New radio station jazzes up Tulsa market: Nonprofit goes where

Tulsa Community Radio Inc. has brought smooth jazz back to the Tulsa radio airwaves with the launch of the 76-watt 107.9 FM.

It was the biggest hole in the market, said Jason Bennett, the nonprofit firm's technical specialist.

Clear Channel Radio abandoned jazz in 1997, creating the market void. That follows a national trend.

If you look even nationally, it's a pretty tough format to do and one of the formats that's probably not as mass appeal as some people think it is, said Michael Oppenheimer, market manager for Clear Channel Radio's six stations in Tulsa. It looks like we've got about 15 jazz stations throughout the company. Overall, the company has about 1,200 radio stations.

Based on listeners from 6 a.m. to midnight, audiences 12 and up, average quarter hour ratings share for jazz stations nationwide have not topped 0.1 since the winter of 1998-99, according to Arbitron. For the south central United States, Arbitron has not even listed jazz market ratings for six quarters.

Usually you don't see those stations surviving in the smaller markets, said Julian Davis, director of urban media services for Arbitron, the international media and marketing research firm based in New York.

But that also creates a niche a nonprofit can better serve than for-profits.

It's all about debt service, said Bennett. Commercial stations often carry a debt load in the millions to pay for the station, frequency and talent. Tulsa Community Radio, however, received its license for KJZT from the Federal Communications Commission without sweating equity.

We don't have to raise any money to pay for our license, said Bennett. It's basically a big hobby.

Oppenheimer agreed: There's no question about it. It all goes down to the bottom line.

Davis noted that even in cities large enough to offer the diverse segment needed to support jazz, across-the-board ratings usually don't enter into the game.

Most of the smooth jazz stations run somewhere between a 2 share and a 5 share, he said. It's not until they get the 35-plus level that you start seeing in the 4 share or the 5 share. Normally that's the age where that music begins to appeal to people.

And that's the age group sought by KJZT.

Tulsa Community Radio isn't seeking the teen market, the target audience for many radio and television stations and advertisers. The new noncommercial education station focuses on those 35 and up.

The reason the station exists is to provide information on other nonprofits, said Bennett. The audience that listens to smooth jazz is our target audience.

Between its library of 1,400 jazz numbers, the station runs promos and informative pieces on Tulsa area nonprofits.

Most of our audience is college educated or better, said Bennett. They're more affluent, the same audience that listens to classical or talk radio.

About a third is African-American, he said, and just over half are women.

The station's broadcast range takes in a huge part of Tulsa, from Interstate 244 to the north, south to the Creek Turnpike, and between U.S. Highway 75 at the west to U.S. 169 in the east. On a good day, Bennett said it can be heard beyond that, reaching much of the metro's estimated 825,091 population.

KJZT also intends to stream audio at www.jazztulsa.org, a fitting move as the mostly automated station operates now from a Windows platform on a computer. President Rob Shofner has plans for a studio at 4444 E. 66th St.

We're paying for it as we go, said Bennett. Now in this high- tech age, we have a lot of advantages. You can do a lot of this kind of stuff on laptops.

As with public television, the station is seeking underwriters in its efforts to promote other nonprofit and civic organizations in Green County. The first signed: attorney Eddie Ramirez.

The key then is will they listen to it and will they contribute to it, said Davis. There are still the bills you have to pay. You have to pay salaries, you have to pay the light bill, you have to pay the tower. But you also have all the volunteer things.

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
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