Comments on: WSMJ Baltimore Becomes "Channel 104.3″

By: Joe King

Joe King — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:37:31 +0000

Yeah…and how are the numbers for Smooth Jazz @ 102.7 vs 104.3 these days…?

By: Ben from Baltimore

Ben from Baltimore — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:09:47 +0000

Smooth Jazz is back on the air in Baltimore on 102.7 WQSR-FM HD 2, but you need a HD Radio in order to get it. I do know that there may be a 101.9 WLIF-FM HD station coming that will bring back the oldies station format, but without familiar DJs such as Steve Rouse. We do have The Point as 106.5 WWMX-FM HD 3 as well.

By: American Voyager

American Voyager — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:59:23 +0000

Z104 or whatever they are callling themselves now is a station with an identity crisis. I have never seen a radio station change formats so often. They don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. As a result, I don’t get too excited about anything they have going at the moment. Having grown up in the 70s, “The Colt” was my favorite. I can’t stand what they have now, but I’ll check back in a year or two. It will probably have changed again.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:33:04 +0000

It is indeed too bad that Smooth Jazz stations are going off the air. However, ratings are consistently dropping in most markets. It’s not profitable anymore. The format is DYING.

By: Juan

Juan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:53:16 +0000

And now the format has changed again… to Top 40. Boo!

By: sean

sean — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:31:53 +0000

Having been part of the B104 staff; I’ll just say the frequency should have been retired out of respect for what was once on it. It’s a limited signal even on the new stick and it’s ludicrous to think anything could be equally successful today.

By: Theodore Shorter, Jr.

Theodore Shorter, Jr. — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:03:17 +0000

It is a tragedy that the smooth jazz stations are being eliminated from the radio. Just recently Chicago was hit with a catastrophic loss. WNUA 95.5 Smooth Jazz was replaced with a Spanish music format. I just could not believe my beloved WNUA 95.5 was taken away from the smooth jazz listeners without a replacement for basic life support to carry us through our day. Smooth Jazz please come back to Chicago life is unbearable without it!

By: sheri from baltimore

sheri from baltimore — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:17:34 +0000

I concur with both all three comments. When I woke up one morning and heard the smooth jazz station, I was elated. I called friends and emailed them. “Baltimore has a jazz station and the music is hot.” I did not touch my dial on my home radio nor my car radio for almost a year. I would leave my radio on all night so I could wake up to the smooth sounds. I even taped many of the all night shows and still play the tapes to this day. The music was the best because it was in fact, smooth jazz. Bill Simpson was my favorite. No matter where you went in Baltimore where music was piped into the system, WSMJ was playing. Everybody loved it. Then people started being shuffled around, other songs being added which were not so smooth. It was a people station so I thought I’d write and complain when I started hearing “Kool and the Gang”. I got no response. Not that I didn’t like them, but that wasn’t smooth jazz. Anyway, when the station died, almost every co-worker couldn’t believe it. Friends were actually crying. I am still crying. Bring it back, but the original fomat when it started. My generation needs that music. I don’t even listen to the radio much anymore. Sad to say.

By: Nick Sarames

Nick Sarames — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 10:28:56 +0000

When the likes of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock and Weather Report broadened Jazz idiom to include elements of Rock, Funk and Electronic music, it was inventive and exciting. However, what passes for Smooth Jazz (which we use to call Fusion, is derivative, mediocre, disposable and arguably embarrasing. It has become more like a modern day BM, featuring instrumental recordings of the hits of the day. Clearly “corporate” radio is using the democratic (small D) process to decide what listeners want, and listeners are speaking, or more accurately put, not listening.

By: Ben from Baltimore

Ben from Baltimore — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:06:44 +0000

I can’t stand what corporate America is doing to radio. They should have left the original B104 (WBSB) alone. I was watching a video on YouTube from San Diego, CA where people were ticked off that Clear Channel was taking the only progressive talk radio station in San Diego off the air and replacing it with a sports station when there was a ton of sports stations on the air in San Diego already. If it were not for the Internet, streaming radio, and my MP3 player, I would be driven nuts by what is called music nowdays. Frank Zoppa said it best when he said that these kids (example: Justin Timberlake) who run the music business nowdays aren’t putting out good music any more.
Ben