[MSB]

No audio so far, and going by the responses here, it didn't happen anyway...

Where's Radio Fail when you need her?

[georgemiller89]

I almost was going to post "I wonder if RadioFail will find it" but it appears I can edit that to say "RadioFail has it covered!"

http://radiofail.wordpress.com/2012/...dio-porn-fail/ (NSFW)

[MSB]

Oh dear...

They were definitely hacked into! Somehow suits the music.

[cazian]

The music playing when the "interruption" started is ironically, by a band called LAX! ("All My Love").

[soulboy22]

Off topic I know, but has anyone managed to get the AOD streams working on an internet radio. I found one for Dinner Jazz but its playing a show from before Christmas!

Many Thanks

[RadioJohn]

Anyone know whats happend to Paul Ruiz? he seems to have been droped from his jazz house show fri night/sat mornings??

[Charlie]

Is it me or is Jazz fm all distorted both on DAB and online, sounds sh*te!

Edit: and there's a weird background noise.
Edit 2: Just suddenly switched to Ralph Tee and sounds OK, I thought he wasn't saying a lot!

[Mark C]

Originally Posted by Charlie

Is it me or is Jazz fm all distorted both on DAB and online, sounds sh*te!

Edit: and there's a weird background noise.
Edit 2: Just suddenly switched to Ralph Tee and sounds OK, I thought he wasn't saying a lot!

I think it was the emergency back up 'tape' playing. It all went silent just before 16:00hrs, and then continuous music, with no ads or news cut in, I was quite enjoying it, but yes you're right the audio quality was bloody awful.

[tomhourigan]

Anyone else noticed Jazz FM's daytime output's moved far more mainstream in the last couple of weeks? It's sounding like the early GMG era again, with lots of Patrice Rushen, Incognito and Soul II Soul - and far less jazz than there used to be.

Which is interesting, because it's the kind of playlist you'd stick on FM if the regulator decided Global had to offload Smooth London...

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by tomhourigan

Anyone else noticed Jazz FM's daytime output's moved far more mainstream in the last couple of weeks? It's sounding like the early GMG era again, with lots of Patrice Rushen, Incognito and Soul II Soul - and far less jazz than there used to be.

Which is interesting, because it's the kind of playlist you'd stick on FM if the regulator decided Global had to offload Smooth London...

Interesting point. When Smooth ousted Jazz in London I thought it sounded like it was targeting people (probably female) who listened to the soul pirates in London in the Eighties. The current Jazz FM daytime output has a similar sound to it: mainstream soul, vocal jazz and funk. Very listenable but definitely lighter on jazz than it should be.

[norderney]

The Top 15 artists played on Jazz FM over the last month were
Nina Simone
George Benson
Steve Wonder
Ella Fitzgerald
Earth, Wind and Fire
Herbie Hancock
Aretha Franklin
Sergio Mendes
Milton Suggs
Roy Ayers
Kurt Elling
Jamie Cullum
Curtis Mayfiend
Marvin Gaye
Miles Davis

Over the last 12 months
Nina Simone
George Benson
Herbie Hancock
Ramsey Lewis
Gregory Porter
Miles Davis
Ella Fitzgerald
Stevie Wonder
Elaine Elias
Cannonball Adderley
Jamie Cullum
James Brown
Horace Silver
Donald Byrd
Diana Krall

So looks like there might have been a slight shift toward soul.

The above are taken from heir Last FM figures which only include their daytime programmes. It does not include specialist programmes. It also does not include Fusion Flavours with Steve Quirk.

http://www.last.fm/user/thisisjazzfm/tracks?page=3

[Inkblot]

Yes, that list looks very like what I've been hearing on Jazz FM lately. The other conspicuous change is that many of the tunes played during breakfast and daytimes are/were singles. For example Stevie Wonder's hits are regularly played, and the likes of Lonnie Liston Smith's Expansions - actually a great track - were originally 12" singles back in the day. I would have expected fewer singles and more album tracks on a jazz station.

[tomhourigan]

Looks like the music format's the start of something more significant - Chris Philips, Steve Quirk and Gary King have all gone, with a new schedule beginning Monday:

6am Jeff Young
10am Rosemary Laryea (ex-Colourful Radio)
2pm Nigel Williams

Specialist output in the evenings seems to be unchanged...although the VT'ed early breakfast show has been extended to start at 1am.

Talking of music, it seems to have slid even more towards the mainstream in the last week - have heard the likes of Maroon 5 and Nelly, à la the final days of Jazz FM under GMG's ownership - all looking like a financial viability exercise.

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by tomhourigan

Talking of music, it seems to have slid even more towards the mainstream in the last week - have heard the likes of Maroon 5 and Nelly, à la the final days of Jazz FM under GMG's ownership - all looking like a financial viability exercise.

Been listening to TSFJazz whilst on holiday in France recently. Much more jazz than Jazz FM and the "jazz-related" music is more like the worldwide stuff Gilles Peterson plays, rather than out-and-out pop like Jazz FM seems to favour. Which begs the usual question: why can't the UK have a proper jazz station when other countries can? (and there's far more jazz on the radio in France across the board than there is here, so the "it's because we have the BBC" argument is a non-starter)

[Bingethink]

Originally Posted by Inkblot

Been listening to TSFJazz whilst on holiday in France recently. Much more jazz than Jazz FM and the "jazz-related" music is more like the worldwide stuff Gilles Peterson plays, rather than out-and-out pop like Jazz FM seems to favour. Which begs the usual question: why can't the UK have a proper jazz station when other countries can? (and there's far more jazz on the radio in France across the board than there is here, so the "it's because we have the BBC" argument is a non-starter)

Because jazz is more popular in France?

