Howdy, A month or so back, I received a query from an online organization who promotes musical artists, mostly jazz, and who asked to receive feedback as to what was wrong with Smooth Jazz Radio and causing it's rapid demise in many cities. I have long had my thoughts on this, partly because many of those stations used to play my music too, and I've seen the changes from the perspective of someone who understands the inner workings or radio better than the average listener. I soon heard that the organization I wrote to had received hundreds of passionate responses and so I assumed my letter was lost in the pile until yesterday, when I began receiving emails from people who'd just read it; mostly folks in the music bidnis who were disheartened and frustrated about what had happened to their favorite format of radio over the years. They seemed to strongly relate to my letter and wanted me to know that they shared my feelings. Though my letter was mostly about Smooth Jazz formats, it really is about nearly every format of radio station out there. They are all threatened and frantically searching for a way to succeed as they once did. They seem to try everything but playing intelligent, heart felt music. Because so many folks have been writing me about my letter, I decided to post it on my homepage. Maybe it will matter in some way that I cannot yet see. Thank you for reading.    ~Michael

Because I'm an artist once played on Smooth Jazz radio, I'm sure that my thoughts on this format, and what has become of it, will be in some ways biased. But because I'm also a lover of popular music and have loved the periods in life when radio has served the public, I think I also may have some viewpoints shared by many people. In the 1980s there were a group of stations around the country playing a wide variety of melodic music. They mixed artists as diverse as Sting, Sade, Andreas Vollenweider, Shawn Colvin, James Taylor, Michael Franks, Pat Metheny, The Rippingtons, Basia, Simply Red, 'til Tuesday, Bruce Hornsby and many others. All of these stations did not call themselves the same thing, some were New Adult Contemporary, others were Progressive Adult Contemporary, others were Eclectic Oriented Radio. Because my first album came out during this time, I received play at hundreds of stations and formed friendly relationships with many station owners and managers and music/program directors. It was a rare time where the people in the communities served by these stations actually related to and were loyal and grateful to the people broadcasting music that touched their lives and entertained and uplifted them. I was there, I walked into stations in Baltimore and Washington, DC and Portland, Maine and Orlando and Miami and Tampa and San Antonio and Denver and Minneapolis and San Francisco and LA and San Diego and Seattle and Portland and Anchorage and Fairbanks. I saw the relationship between listeners and programmers and it was rare and beautiful. I would hear from the people in my audiences of their loyalty to these stations. Like highschool kids in small towns often do, when they have a local station that supports their school and teams, these were adults in their 20s and 30s and 40s who felt that they had a radio station of their own who cared what they played on the air and who brought something of value to their community. Then came consultants, usually from outside the area, who promised these stations they could be more popular if they followed a more narrow format. They started calling themselves Smooth Jazz and I watched station after station begin to narrow their format, dropping Shawn Colvin and Joni Mitchell in favor of more and more songs with sax, more and more songs with a very definable pop/jazz sound. When I heard that one large consultant had dropped Michael Franks from Smooth Jazz formats, I knew they'd gone insane. In the cities where I performed I instantly saw a downturn in the number of people coming to concerts. Club and theater owners complained, audience members complained. People would ask me, "what has happened to the radio?" as if I had some inside track. It felt to me like station after station was following like lemmings, narrowing their format to a few predictable songs and styles, literally to the point that real jazz musicians, as much as they loved the exposure, were embarrassed to be considered a Smooth Jazz Artist. We used to joke that the surest way in the entire country to get on any format of radio was to send an instrumental version of a famous hit to Smooth Jazz Radio, where they'd have it on the air the next day. Around the US and in Seattle in particular, I know lots of Deejays and music directors. Most of them have grown to hate the music they are forced to play. It might be okay if it wasn't force fed the public. But the steady narrowing of the format, so as to fit into a tight genre, has caused boredom among the few listeners left. I cannot remember in the last ten years one person telling me that they have a station they love other than National Public Radio. Every other station is as bland as the next. What Smooth Jazz needs to do is to open itself up to other influences, much like they do in Europe and Japan with what they call West Coast music. Go for a feel more than specific instrumentation or groove. A station could keep playing jazzy artists, but also embrace other styles of music that feels good and warm and uplifting. Don't be afraid to stretch, to step over the imaginary boundary of what is smooth and what is not. Certainly, radio stepped over the line of what is jazz and what is not a very long time ago. Bring back some occasional real jazz, bring some of the sophisticated songs of Joni Mitchell's recent recordings and James Taylor's. There are hundreds of new vocalists who have a very graceful delivery and would mesh beautifully with the songs already played. More than anything, ask your local audience - if you still have one. Ask them what is the worst thing about your station and the best. Ask what ten artists they'd love to hear that they don't. Ask if they ever heard a song that didn't fit tightly into Smooth Jazz, would they turn the channel? And while you're at it, ask them who you play too often. Then ignore the national consultants who sit three thousand miles away and tell you things you don't believe or don't want to do. There was a time when the folks who worked in radio truly did something wonderful. They offered music to the world, they tried to pick good songs and interesting recordings and they heard back from the public and knew whether to play more of it or not. These days stations don't really want you to call. Give it a try some time and see if you can get anyone to answer a phone. And often, they don't even want you to have the email address of the DJs. They want you to send your emails addressed to "studio@..." That is no way to build listener loyalty. You build listener loyalty by giving listeners something with heart and soul every single day. The demise of Smooth Jazz is not a surprise. It was inevitable. Because the name itself became a box and sucked up all variation in creativity. Artists found themselves trying to record more songs that would fit the narrow format - and it's understandable. How else can they keep going, feeding their families and staying alive in the business? But that is no way to create music; working within the confines of a format that squeezes smaller and smaller and reaches less and less people every day. As with anything else in life you're doing that no longer serves, take a deep breath and find a new way to begin again. Get honest and real and don't be afraid to really work at it. The music is out there in great abundance, the people are certainly there; nearly forgotten and long neglected. If you're in Smooth Jazz radio you can do something about it. Stop thinking in terms of demographics and think once again in terms of service to human beings; that's what radio is supposed to be, you know. You're using public airwaves and you're supposed to be giving something back that matters. Take another look and see what you can do to create goodwill and enjoyment in this world by sharing music that can make people's lives better. Who dares to try this is going to find a lot of grateful people swarming to your station. I'll be one of them. ~Michael Tomlinson        March, 2008        mt@michaeltomlinson.com