About Us
I've been a fan of jazz music since I started listening to my father's LP's as a kid. Growing up in Brooklyn in the late 70's, while everyone was listening to Disco, Soul, and Top-40, I became a fan of New York's legendary radio station, WRVR-FM. The station was the home to some of the city's finest jazz music. Many of the Disc Jockeys, such as Les Davis were apt to give historical insights to the music of ‘Sachmo’ (Armstrong), Count (Basie), Duke (Ellington), Lady Day (Holiday), etc. In 1980, the radio station abruptly left the airwaves and changed formats to Country music. I was left heartbroken and angry.
I graduated from high school in 1981, I decided to attend Sullivan County Community College in the Catskills of Upstate New York with the intent on getting into broadcasting. It was there that I managed to find Les Davis, one of the original WRVR disc jockeys on an all-night jazz radio show on WVNJ-FM. Back then, the station used to broadcast it's signal all the way up to Sullivan County. The show would air at 7pm and would continue through 7am in the morning. When that radio station left the airwaves in 1986 in favor of Top 40 music, I was left, once again with another void to fill.
After graduating from college, I moved to Northern California in 1987. There, I was exposed to three great radio stations. KJAZ-FM, which was the traditional jazz station for over 30 years; KBLX, nicknamed "The Quiet Storm", which played more R&B than jazz, but was still a great listening radio station and KKSF, a radio station that revolutionized the smooth jazz format in 1987.
The one aspect that made KKSF unique at the time was their ability to play music that no one else heard of. For instance, artists like Michael Tomlinson, the Yellowjackets, Julia Fordham were mainstays on the air. The radio station continued playing smooth jazz for the next 20 years when on May 18th, 2009; KKSF ended its run as a smooth jazz radio station and changed its format to classic rock.
Upon moving back East in the late 90's, I noticed a disturbing trend in the radio industry. Many radio stations were being gobbled up by corporate conglomerates, who's only job was not just to put good music on the air, but to make money and generate ratings. Many independent radio stations such as KKSF were bought by Clear Channel (now iHeartRadio) and their playlist conformed to play only popular music. Other radio stations like KJAZ-FM were sold and the formats turned over to something more profitable.
The trend was evident when I arrived to Syracuse in 1996. There, I found a smooth jazz radio station called, "Smooth FM CD 106.9, WHCD". Because it was owned by a small group of local investors, they had no chance against big-named companies when it came to advertising dollars. I became frustrated by corporate radio's lack of diversity and it's drive for the almighty dollar. The eventual sale to Clear Channel and format change in the September, 2000 was the final straw for me.
I watched a small segment on the news about a startup company called, Live365. It showed how you can run your own radio station from your own home over the Internet. From that moment, 'Smooth Jazz and More' was born. I took a bunch of my own smooth jazz CD's, and brought back radio to the way it supposed to be.
Music without boundaries....no time limits...No consultants.
The format all done my way. It was internet radio going back to the days when FM radio was in its infancy. That included music artists that would never be played on terrestrial radio.
Unfortunately, this new venture was an opportunity for the big corporations to squeeze the little guys out. Corporate terrestrial broadcasters and record companies, along with their allies in Washington, D.C. seized the opportunity to squeeze small Internet radio broadcasters out of the market. Unreasonable royalties were handed out. Many radio stations saw increases of nearly 1000% percent.
For almost 15 years, small broadcasters in the United States fought against unreasonable royalties rates. But in January 2016, Live365 was forced to end all broadcasting due to those same heavy royalty increases and the loss of investors. Thousands of broadcasters were forced to find alternative places to broadcast.
Initially, 'Smooth Jazz and More' found a new broadcast provider called, Radionomy. They were based out of Belgium and the company was suitable for our immediate needs. We were able to utilize some of the company's products, including the first every news and weather reports. We also began a 2 minute sports segment to complement our news briefs.
Unfortunately, the move to Radionomy was also filled with lots of growing pains. The company was woefully unprepared for the influx of Live365 refugees. They experienced frequent technical outages and was under increased scrutiny for their own royalty obligations, including a US federal lawsuit from corporate media giant, Sony.
In response to its royalty issues, Radionomy implemented a "Geo-Block" on certain countries. This was done without notice, leading to much confusion among its broadcasters. The final straw was when, without notice, the company implemented a block on 3rd party apps to listeners of the highly coveted United States market. When we pressed Radionomy management for answers, we were met with silence. We eventually found out the reason for the app block thru a radio industry newsletter.
We decided to take charge of our stream again. We purchased SAM Broadcaster PRO software giving us the opportunity to broadcast our station live. In September 2017, we moved over to SoniXcast. However, numerous disruptions in service over the initial two months made it necessary for us to move again.
We’ve been at our current home at Torontocast for six years. Since our move, we've had minimal issues and couldn’t be happier. Our web stream can be found in over 100 music directories, and can also be heard on radio apps such as Tunein, Orange Radio and radio.net.
In addition to our regular smooth jazz format, we’ve been broadcasting original programming, beginning in 2018 with Smooth’s NFL Football Picks. In November 2023, we premiered our first syndicated program with “The Threestyle Jazz Radio Show.”
We maintain an active GoFundMe fundraising campaign and listeners have been very generous in the last few years. We also have a gift store at CafePress which gives us the opportunity to show our ‘swag’ for name recognition. But, we’re not sure how long this will continue. It takes contributions to keep this radio station going, now at year number 22...and counting.
So if you’ve just come across this radio station for the first time, give it a listen. And if you like what you hear, think about supporting us.
mj aka "Smooth"
Updated January 26, 2023
