| Slogan | Listen in Colour |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Great Britain (DAB - Digital One (11D), Satellite) International (Internet) |
| First air date | 7 June 2005 (as jazzfm.com) 6 October 2008 (as Jazz FM) |
| Format | Jazz |
| Audience share | 0.2% (June 2011, [1]) |
| Owner | Jazz FM Investments Ltd.[1] (under license from GMG Radio) |
| Website | www.jazzfm.com www.listenincolour.com |
Jazz FM, formerly known as jazzfm.com and ejazz.fm, is a radio station broadcasting on digital radio in the United Kingdom which predominately plays smooth jazz, jazz standards as well as blues and soul music. The station also plays specialist programming in a wide variety of jazz disciplines. The station was originally run by The Local Radio Company from October 6, 2008 as part of a three year licensing deal with GMG Radio,[2] but is now run by Jazz FM Investments Ltd. The station as of March 21, 2011 broadcasts across Great Britain on the Digital One DAB ensemble.[3] Prior to this date, the station broadcast on DAB ensembles in London, the West Midlands, the North West of England, West Central Scotland as well as free-to-air digital satellite via the Sky satellite platform from its intinal launch date and the Freesat satellite platform from 21 October 2008. The station launched on October 6, 2008 at 19:00 BST (18:00 UTC).[4][5] It was also formerly available in South Wales and the Severn Estuary on DAB until March 21, 2011 when Jazz FM's national service launched, and the service could be heard in these areas again.
The station started off as a separate website named ejazz as an accompaniment to the now defunct 102.2 Jazz FM and 100.4 Jazz FM stations in London and the North West respectively. GMG Radio revamped the site in 2004 and in 2005 when the London Jazz FM station was replaced with 102.2 Smooth FM, the ejazz website adopted the Jazz FM name and moved to jazzfm.com. Jazzfm.com also took up DAB slots in Yorkshire, South Wales and the Severn Estuary to relay the Blue Room stream of smooth jazz and funk music from the website at a higher bitrate, which were left vacant by the defunct Smooth Digital radio station.[6] GMG also launched jazzfm.com on free-to-air digital satellite via the Sky platform, but closed it down in 2006 to save money to re-invest into the website. The station also took spare slots when GMG Radio bought the Saga radio stations across the UK, but also sold jazzfm.com DAB slots to a number of buyers, including Leeds United A.F.C. and United Christian Broadcasters. In 2008, GMG made plans to relaunch Jazz FM in a move to encourage Ofcom to remove jazz commitments from the licences of 102.2 Smooth Radio and 100.4 Smooth Radio. The format change was denied but GMG promised to continue its plans to relaunch jazzfm.com as Jazz FM, including a three year licensing deal with The Local Radio Company. In January 2009, The Local Radio Company placed the station up for sale. Richard Wheatly, former executive chairman of The Local Radio Company headed a consortium for a management buyout of the station and subsequently purchased the station for £1 in April 2009. He was also the CEO of the former Jazz FM between 1995 and 2002.
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The original site ejazz.fm launched by Jazz FM [7] on 7 June 2000[8] as a website focused on the wide genre of jazz and included free and subscription based jazz content[9] as well as two continuous jazz music streams for uptempo and downtempo jazz. The website was originally designed by the DDW agency.[10] Club ejazz for a subscription of £5 a month allowed listeners to listen to exclusive one hour specialist shows from Jazz FM presenters as well as live and recorded concert material.[11][12]
The website was relaunched by the Guardian Media Group to its current look on 12 July 2004[13] promising more than 200 specially commissioned programmes exclusive to the website,[14] with five new programmes being added each month from Jazz FM's presenters such as Sarah Ward, the late Campbell Burnap and Peter Young, as well as jazz news and features, including the ejazz.fm artist of the month. The subscription fee for Club ejazz was dropped but user registration remained.
The website was heavily promoted[9] via the Jazz FM website and through advertising on Jazz FM.
The ejazz.fm website was renamed to jazzfm.com on 7 June 2005, alongside the change of 102.2 Jazz FM to 102.2 Smooth FM. It was on this date that the radio station appeared on DAB in Yorkshire, South Wales and the Severn Estuary using spare capacity from the now defunct Smooth Digital service.[6] The station also broadcast on free-to-air digital satellite and via the Sky platform.
