
am not in the Broadcasting field, it has been my hobby of following it very
closely for the past 25 years. Many people discouraged me from going into
the broadcasting field, but I still remain very interested in what is
happening.

I am a devoted SJ fan for the past 20 years. I am extremely disappointed in
the loss of SJ in the Boston area. Again. When I saw the spring numbers come
out I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. When the buzz about FM
talk radio came out I knew what was going to happen. The only ray of hope
were rumors about WBOS. That was not to be. WSJZ was GM's lowest rated
station for the spring so it's not rocket science that it was going to be
the first to go down. Business is business.  Sigh.  I do believe that WSJZ
was making money. But I can't believe that it was anywhere close to that of
WMJX.  In Pittsburgh, WJJJ was pulling a 4.0 with SJ and they still pulled
the plug for Jammin' oldies.

I do not doubt that some of GM's management is anti-SJ.  It seems that SJ is
like a magnet, attracting a very loyal group as well as a group of SJ haters
(some that just dislike the sound and some traditional jazz purists that
think that SJ has poisoned the jazz format.)  It's hard to put your heart
into something that you don't like. Kind of like me and country music :)
Although GM did do some good things to try and boost SJ it didn't do much in
the way of advertising from what I saw. The promotion with the 7up guy
worked great but it was downhill after that.

GM isn't going to see me at WMJX for sure (except for Sunday Morning Jazz in
which it is competing with WHOM and WFNX).

GM should be ashamed of their top of the hour ID. I listened to it several
times and I sure can't make it out. Very unprofessional.

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