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by Bingethink

Because jazz is more popular in France?

Dunno. Jazz FM has a reach of 573,00 according to RAJAR. A quick search finds a report in French that TSF Jazz had "more than 246,000 daily listeners" in 2010.

[soulboy22]

Originally Posted by tomhourigan

Looks like the music format's the start of something more significant - Chris Philips, Steve Quirk and Gary King have all gone, with a new schedule beginning Monday:

6am Jeff Young
10am Rosemary Laryea (ex-Colourful Radio)
2pm Nigel Williams

Specialist output in the evenings seems to be unchanged...although the VT'ed early breakfast show has been extended to start at 1am.

Talking of music, it seems to have slid even more towards the mainstream in the last week - have heard the likes of Maroon 5 and Nelly, à la the final days of Jazz FM under GMG's ownership - all looking like a financial viability exercise.

Shame about Steve Quirk leaving, His show was of the few places you could hear smooth jazz on UK Radio

[Francis H]

Originally Posted by tomhourigan

Looks like the music format's the start of something more significant - Chris Philips, Steve Quirk and Gary King have all gone, with a new schedule beginning Monday:

I've just heard an advert going out voiced by Chris Philips. He's on holiday next week and hasn't left the station. Looks like a lot of the weekend shows such as Mike Chadwick, Peter Young and Robbie Vincent are still going to be on in the new line-up.

[Mark C]

Originally Posted by Francis H

I've just heard an advert going out voiced by Chris Philips. He's on holiday next week and hasn't left the station. Looks like a lot of the weekend shows such as Mike Chadwick, Peter Young and Robbie Vincent are still going to be on in the new line-up.

I was disappointed to discover that Leo Green's Sunday afternoon show, has been replaced by some awful syndicated Dan Ackroyd blues show ?

[tghe-retford]

Originally Posted by soulboy22

Shame about Steve Quirk leaving, His show was of the few places you could hear smooth jazz on UK Radio

I agree, a terrible shame and one of Jazz FM's, if not radio's, longest lasting shows. Fusion Flavours has been going between stations since 1990, even surviving Smooth FM.

And that'll be the end of smooth jazz on Jazz FM too, the change in playlist suggests a change to soul and pop. It's 2005 all over again. I actually joked to myself how Jazz FM was starting to sound like a hybrid blend of Capital and Heart.

We have the specialist shows - for now, but history shows when Jazz FM realigned to a more mainstream format in 2003 onwards, the specialist shows started to disappear, and if they can get rid of a 20+ year old show, I'd worry about the other shows too in due time.

Want your smooth jazz? Look elsewhere.

[Inkblot]

Originally Posted by Mark C

I was disappointed to discover that Leo Green's Sunday afternoon show, has been replaced by some awful syndicated Dan Ackroyd blues show ?

Yes, it's a strange move. Last time I listened, Aykroyd was playing some dodgy tracks by an ageing country-rock musician that sounded very wrong on Jazz FM.

Originally Posted by tghe-retford

Want your smooth jazz? Look elsewhere.

If it means more jazz on the station, that's surely a good thing. If it means more pop, that's a bad thing.

[Martin Phillp]

It looks like the wheel of Jazz FM has returned, it's slipping into the Smooth FM format where the specialist shows were maintained with a soul skewed daytime playlist.

With Smooth Radio Mark 2 set to close next year, Jazz FM may be attempting to target some of those listeners.

[Inkblot]

And another thing... just had the weekly Jazz FM email with a link to a survey about the station. Followed the link hoping it would be about the music policy.

It wasn't. It was about lawyers Mishcon de Reya's sponsorship of a Jazz FM programme about entrepreneurs. This is a station that's apparently diluting its jazz content to appeal to a younger, less musically educated audience and it's selling its airtime to expensive law firms on the basis that potential business clients will tune in?

[SouthCity]

The year ended 31 March 2012 figures are not yet published but it looks like the management have seen the figures and decided that enough is enough, and changes have to be made.

At 31 March 2011 the company had accumulated losses of £3 million (they lost £1.4 million in that year alone). In the light of that they cannot just carry on regardless or the station will go bust.

It's easy to be an armchair critic when you don't have to balance the books.

Perhaps a relevant question would be why a station with 573,000 listeners (mainly ABC1s) cannot attract enough advertising and sponsorship revenue to be able to trade profitably.

[tomhourigan]

Originally Posted by Francis H

I've just heard an advert going out voiced by Chris Philips. He's on holiday next week and hasn't left the station.

Apologies - I made an assumption there, given I knew it was Steve and Gary's last shows today and Chris had conveniently vanished from the schedule on the same day.

My guess is, though, this is the necessary evil to be able to sustain the number of specialist shows off-peak financially - to be fair, they've only gone mega-mainstream in the last couple of months, having tried to be genuinely different for 4 years...I imagine, as in the station's umpteen previous incarnations, the numbers just aren't adding up - and RAJAR-wise, the reach has been stubbornly at half a million for ages.