Q:Dear Ace, What happened to Charlottesville radio station Mix 107.5? There seem to be no DJs on the air since March 5 and the music selection has changed. Any information would be greatly appreciated!—All Mixed Up
A:Don’t touch that dial, Mixed—it wouldn’t do any good. Mix 107.5 has gone through what those in the biz call a “format change” to Smooth Jazz 107.5. Just last week the call letters officially changed from WUMX to WCJZ. Gone are Cyndi Lauper, the Bangles and the neon-bedecked ’80s brethren that once populated the frequency. In are Kenny G andwell, more Kenny G, Ace guesses.
Media überconglomerate Clear Channel Communications owns the former Mix, as well as local talk radio channel WCHV-AM 1260, Super Hits 102.3 (WSUH FM—which underwent its own format change last year from the classic rock of WFFX), Country 99.7 (WCYK FM), sports station WKAV-AM 1400 and Hot 101.9. Mix just wasn’t cutting it, says Clear Channel Charlottesville operations manager Regan Keith.
No kidding. According to the latest numbers released by radio rating company Arbitron (which Ace found on radioandrecords.com), WUMX ranked ninth out of 15 in the Charlottesville market, behind all of its Clear Channel bandwidth mates except for the two AM talkers.
Keith says that Clear Channel tried a couple of tricks to bring in listeners, most notably adding syndicated morning jock Kidd Kraddic to Mix’s lineup last year. But ultimately “it just wasn’t viable anymore,” Keith says. “We were throwing good money after bad.”
Hence the format change. Butsoft jazz? Ace has heard from numerous disgruntled readers who recently turned on Mix for Don Henley’s “All She Wants to do is Dance” and instead got lots and lots of sax. But Keith says that’s what the people wanted. Clear Channel’s in-house research, he says, discovered repeated requests for a jazz station. And as he points out, walk down the Downtown Mall on any weekend night and you’re liable to catch some smooth sounds wafting out. “People are hungry for it,” he says.
That raises the question of whether local jazz will find its way onto the station alongside the aforementioned Mr. G. It’s a possibility, Keith says, and Clear Channel has been considering approaching a local jazz luminary who has a history in Charlottesville radio (he wouldn’t tell Ace who).
“If we can find enough resources in the area that could support something like that” it would be great, he says. “That’s the roots of jazz, out on the street.”