Well here we go again…another smooth jazz radio station is switching formats. If this keeps going, the smooth jazz format will eventually totally disappear as more and more radio stations keep dropping the format. Now comes news that KBZN (97.9 FM, "97.9 The Breeze") in Salt Lake City, Utah is switching to a “smooth adult contemporary” format. "We are custom-designing KBZN to be the Wasatch Front's 'Smooth AC' station, which is how Arbitron now describes 'Smooth Jazz' in its format listings," said Dan R. Jessop, KBZN operations director. "We believe this is the perfect market to move the format into more familiar sounding instrumentals and vocals. We are excited but love our listeners who preferred just instrumentals. We hope they and a lot of new samplers will become familiar with 'The Breeze' and make us their first choice for Smooth Music." "We are proud to be in on the beginning of a new Smooth revolution with a music mix that will appeal most in this market," Jessop said. Jessop said many markets nationally don't have smooth jazz or smooth AC stations. As a matter of fact, WJJZ in Philadelphia dumped the smooth jazz format this month.
KBZN is owned by Capital Broadcasting. During the 1980s the call letters were KZAN. It was a country formatted station using the slogan "Great Utah Country." DJs included "Terrible T", David Chandler, Trisha Griffith, Gentleman Jim, Mike Martin. In many respects, KBZN will now sound a lot more like KSFI ("FM-100") and KOSY. The change is also being made in hopes of attracting new listeners. KBZN had a 1.6 percent share of the age 12-plus audience (18th place) in the latest Arbitron estimates.
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