LearnJazzPiano.com archives: New UK DAB jazz radio station

Barry -- 02/13/2007, 07:00:57 -- #33020

I've been meaning to post about this for a while.  For those of you over here in the UK that don't already know, there is a new DAB jazz radio station called TheJazz which launched around Christmas.  At the moment it's just wall to wall music and the bulk of the playlist seems to be real mainstream jazz. We used to have an analogue radio station here called Jazz FM which gradually played less and less jazz and more and more cheesy soft funk and pseudo-soul until they finally changed it's name to Smooth FM.  Shite. Anyway, I have some hopes for this new station as part of the remit for them being given the bandwidth by the Government was that they were focusing on music that wasn't really supported elsewhere. It's run by the same people that run Classic FM and, although I have mixed feelings about that station, I think they've done a good job bringing classical music to a wider audience and I hope they can do the same for jazz - as long as it is real jazz and not pop/country/soul with a few major 7th chords. I'm listening as I type this and the last couple of tracks have been by Dianne Reeves, Lester Young and now they're playing So What from Kind of Blue. You can get the station on DAB radio, through your TV if you have Sky or cable (Sky channel 0113) or you can listen online at http://www.thejazz.com It's early days, and I'm a terrible cynic about things, but I think if they're actually going to play jazz on the radio then it's important that they're supported by people who love jazz music. Barry PS Oh yeah, I feel the need to point out that I don't work for these guys!  I just think it's cool to be able to listen to some mainstream repertoire on the radio for once!

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