The Straight Skinny

 

On The Avenue With "Timeless Cool”

 

By Carol Archer

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Just over a year ago, WOVM (The Avenue)/MKT GM and veteran Smooth Jazz programmer Rob Moore, whose credits include programming Smooth Jazz KMJZ and eclectic KCFE(The Café), both in Minneapolis, and The Breeze Network, among others,  came up with a new format he dubs "Timeless Cool." His latest brain-child is a multi-genre mix featuring a balanced blend of classic and contemporary tunes.  Moore says that the format highlights "music that matters" presented in a way that radio has never tried before. It's easy to listen to, but not easy listening. It's classic. It's contemporary, and it's syndicated nationally on a number of commercial AM stations: WNTD/Chicago, WMYR/Fort Myers and WCNZ/Naples, FL. In its original market, Timeless Cool launched on non-com FM, Sovereign City Radio Services' WOVM(The Avenue 91)/Appleton, WI.          

 

Moore says: "Today’s 35-plus listener continues to be ridiculously underserved, as most of the formats that target the demo are outmoded, and words like 'Lite' and 'Easy' rhyme with 'boring' and 'nostalgia.' If radio was as cool as it once was, what we are doing would be much more difficult. Narrow playlists and limited formats have made the 'disenfranchised adult' category one of the fastest growing in radio. The good news, for us at least, is that listeners notice the obvious difference, and thus far have embraced it.

 

"The Avenue is actually a format we call 'Timeless Cool' that was originally developed on a non-com. We needed a format, and we have an owner who encouraged us to create something beyond the standard fare. We started with a base of what was already there -- primarily Jazz/Swing vocals -- and began to make changes in pursuit of what was both new and viable. Essentially, we inverted the Smooth Jazz model, in that we are a vocal mix with the occasional instrumental [i.e. John Coltrane's 'My Favorite Things,' Stevie Ray Vaughn, tracks from the Sideways soundtrack, etc.]. The premise for viability has to do with identity testing I first started using at KCFE(Café FM).

Our vision is to bring back a core demographic to music radio, reawakening the passion they once had, when they had a station they could actually get excited about.

-Rob Moore