Jazz and Smooth Jazz listeners of WJZA (103.5) were caught off guard last week as the station’s programming dropped it’s regular programming and switched to 1980s “classic hits”, the Columbus Dispatch reports. There has been no word of a replacement or additional jazz or smooth jazz programming in the immediate future in Columbus. This has left many in Columbus wondering: What happened to smooth jazz radio in Columbus?
“It came completely out of the blue,” said Fritz “the Nite Owl” Peerenboom, a Columbus disc jockey who had hosted a weekly jazz program on WJZA for nine years.
The station has received about 1,500 e-mail messages and 100 phone calls since the change, said Columbus Radio Group President Alan Goodman, who added that the “minimally profitable” entity struggled to retain jazz listeners.
Columbus Jazz fans can still hear jazz on the radio on local NPR station WCBE (90.3) on Sundays starting at 2pm until 6pm. We sincerely hope other local stations consider adding jazz to their programming lineup.
On a side note, we here at JazzColumbus.com would love if the new owners of WJZA would allow us to use www.ColumbusJazz.com. I know we would put it to good use. 
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I can’t believe this! I love this station! Get up one morning and it’s gone! WTF? WHY?
It’s all about the dollar signs…what a shame. Well I guess it’s time to turn off the radio.
Just want to make it perfectly clear I WILL NOT LISTEN TO THE STATIONS THAT ARE THERE NOW. THEY ARE FILLED WITH CRAP!!!
It took years for Columnus to get a Good Jazz radio station.I have turned many of my friends who didn’t know that the style of music they really loved was jazz onto your station.Now it is gone. I am very very disappointed in the station and Central Ohio that there was not enough support to continue.You are sorely missed.
I just found out about change down here in Texas. Jazz is a living breathing American Art, it will come back.
Dear Columbus Folks,
Don’t feel bad, even around Chicago the Smooth Jazz format has fallen. As you know, it’s about what the Arbitron says. They say you don’t have the ears, then you don’t have the ads, either. I just find that this idea that 2 or 3 very similar formats on 12 stations in a market as “diverse” as Columbus (Or, again, Chicago,) is rediculous. Enjoy the Same-ol-same-ol ’cause, as far as radio goes, we are white bread here!
Do miss Fritz though… Miss him LOTS!
Hay stupid was it to take jazzy of the air and replace it with 1980’s music, when there is already to stations that play the same thing.105.7 and 103.9 all play 80’s music. I have been a jazzy listener for many years and mow that its gone i am left with Sunday only on 90.3 for four hours. I would start my morning off with jazzy and end it as well. we need jazzy back on the air ASAP I feel like now there’s nothing on the radio worth listening to.
We lost our smooth jazz programming in ATLANTA in 2009 for the same revenue reasons. Since then, no one has picked up the format and smooth jazz concerts are infrequent. My wife and I, along with thousands of others regret this trend, but believe that if the artists will appear more often in these lost markets, the programming will reappear.
I am very dissapointed to find my favorite station changed from jazz to junk..I always looked forwards to listening to the smooth jazz day and night. It was so relaxing, and really relieved stress.. I was so proud of our city featuring the best jazz station around.. Oh well, I’ll just have to continue buying cd’s… It’s a shame that everything is geared to just the younger set. My own children appreciated and loved the smooth jazz station.. We weren’t even warned. That’s some gratitude for years of loyal listening…
Very very dissapointed… Shows how much Mr. Goodman respected the listening audience… We we’rnt warned, just dropped… Some of us appreciated good music. (smooth jazz).