It was announced that on Monday 10 April 2006 that the service will no longer be available in Yorkshire on DAB from the Summer of 2006 after a deal was reached with Leeds United and the multiplex owner, MXR Yorkshire to launch a new sports and music radio station, Yorkshire Radio, which has taken over the space formerly occupied by jazzfm.com. The Yorkshire jazzfm.com service closed on 26 June 2006 to make way for Yorkshire Radio test transmissions to take place, ready for its launch on 10 July 2006.[15][16]
The station was also carried on the Sky platform across the United Kingdom, but on Wednesday 3 May 2006, jazzfm.com was removed from the electronic program guide, and did continue to be broadcast from the Astra 2B satellite, one of the satellites which provides part of the Sky service, for a short while after. GMG Radio said that the money saved by pulling the plug on the Sky and DAB services will be re-invested into the website.[17] The jazzfm.com Blue Room stream would still be available on the website.
In March 2007, GMG Radio purchased and rebranded all the Saga stations.[18] In the West Midlands, Saga 105.7 FM and Smooth Radio both broadcast on the MXR West Midlands DAB ensemble.[19] Smooth FM and Saga 105.7 FM merged to become Smooth Radio and the spare slot formerly used by Smooth FM was replaced with jazzfm.com. The service also replaced Saga 105.2 FM on Monday March 26 on the Score Glasgow multiplex as Smooth Radio is already broadcast on the Switch Central Scotland ensemble.[20]
Panjab Radio has replaced jazzfm.com with Panjab Radio and Asian FX in the West Midlands on 1 November 2007 after a deal between the station and multiplex owner MXR was reached.[21]
GMG Radio was also looking to sell its other DAB slot currently held in South Wales and the Severn Estuary since the closure of jazzfm.com in Yorkshire.[17] The South Wales and the Severn Estuary service was earmarked to close in late 2006, but continued to broadcast after this date. However, in an Ofcom radio broadcast update for August 2007, it was confirmed that the South Wales and the Severn Estuary service would close at an unspecified date to allow the launch of two stations from United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) in a separate deal with MXR.[22] The station left the multiplex on 28 September 2007 to be replaced by UCB UK and UCB Inspirational.
The only area to continue broadcasting jazzfm.com on DAB, Glasgow and West Central Scotland, made the switch to Jazz FM on 6 October 2008.[23]
The jazzfm.com DAB service and website relayed one stream of a mixture of smooth jazz and funk music in the daytime and traditional and mainstream jazz music in the evening without DJs at 64kbit/s Windows Media Audio 9 format in stereo for free and with a subscription for a higher bitrate. Until June 16, 2008 the free bitrate streamed at 32kbit/s. The jazzfm.com radio station on DAB was relayed at 128 kbit/s joint stereo MPEG-1 Audio Layer II encoding. At the top of each hour, a news bulletin produced and provided by Sky News Radio is broadcast. [2]
The website however, used to have two dedicated stations, the Red Room and the Blue Room.[24] The Blue Room played more smooth jazz and funk. The Blue Room feed was the one that was played on the Sky and DAB feeds as smooth jazz is more commercially viable and popular with listeners. From March 2006 the Blue Room used to carry advertising immediately after the news bulletin, though this was dropped later in its life. The Red Room played all styles of modern jazz from the fifties up to the present day. The Red Room's jazz output was continuous and uninterrupted, without advertising or news bulletins. Neither station has DJs on its output. On the website, both feeds were available free at 32 kbit/s stereo and at a higher bitrate with a subscription to RealMusic.
jazzfm.com used to broadcast on the Internet as well as digital radio in the United Kingdom on DAB in West Central Scotland. It used to broadcast smooth jazz and funk music on DAB in Yorkshire, South Wales, the Severn Estuary, the West Midlands and on Sky. The DAB service carried jazzfm.com at a higher bitrate free-to-air than the website stream did.
