GCap Jazzed Up With New Digital Radio Station
GCap Media has unveiled its new DAB digital radio station, theJazz, which will launch nationally at 9am on Christmas Day.
theJazz will operate as a sister service to Classic FM, the UK’s most popular commercial radio station with 6.3 million listeners, and will aim to develop itself as a brand to include live concerts, CDs, books, podcasts, downloads, a website and TV programming.
The new station will be available on DAB digital radio, online at theJazz.com and on Sky and ntl:Telewest. It will be cross-promoted from its launch in December across GCap Media’s existing brands, including Classic FM.
Throughout the course of 2007, theJazz’s listeners will be asked to vote online for their top three jazz tracks and the second phase of the station’s launch will come over the Easter weekend with theJazz 500 – a countdown of the UK listeners’ all-time greatest jazz music.
Speaking about the launch of theJazz, station manager of Classic FM and theJazz, Darren Henley, said: “Just as Classic FM has taken classical music into the mainstream, so we want to make jazz a part of everyday life in the UK with theJazz. Jazz fans now have their own radio station, dedicated to playing the music they love night and day.”
theJazz will play music from across the jazz spectrum, including bebop, swing, cool jazz, trad, blues, modern jazz. Artists featured on the station will include Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Weather Report, Branford Marsalis, Denys Baptiste, Jamie Cullum, Diana Krall and Madeleine Peyroux.