WTF, stupid idea! as if there’s not enough laaaame oldies stations, this is ass bad as the BP oil spill, with no one coming forward, and feeling responsible!!!
u suck…(who evers responsible for the SWITCH)
What the f—…. I am sitting here in Cologne, Germany trying to listen to my favourite american smooth Jazz station that I fell in love in when I visited my mate John in Columbus some years ago and now on New Years day tenthousands miles away I cannot listen to it although I feel like listening to it….it is gone. Aarrggh
Dolphi, west germany
This was the most stupid thing they could do take off Smooth Jazz !!!!!! It brought tear to my eyes. Great News for my smooth jazz friends listen to http://www.ultrasmoothjazz.com play it at home and at your office or listen to pandora.com
Wow,yes this did come without warning! Believe it or not,this station set the stage for my son to appreciate Jazz at an early age. He was about 3 or 4 yrs old and I’d have the station on and tell him who the artist was. He loved it! And to this day,he is a jazz-nut! He’s turning 30 in May. The station had a format that would settle one’s nerves when in bottle neck traffic,at home in a sometime hostile atmosphere,or at the family bar-b-que;crank on the radio and the music would just make it “nice”. I am disappointed needless to say. I’m in the over 50 demographic audience. I can only take so much of the current music,gospel or the oldies,on any given day.
Got hooked on smooth jazz while in grad school in Chicago. I could study and listen without distraction. I was glad when big cities picked up the format and had the frequencies memorized in cities like Kansas City and Detroit. When I moved Columbus I was glad to find a station here as well. So sad to think that the Smooth Jazz market is so small that it can’t be sustained. I now get my jazz fix on ITunes Radio under Jazz.
By what I have read from all the comments we call all agree that 103.5 was more than just a radio station… It was a way of preparing for a knowing upcoming stressful day on the job… It was a way to relax after a day of stress before going home… It was to settle down our children and actually have a conversation with them before they got home and they went their way… It was station that catered to the refined mature class of people in Columbus who enjoyed the tasteful sound of Dave Koz, Miles Davis, Boney James, George Benson, and others… But more than that it was not just a radio station… It was the sound track to a mature lifestyle… In fact it was a lifestyle within itself.
So eventhough the station is gone; the lifestyle which it inspired still lives on in each one of us who will miss our beloved 103.5 Smooth Jazz. If any one ever decides to start up another Smooth Jazz station here in Columbus you believe that you have plenty of support from an appreciative audience.
The funny thing is, Aribtron and station managers seem to have forgotten basic marketing. It’s better to have 5,000 truly loyal listeners who have the station on constantly – office, home, and car – than 10,000 sometimes listeners who are tuned out and don’t care. The smooth jazz crew is very loyal and actually PATRONIZE the businesses that are advertising….can’t say that for the dime a dozen “80’s 90’s and today crowd”.
Stop relying on what the supposed market researchers say and start paying attention to what people in your backyard are really doing. Perhaps if the station’s and network’s salespeople really grasped that, they could have sold the necessary ad space.
Well time is up..those reading this. please e-mail me if you know about broadcasting..starting a station, or maybe knows a slow moving station in Columbus looking to be put out it’s missery. We the people can restart the heart of Jazz in central Ohio. I’m calling out to friends and family on facbook as well. My gaol is to have a smoothjazz station back in central ohio stronger and better. and to be the premier jazz oracle in the midwest.
Thank God I have XM radio and can still listen to smooth jazz whenever I want. I was hoping to get a date on the Wendy’s Jazz festival but I guess that went by the wayside as well. Figures in this day and age that its about style, not substance. Good luck playing that 80’s garbage music. I hope your station goes to white noise before the year is out.
Man oh man Columbus what a shame!!! I live in San Diego but from 05-09 I was a student at OSU and man did I love listening to the smooth jazz on 103.5. Jazz on this station was the best and the website allowed listeners find the artist we enjoyed so much. Now being in California the jazz station out here sucks so I log on the columbusjazz.com to listen online only to find some BS rewind website. I am so pissed that they got rid of the Jazz in columbus. It’s the best music on the planet…..
Well, Well, Well,……….another ricky-tack top40’s “oldies” station for the “ME” generation……….ME, ME, ME!!!
I was actually in the process of hooking up a homade outdoor antenna FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF TRYING TO GET THIS STATION FROM ABOUT 80 MILES SOUTH, WHEN I WAS TOTTALY CONFULSED! I set up the antenna turned the dial to 103.5 and got a crystal clear set up, only to hear Brue Springstein! I assumed it must be another channell and not the Columubs Jazz I was looking for. Now I read this, no wonder. I am in shock!
