Many years ago Jazz FM was listenable for a Jazz fan, but no longer. I cannot even listen to a single track for long enough to identify the music.
How would you classify the music they play on Jazz FM? Years ago it used to be Jazz but no longer.
- Thread starter Hocus Eye.
- Start date
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
It's all about Jazz-step, Doom Jazz and Warehouse Rave Jazz these days.
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Some of the evenings shows are decent - Mike Chadwick especially and I still like Dinner Jazz. They do play a lot of soul and stuff on there too.
In the daytime it's 'smooth jazz' :shudders:
In the daytime it's 'smooth jazz' :shudders:
malatesta32
Not Serb. No, Really!
smooth jazz!!! this is proper jazz:
Bakunin
I am Noodle's bitch.
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
Trip Metal
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
Jazz core
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
It's more like easy listening, and maybe the kind of soul music that doesn't frighten old white people.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
jizz
ManchesterBeth
Well-Known Member
Deracinated wine bar smooth jazz shit for the most part.
Jazzcore! I bloody wish!
Jazzcore! I bloody wish!
Argonia
Happy go licky
He of Infowars or she of the BBC One Show?
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Unsurprising that in recent years, more and more shows are 'sponsored' by investment companies and shit and they've been running on a shoestring for years ever since the original incarnation of Jazz FM was fucked up by Global Radio and turned into 'Smooth Radio' (more 'easy listening'). Listening this morning it's been a proper crooner fest whilst they talk 'business'. Ugh.
Another station like Kiss really that stayed reasonably close to its origins for a number of years when it went on air, and then over time (as is the legal/commercial radio market), the need to turn listeners into advertising revenue and desire for 'market share' waters them down.
I still remember boycotting Jazz FM though even back in the day when they fired Gilles Peterson for playing 'anti-war' songs during the first Gulf War.
malatesta32
Not Serb. No, Really!
yeah me ma has it on in the car!
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised they can afford to. Their last stint on national DAB lasted what 2 years? And their predecessor thejazz didn't last very long before them either as it ran out of money (and that was a lot more true to jazz).
Actually though, despite their failings, I'd welcome Jazz FM back to national DAB, because it does at least provide something a bit different to the multitude of low bit rate pop, rock and 'gold' stations on there already.
Like the commercial radio industry as a whole in this country totally dominated by a few media groups, the organisation of DAB and multiplexes is a fuck up (despite the move away from FM to digital).
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stethoscope
Well-Known Member
According to this though:
Sound Digital
It'll be DAB+ only, so that'll limit their reach even more as most DAB radio's out there aren't DAB+ (or upgradeable) right now. Interesting though that we're finally moving in the direction of DAB+, as a lot of Europe went this way for years whilst the UK radio industry were sticking steadfastly to DAB (which was the first generation of the technology conceived in the 90s). Excuse my cynicism, but the FM to DAB switchover has dragged on for years longer than anticipated, and the low bit rates being offered on DAB make it sound worse than FM in many cases, so I'm not expecting a DAB to DAB+ move to work out well either!
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BCBlues
Lend us a Twenner
I bought a DAB radio specifically to listen to Jazz FM as i was in the Midlands at the time, the station itself was trumpeting DAB as the long term future of radio. When they realised it wasnt suiting their finances they started telling us that the future lay in Internet Radio and off they went unless you lived in London.
Musically, a few years ago they would play some great tunes but admittedly a lot of soul but enough decent jazz to keep the jazz-police happy.
They weren't as predictable as other stations. They introduced great new acts like Gregory Porter and if they said they were going to play Amy Winehouse after the break you could expect a great jazz influenced track like Someone To Watch Over Me, not Rehab, but that is where they went and when i listen to it now its as predictable and boring as Smooth or Heart.
The exception is Saturday afternoons where for a few hours there are some great tunes played by Pete Young and it slots in nicely between Huey Morgans Radio 6 show and Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on R2.
Musically, a few years ago they would play some great tunes but admittedly a lot of soul but enough decent jazz to keep the jazz-police happy.
They weren't as predictable as other stations. They introduced great new acts like Gregory Porter and if they said they were going to play Amy Winehouse after the break you could expect a great jazz influenced track like Someone To Watch Over Me, not Rehab, but that is where they went and when i listen to it now its as predictable and boring as Smooth or Heart.
The exception is Saturday afternoons where for a few hours there are some great tunes played by Pete Young and it slots in nicely between Huey Morgans Radio 6 show and Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on R2.
