Jazz FM…rising anew like a phoenix from the ashes
More than a triumph of hope over experience, the re-born Jazz FM is an example of ignoring previous commercial failure and using digital technology to reach significant audiences. Could others do the same, asks our weekly columnist Raymond Snoddy …
Some media ideas never die however heavy the losses, however deep the recession, but rise anew like a phoenix from the ashes. One of them is jazz and although there is no evidence of anybody ever making money broadcasting such a specialist music genre there it was on Monday night, the lavish party to mark the first birthday of Jazz FM. There were lashings of champagne – and jazz – as investors and broadcasting types gathered at a fashionable West London eatery. An example, once again, of the triumph of hope over experience.
Didn’t Jazz FM morph into Smooth FM years ago because Smooth was more commercial than jazz, and not even Classic FM could make a success out of it’s short lived sibling, theJazz, on Digital One. So what is going on? The name Jazz FM is of course just an echo from the past. It is no longer FM nor even a radio station any more in the conventional sense. The new re-born Jazz FM is available via online, a number of DAB multiplexes plus Sky and Freeview.
So how has a radio station that isn’t really a radio station at all managed in it’s first year not on air? The answer is quite nicely really. The little station, if that is the right word for the operation run by the indefatigable Richard Wheatly, set a 250,000 audience target for its first year. It has already got to 500,000 and is still growing, and although there is no sign of profit so far, which you wouldn’t expect, Wheatly insists the business is going in the right direction towards that goal.
It was Wheatly, of course, who managed to sell the perpetually loss-making original Jazz FM to the Guardian Media Group for just under £45 million. Quite an achievement. And it was Wheatly who bought the name and residual assets back again for £1 in recent months. Somebody clearly got a good deal somewhere and it doesn’t look like it was GMG. It is clearly a romantic story from the annals of commercial broadcasting.
The chameleon symbol is back as is the branding tag Listen in Colour. Katie Potts, the astute chief executive of Herald, the venture capital group, who made loads of money out of the sale of the original JazzFM has returned as a financial backer and is optimistic about making some more money. How come? A notoriously loss-making specialist niche genre without a traditional broadcasting licence in the worst advertising recession for decades?
There are spot advertisements on the re-born Jazz FM – but there again almost too few to mention. The main way of “monetising” what is likely to be an up-market audience is through sponsorship. Jazz FM’s sponsors include the Financial Times, Olsen Cruise Lines, Yahama, Southern Comfort and Bordeaux wines. There is also money to be made from live concerts and its own record label. And overheads and staff levels are low compared with conventional broadcasting. Does any of this matter? It’s all so small and insignificant.
It surely does because it is an intriguing example of people not taking previous commercial failure for an answer and using appropriate digital technology to reach significant if minority audiences. It is a principle that could be applied more widely as long as the necessary pre-conditions are there – a target audience that is passionate enough to actively seek out your offering and who have above average disposable income.
You could envisage, for example, a classical music service pitched somewhere between Classic FM – if they tell me to relax one more time I’ll crash the car – and Radio 3. Richard Wheatly may not make it. He is still a long way from break-even, although he declines to say how far. If Jazz FM should actually survive it will be because the company has listened to and respected its potential audience and given it something it wanted.
So a score of 8 out of 10 for Richard Wheatly.