If WJZA had played “real” jazz, it may have lasted a lot longer than it did. They played too much “easy listening” music. We need a “real jazz” station here in Columbus. I’m going to miss it, but we need to do a little better than before.
I would like to point out that WCBE 90.5 provides jazz programming in Columbus, every Sunday from 3pm – 6pm. Jazz set is every Sunday from 2pm to 3pm.
I just recently found this page looking for site that I could listen to for more than four freaking hours!!! I called that new radio station to complain and to find out who what when and where! I would listen to jazz at the end of my day and it was so calming and it really help me to unload my day at work and to leave it there! I TRULY MISS SMOOTH JAZZ and now when I am at home I listen to it on the cable station. This station is such a loss to Columbus and like previous comments I read, it was dumb for them to make 103.5 and 104.3 a 1980’s classic station when there are already several radio stations like that around. I will be on any petition list to bring smooth jazz back! PLEASE BRING IT BACK! PLEASE
Wow…I was very upset when this station wasn’t on the air anymore. Me and my older sister listen to this station all the time. It’s very relaxing and it is good music. Why replace it with something already playing on the radio?
It’s all been said – but worth repeating. We finally got a quality full-time jazz station and now it’s gone. Maybe enought of us could make it a campaign to get it back? I’m in!
I too am sad that there is no jazz station in Columbus, Ohio.
I have been an avid jazz listener for a long time.I remember when Columbus’s jazz station was WBBY 104.3. We lost it, but came back with 103.5, WJZA. Now that it’s gone, we are left with nothing. With the rich history of jazz here in Columbus, it’s not fair that we don’t have a jazz station. The Mt Vernon area in the 40’s & 50’s was alive with jazz. What a tradgey that all we have is the same type of stations up & down the dial.
I am very disappointed. Jazz was the only thing I listened to 24/7. Doesn’t David Koz come to Columbus around Christmas time? And I liked the notices when and where the jazz festivals were located. How are we to be informed now?
Oh well, I will getting XM set up for sure!! I dont like to rewind my time while driving if you know what i mean. Just proves how radio sucks!!
For all the jazz you want and more, check out Jazz 102.1 FM, WCRX-LP. WCRX-LP is a community radio station serving central Ohio that provides news and information, wrapped up and surrounded by the best jazz in town. The station currently only broadcasts from 3am to 3pm daily, seven days a week. With luck, your help and support, programming hours might be expanded to 24 hours in the future. The station has great jazz programming with a daily show, Sax Johnson’s Mid Afternoon Music Showcase, from 12pm to 3pm, two Saturday afternoon shows, Jazz Overdue with Aaron Putnam, from 11am to 2pm and Sax’s Live Music Showcase with live performances from 2pm to 3pm, and a Sunday afternoon show, The Captain’s Quarters with Dave Streamer. The station plays smooth jazz, urban contemporary, classic jazz and many other sub genres. The station also regularly plays and features the music of local and regional musicians. More hosted jazz programming is planned. Jazz is no longer a 4 letter word, it’s a 6 letter word spelled WCRX-LP. Jazz, brewed just the way you like it! Tell all your friends and don’t let another jazz station get away! For information, call 614-235-2929; write to wcrxlp@yahoo.com or visit the website at http://www.wcrxlp.com … and tell them Sax sent you … Now, wouldn’t you just love a little Sax in the afternoon?
Thanks for the tip, Sax! It just so happens that I did another random search (as
i did every couple weeks after JZA went down) hoping to find a new Jazz station and hit the station you mentioned. The only problem is that the signal is kind of weak. It comes thru OK in my car, not very well at all on my portable and about 1/2 OK on my main AM/FM receiver. I’ll play around moving the antenna but my options are a little limited. Anyhow, I am glad to find a jazz station in the town. I don’t see how a city can claim itself to be sophisticated and not have a jazz station! While I usually don’t root for a business to go under, I have frequently hoped for 103.5 to die a dismal death for their betrayal of the jazz community. My god, like we really needed ANOTHER classic rock station in this town…
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