Yes, I was going to explain that, but people's general lack of enthusism for the station put me off a bit
Also the coverage will only cover 75% of the UK, so you might want to check before you spend money on a new radio. "The main areas that we won't initially be covering are the South West, the Kent coast, Norfolk, central Wales and in Scotland, outside of the Central Belt." I don't think they are covering NI either, but don't quote me on that!
If you are interested, check this Now in Stereo on DAB across the UK
ska invita
back on the other side
Definitely, py the pork pie show is great, mike Chadwick also and dinner jazz hits the spot sometimes.... Breakfast interviews with business leaders a lot less so
ManchesterBeth
Well-Known Member
I still don't understand the point of DAB and DAB+ radio really. I got gifted a talking one way back in 06 but back then I was listening to talk sport, BBC radio 5 etc.
Obviously growing up and being more cynical about everything I find people like James Whale (was that his name?) more insidiously cuntish than amusing right wingers. Same goes for most BBC, LBC presenters etc.
I still have a soft spot for good shortwave radio. The cairo stations used to entertain me as a child. But DAB seems entirely pointless to me. Am I missing something?
Obviously growing up and being more cynical about everything I find people like James Whale (was that his name?) more insidiously cuntish than amusing right wingers. Same goes for most BBC, LBC presenters etc.
I still have a soft spot for good shortwave radio. The cairo stations used to entertain me as a child. But DAB seems entirely pointless to me. Am I missing something?
Yes you have.
DAB is a much more efficient way of broadcasting radio. Say you listen to BBC national radio on FM. Good old radios 1 through 4. Look here at a list of different frequencies used to broadcast BBC national FM nationwide. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/reception/pdfs/FMradiotrans.pdf (and that's just England)
With DAB a *single* frequency takes the place of all those. If you care (and there is no reason you should) it is 225.648 MHz.
So every BBC national DAB transmitter, from Lands End to Shetland is on 225.648 MHz
Even if you're not interested in the extra stations DAB offers like 6 music and 4 Extra, that is much more efficient.
If you need to add a new transmitter somewhere, there is no need to find a spare frequency- you just put it on 225.648 MHz. I'm simplifying slightly here, but not much.
Bottom line is, using DAB for BBC national radio will open up a slew of FM frequencies which can be used for local stations- ethnic broadcasting, community radio, student and hospital radio, legalising pirates and so on
ManchesterBeth
Well-Known Member
But pirates won't be legalised. Most transmitters don't sprog. The whole propaganda from the DTI (and the way they involve the aviation industry) is false to begin with. If it was true you'd have a point.
The authorities were never concerned with illegal drug dealing on air (how ridiculous!) They were, like every enterprise, focused on monopolising a culture that they didn't have sway over.
Why not internet radio then?
Complete nonsense I'm afraid. Especially on a thread about Jazz FM which started out as a pirate. Many other pirates since have been legalised. In London especially, but also Brum, Manc and West Yorkshire we are out of FM frequencies. The only way forward is digital for national stations and FM for locals
Loads of reasons. Here's a few.
Poor in car options. Stream reliability. Cost of data. Relatively high cost of equipment (compared with 20 quid for a DAB set). Doesn't work during a powercut. Huge areas of the UK without 3 or 4G mobile coverage. Loads of people still without broadband, especially (but not exclusively )older people. And then there is the relative complexity of internet radio for older users.
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Pirates being legalised are still proving to be the exceptions rather than the rule. Ofcom are woefully conservative still in giving licenses to former pirates - they did years and years of 'we don't understand why there's so many urban pirates in major cities' whilst constantly licensing anything but. Even when they conducted their own research for London that basically proved that people listened to pirates massively because of a lack of legal urban and black community stations, they still took an age to start loosening the community license structure that enabled the likes of Rinse and Kane to get licenses. Even then, it's not been easy for them to get a community license and a lot of pirates look at Rinse going from London-wide as a pirate to a much more low power local outfit and think - what's the point of spending the money to go legal?
I'm not convinced that the move from FM to DAB for the BBC and commercial stations is really going to 'free up the dial' for lots of diverse community and radically different music programming stations tbh.
ManchesterBeth
Well-Known Member
Many areas of the UK without DAB coverage when I last remember owning a handset. And most car radios are FM
I'm not convinced that an internet radio device is harder to operate than a DAB one, esp with the routine scans you need to perform on DAB handsets when moving from location to location.
Broadband/cost of data is an issue but you can't equivocate from that and say internet radio is not more of a useful option.
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