On 28 February 2008 GMG Radio's chief executive John Myers made an announcement that Jazz FM would be brought back[25][26] as a relaunch of the current jazzfm.com service with presenters on DAB.[27] Myers also said that he believed it would make more sense for there to be a dedicated radio station for jazz listeners than the current 45 hours of jazz to be played on Smooth FM, as required by the licence granted to them by Ofcom.[28] The closure of theJazz on Digital One was also part of the reason for the return of Jazz FM.[29]
The original plan for the relaunch of Jazz FM by GMG Radio as set out in their format change requests for 102.2 Smooth Radio and 100.4 Smooth Radio in March 2008 would be to play smooth jazz during the day and jazz at night, including the return of the former Jazz FM Dinner Jazz programme.[30]
In June 2008, The Local Radio Company, run under the former chief executive of 102.2 Jazz FM, Richard Wheatly, signed a three year deal with GMG Radio to relaunch Jazz FM on DAB.[31] According to The Times, no money exchanged hands in the deal.[32] However, The Telegraph reported that the deal was done for a single pound.[33] The annual report from TLRC published in March 2009 shows that the station costs them £30,000 a month to provide the Jazz FM service on behalf of GMG.[34] There are also plans to relaunch the Jazz FM Records label[31] with CD and download sales.[35] The first CD released by Jazz FM was The Sound of Jazz FM 2008 on 20 October 2008.[36] WARL have been appointed to advertise the relaunched station prior to its launch, including the return of the Jazz FM chameleon and Listen In Colour branding used previously on 102.2 Jazz FM.[37] The station will raise awareness of the relaunch through email and social networking websites[38] as well as a nationwide campaign through posters, national newspapers and magazines featuring the Jazz FM chameleon in 3D and listen in colour branding.[39]
The station launched on 6 October 2008 at 19:00 BST (18:00 UTC) with an introductory speech from Richard Wheatly, followed by the Dinner Jazz programme with Sarah Ward. However, there were some problems with the playout system a few minutes into the programme which interrupted the music, but were soon fixed.[36] The first song played was Art Pepper's "All the Things You Are".[40]
On 31 October 2008 Richard Wheatly stepped down as executive chairman of The Local Radio Company to become executive chairman of Jazz FM with immediate effect.[41][42]
On January 7, 2009 The Local Radio Company placed Jazz FM up for sale following a strategic review of the company.[43] Under the agreement to run the station with GMG, TLRC must give six months notice if they wish to stop running the station.[34] Richard Wheatly resigned from his role with The Local Radio Company on the same day.[44] Wheatly formed a consortium to proceed with a management buyout to purchase Jazz FM.[45][46] A deal with Wheatly was done for £1 on April 9, 2009, where it was also revealed that the station had made a loss of £733,000 in the first six months of operation,[1] as well as investments from a couple of financial companies and a number of individuals.[47][48]
RAJAR listening figures for Jazz FM were first published for the first quarter of 2009, which showed that the station had attracted 408,000 listeners.[49] In April 2009, Jazz FM became a tenant of World Radio Network Broadcast, allowing the live broadcasting of programming from their two studios in Vauxhall, London. Jazz FM also leased office space within the same complex.[50]
In May 2009, Jazz FM started a £500,000 poster marketing campaign using the Listen in Colour strapline and promoting the station as a antidote to the current worldwide financial recession.[51] The station also announced the return of radio presenter Helen Mayhew, who was a former 102.2 Jazz FM presenter and has joined Sarah Ward on the Dinner Jazz programme, which expanded to six a nights a week from its original run of five on July 3, 2009.[52]
Jazz FM also gained an exclusive from American musician Prince in July 2009 to play his new track In a Large Room with No Light prior to his performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival.[53]
It was announced on May 11, 2010 that Jazz FM would close down on DAB in South Wales and the Severn Estuary, to be replaced with 102.2 Smooth Radio.[54]
