Get This Woman Anti-Nausea Meds, Stat!

Saxophonist Mindi Abair weighs in: "Thank you for your courage and wit every week telling it like it is. We continue to lose ground every week as radio station by radio station gets flipped. It's nauseating. And to think that at one point Smooth Jazz was a vibrant format made up of creative and talented artists who were rewarded for excellence and rewarded for sounding unique and making people sit up and perk their ears up when they heard the radio play them.

The Straight Skinny

 

Don't Forget to Breathe

 

Readers' passionate responses on a range of topics

 

 

By Carol Archer

"Some radio stations still keep that format alive, like KIFM/San Diego, KWJZ/Seattle and KSSJ/Sacramento, namely; but the safe habits of playing music that sounds vanilla and just blends in is so anti everything I stand for. It's sad to see all these great artists suffer and not get played because Sade and Anita Baker are played every 10 minutes.  They are great artists, but don't you think Smooth Jazz listeners are a bit tired of them after 30 years of them in constant high rotation? No other format does that, except an Oldies format. I guess that's what we've become, through fear. It's sad to see a great format with great artists and great listeners have to sink to this."

An Alternate Take

 

The 18th Annual Las Vegas City of Lights Jazz and R&B Festival founder/producer Michael Schivo writes: "The recent article of  Straight Skinny is absolutely brilliant! As a producer of events and a calculated risk taker of 44 years, I am struggling with decisions these days of what and how to book a successful event. What a quagmire! The weight of the economy (not to mention the overall bad radio management decisions) has demoralized the fragility of the human processes, then fear takes hold and cuts positive emotion and productivity in half.  Programmers are caught in the headlights like a deer and doing nothing creative on air, is across the board a problem in Smooth Jazz.

“[When] radio is too busy being spread thin, everyone falls short of their goals and fear dominates." - Michael Schivo