Re: smooth jazz

[Mike Thomas <nostatic@earthlink.net>]

Smooth Jazz didn't work in Boston for two reasons.  One, the minority
population is not large enough, and it's an important demographic for a
smooth jazz station.  Places like Philly, DC, Los Angeles, Miami,
Houston and Chicago are markets where the format does well.  Boston
simply doesn't have the demographic makeup to support such a station.
Of course, it's not only minorities that listen to smooth jazz, and that
leads me to my second point.

A crucial element of a Smooth Jazz station is midday, at-work office
listening.  Boston has two stations that fill that bill in the demos
that smooth jazz targets, and have done so for many years--WMJX and
WCRB.  Boston tends to choose classical over smooth jazz.  In the
handful of markets left around the country that have both a smooth jazz
and a classical station, one usually does a lot better than the other.
Some places are classical towns, like Seattle and New York, others lean
toward smooth jazz like DC and LA. Boston simply prefers to relax to
classical and soft AC, not smooth jazz.

Mike Thomas

"Bob Nelson...WMWM" wrote:

> Not sure how long WXPS will run that format but you
> wonder why the format didn't last at WSJZ, WOAZ,
> WPLM-FM, and WCDJ (think I got all those call letters
> right). Why did the format not "make it" in Boston?
> And any word on how smooth jazz is doing in other
> markets?