The Campaign For Real Music
Intelligent Music for Grown-Ups

Jazz FM is back on air, and this time it is everything it should be. The new line-up includes legendary presenters such as Robbie Vincent, Peter Young and Ralph Tee.

And this time it actually plays some jazz. And also some soul, some big band, some crooners, some funk, some blues, some boogie, some smooth jazz and some of just about every other style that comes under the umbrella of “jazz”.

This is great news for the many of us who have found little on the DAB dial to get our music juices flowing. Unfortunately for a station with FM in its title, Jazz FM won’t in fact be coming to our bathroom VHF frequencies, as it is DAB and internet only. Good old 102.2fm, synonymous in London with Jazz FM for so many years, now belongs to Smooth FM, the station that The Management deemed we needed in place of a then ailing Jazz FM.

When the original Jazz FM 102.2 launched back in 1990, having promised so much what in fact transpired was a predominantly blues station. It stuttered to gain a following, and gradually changed its format, as legends of soul Robbie Vincent and Ralph Tee cemented their mark on a station that sorely lacked some soul. So much so, that the station even dropped the Jazz a few years later, becoming JFM in 1994. Those who lived in London during the 80s will know that the original JFM was a pioneer of the pirate soul radio scene.

Clearly losing Jazz from the station name was a poor marketing move, and the JFM moniker was soon ditched after just a few months when a newly managed Jazz FM was revived. Again, listeners heard a change in format, as the portion of “smooth jazz” content slowly increased, intermingled with popular soul. It all became a bit samey. In fact, you could predict precisely when the station would be likely to play Randy Crawford’s Street Life again. And again.

Ralph Tee left. Robbie Vincent left. Campbell Burnap left. Peter Young left. Helen Mayhew left. And then the jazz left. The sad truth is that Jazz FM failed to make a decent profit (if any) in 15 years of life on the FM dial. So The Management decided that what we needed was Smooth Radio, characterless narrowcasting playing the same old same old for the undiscerning. Despite this kind of music being Magic Radio and Radio 2 and Capital Gold and a dozen or so similar stations on DAB. The soul left too, in every sense of the word.

But it wasn’t such a sad day, as Jazz FM had lost its heart years ago. Jazz FM in fact actually soldiered on as an internet station, now vying for listeners among the tens of thousands of other stations.

But in October 2008, a revitalised Jazz FM returned to our radios, re-launched as a DAB station. And this time, it looks like the formula is just right. Tune in last Sunday afternoon, and you will have heard Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. And also Lewis Taylor and Edwin Starr. All served up by Leo Green, a proper jazz man who knows how to blow. [Leo: there is a real opportunity here for a talented musician to make his mark in the 2pm on a Sunday slot; a slot which was owned for so many years by Benny Green on Radio 2, a true legend of radio].

Sunday morning again becomes the home of the inimitable Robbie Vincent, with a three hour show from ten till one (for more on Robbie, click here to read about our campaign to bring the great man back). Another star of the Jazz FM 102.2 era Sundays, Ralph Tee, the man behind the amazing Expansions records, also returns from four to seven on Sundays. The man who pioneered “new classic soul” in the mid 90s is now doing the same these days for “luxury soul”, and intermingles future classics with sublime rarities from the 70s and 80s.

Other highlights included Peter Young with a soul show and Bob Sinfield playing big band on Saturdays, and another fine broadcaster, Sarah Ward, every night with - naturally, of course - Dinner Jazz. Plus there’s Mike Chadwick. And Mark Doyle. And Steve Quirk. And a number of other superb broadcasters. Something that few other stations can boast these days.

There is much more to discover on the all new Jazz FM DAB.2. Click here to take a look and listen for yourself. All in all, it is probably the station it always should have been, with a decent balance of genres and presenting styles, and just enough of the commercial stuff to keep the accountants happy.

We welcome your views and comments on the new station here, and hope that your comments will help those at the reigns of the new station to keep the station providing what a rather discerning audience wants. One thing that is clear from this, the Campaign For Real Music site, is that all of us here are very passionate about not just our music, but those who serve it up.

Welcome home, Jazz FM. And welcome back jazz.

Radiocafe
November 2008

> Click here to visit Jazz FM

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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