On Monday 13 September 2010, Jazz FM rebroadcast the original launch concert with Ella Fitzgerald and the Count Basie Orchestra which launched the first incarnation of Jazz FM, in London back on March 4, 1990.[55] Whilst on September 19, 2010 it was revealed that Jazz FM Investments Ltd is to be floated onto the London Stock Exchange.[56]
On Monday 21 March 2011, Jazz FM expanded its coverage across Great Britain by launching its service on the Digital One DAB ensemble[3] whilst the replicated services across the local and regional ensembles closed at the end of August 2011.[57]
The station broadcasts across Great Britain on the Digital One DAB ensemble.[3] Until the end of August 2011, it was also broadcast on DAB ensembles in London, the North West and the West Midlands[31] where it replaced Real Radio[4][5][58] but has now be replaced by Real Radio XS.[57] The station was also broadcast on a West Central Scotland DAB ensemble[57] as well as until March 21, 2011 in South Wales and the Severn Estuary where it replaced 102.2 Smooth Radio and was ultimately replaced again by the same station. Jazz FM used DAB capacity from GMG Radio to formerly broadcast on the local and regional DAB ensembles.[59] The station also relaunched on digital satellite as a free-to-air service on the Freesat and Sky platforms.[60] Jazz FM can also be heard on the move with their exclusive free iPhone application, and Google Android application.[61]
When Jazz FM programme controller Mike Vitti formally released the programme schedule for the new station on September 19, 2008, many of the programmes were ones which had been broadcast on the now-defunct 102.2 and 100.4 Jazz FM stations as well as on-demand programming on jazzfm.com.[62]
| Show name | Presenter | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| A Cellar full of Soul[63] | Richard Searling[63] | |
| Big Band and Trad | Bob Sinfield[33] | Two hour big band and traditional jazz music on Saturday afternoons.[33] |
| Mid-mornings with Anthony Davis | Anthony Davis[63] | Weekdays from 10am, a four hour popular jazz music show featuring Anthony's hilarious and unique delivery. |
| Blues and Boogie | David Freeman | A three hour blues and boogie show from the former controller of Jazz FM.[64] |
| Dinner Jazz[62][63] | Helen Mayhew[52] and Sarah Ward[62][63] | One of the flagship jazz programmes from 102.2 Jazz FM and 100.4 Jazz FM. The show extended its run to six nights a week from its original run on Sunday to Thursday nights to include Friday nights from July 3, 2009.[52] The show will also extend its programming online as a deal was announced on October 5 with Bordeaux Wines to sponsor the show for a five figure sum, intinally for three months.[65] |
| Expansions[66] | Ralph Tee[66] | |
| Fierce Angels[63] | Mark Doyle[62][63] | |
| Jazz Funk Party[67] | Mike Vitti[67] | |
| Jazz Glide Home[53] | Gary King[62] | Drivetime show playing smooth jazz, soul, blues and jazz standards. The show currently has a sponsorship deal with Pizza Express.[59][68] |
| Jazz Notes[69] | Richard Wheatly[69] | Two hour late night show on Sunday nights.[69] |
| Leo Green and Friends[70] | Leo Green[70] | Jazz and soul music. |
| Smooth Jazz in the Afternoon | Steve Quirk[62] | A two hour smooth jazz music show in the afternoon presented by the former Jazz FM Head of Music from 1999.[71] |
| Soul Cellar | Peter Young[33][72] | A mixture of black music. |
| Sunday Morning Soul | Robbie Vincent[33][63][73] | Soul music show.[33] |
| The Cutting Edge[74] | Mike Chadwick[74] | Contemporary jazz music programme formerly on 102.2/100.4 Jazz FM. |
| The FT Weekend Breakfast | Chris Philips [75] | |
| The Jazz Breakfast[63] | Nigel Williams[76][77] | The station extended the show by one hour from 6-10am on October 5, 2009.[76][77] |
| The Jazz House[78] | Paul Ruiz[78] | Jazz, soul and house anthems from the past to forthcoming releases.[78] |
| The Jazz Jam[79] | Helen Mayhew[79] | One hour programme on Sunday afternoons, sponsored by Yamaha. |
| The Late Lounge[62][63] | Claire Anderson[62][63] | Chillout grooves and jazz formerly on 102.2/100.4 Jazz FM. |
| The Latin Party[74] | Mike Chadwick[74] | Two hours of Latin jazz music. The show will move from July 1, 2009 from 19:00 to 22:00 to accommodate an extra night of the Dinner Jazz programme.[52] |
| The Saturday Night Experience[74] | Mike Chadwick[74] | Contemporary jazz and jazz fusion music. |
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