hagopian wrote:Smooth jazz ever really score?
I'm assuming that what was known as "New Age Music" in 1988 would be called Smooth Jazz today.
If so, then Smooth Jazz scored fairly well back then in Edmonton. It all centred around John Beaudin's Nightline program on CKXM-FM, which ran 100% New Age music every evening. It was a concept that John had pitched in 1986 to CKXM management while John was a swing announcer on sister station CFRN-AM.
The end came quickly towards the end of 1988 when CKXM switched call letters to CJKE and became "The Key" in preparation for going all New Age music. Jerry Lucky was to be hired as Program Director. And every bus bench in the City had been "booked" to advertise the change. But, at the last minute, when approval finally hit his desk, CFRN founder Dr. Rice vetoed the idea. Beaudin's program was allowed to continue into 1989 when John moved to CFUN Vancouver and back to being an AM swing announcer.
During that short period, 1986-89, I knew a lot of people in their 30s who wanted to listen to "relaxing" music, and they found that New Age music fit the bill. Edmonton was a bit of an anomaly in that the station that had introduced Adult Contemporary to the market, and had held the greatest share of AC listeners, CKRA-FM as K-Lite, had been forced by the CRTC to play more CRTC-defined Hits, which gave their music an edge that many listeners did not appreciate. CKXM-FM picked up some of those disaffected listeners, who then discovered New Age if they tuned in in the evening.