Media

Smooth has another go at dropping the jazz

By | Published on Tuesday 1 June 2010

GMG Radio’s Smooth Radio is having another go at dropping its jazz obligations. Because both the London and Manchester outposts of the Smooth franchise began their lives as Jazz FM, those two branches of the easy listening station still have an obligation to pump out 45 hours of jazz programming a week, most of which airs in the graveyard of night time.

Smooth has tried to persuade media regulator OfCom to free it of its jazz obligations before, last time, if I remember rightly, by promising to offer jazz services via its website. Those efforts were unsuccessful. This time Smooth is proposing the 45 hours of off-peak jazz be replaced with twelve hours of specialist music programmes which would air in the evenings and weekend afternoons – ie not during the graveyard shift. But, note, there is no commitment that those ‘specialist’ shows would include jazz music.

OfCom is holding a public consultation on Smooth’s proposals until 25 Jun, and will then decide whether to back or block GMG Radio’s plans. Jazz FM does still exist, of course, on digital, though – while the name is still owned by GMG – that service is actually operating by another company called Jazz FM Investments Ltd.



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