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The Straight Skinny
Reinventing Wave Music To relax is human; to unwind, divine By Carol Archer |
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Time was, CBS Radio's Smooth Jazz sinecure KTWV(The Wave)/Los Angeles' positioning statement claimed: "This is Wave music." The slogan touted the radio station's uniquely sophisticated, vibe-y, instrumental-based, jazz-inflected adult music mix. The product delivered on the promise -- big time -- earning 25 consecutive top five books 25-54 under former PD Chris Brodie. To appeal to today's mainstream listener who was weaned solely on vocal formats, Wave music necessarily sounds far different. Everything changes. It must, in this case according to the demands of PPM. KRTH&Wave PD Jhani Kaye is a programmer with an estimable record of ratings' accomplishments -- from his days at, if memory serves, KINT/El Paso in the late-'70s, to L.A.'s AC titan KOST, and subsequently KRTH, for whose turn-around he deserves accolades. The formerly floundering Oldies outlet is nearly ubiquitous -- much as The Wave was once, back when. Now Kaye adds a daunting challenge in reinventing The Wave. With the advent of PPM, programmers have revamped clocks to distribute spot-load among fewer, longer, meticulously programmed breaks -- welcome news for Wave partisans, as it signifies the return of lengthy music sweeps. Less talk and more music rule the day, just as in the halcyon era of Smooth Jazz, especially among the 35-plus crowd, many of whom cut their radio teeth on the gamut of AOR, and The Wave's earlier incarnations. Clearly, PPM also favors hit vocal-intensive formats, and there is no going back. The compelling, imaginative, can't-tune-out music sets that I yearn to hear remain top-of-mind, as I monitor Kaye's rapidly evolving vision for Smooth Jazz -- or more accurately, Smooth AC. Clearly, the radio station is a work in progress; tweaks crop up daily, even hourly. I can hardly wait until Kaye and Wave APD/MD Blake Florence sort out the music, hopefully sooner than later. There are dozens of connotations of "relax:" kick back, off-the-clock, down time, chill out and de-stress, among them. Is relaxation limited to semi-somnambulant activities that warrant soft sounds? Shhhh! Or, maybe you unwind by working out; running; dancing; or cooking and entertaining family and friends to more energetic, tempo-driven music. No question, usage must fulfill the audience's needs. I get "relax" as a positioning statement; but am ambivalent about contradictions in the Wave's current mix that I assume are meant to address the dichotomy that KKSF/San Francisco founding PD, the late-Steve Feinstein deemed the "tastes great, less filling." Ironically, despite its up-tempo material -- EW&F's "Sing A Song;" Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough;" Paul Jackson, Jr.'s "Burnin'" and a veritable torrent of Michael's and Jackson 5's hits that surfaced following the singer's death -- currently Wave music -- not the station's jocks -- leaves one overarching impression: sleepy. |
