GCap Media are set to launch their new digital-only jazz music station at 9am on Christmas Day.
'thejazz' will operate as a sister service to Classic FM, targeting the similar ABC1 audience, both stations will create numerous cross-promotion and endorsement opportunities.
theJazz will play a broad range of music styles from across the jazz spectrum including Bebop, Swing, Cool jazz, Trad, Blues, Soul jazz, Modern jazz and Smooth/Fusion. 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.
Primarily targeting the commercially attractive 35+ ABC1 demographic, the station will fill the gap in the market for a jazz-only station. Throughout the course of 2007, the station will be engaging existing jazz fans and new listeners by asking the question 'What is Jazz?'. Listeners will also 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.
Darren Henley, Station Manager for Classic FM, is responsible for the new station. He said: “We want to do for jazz what we’ve done for classical music at Classic FM. The service will be programmed in a similar style to Classic, treating jazz with the respect it deserves while making it accessible to people who enjoy jazz but may never have been able to listen to specialist jazz programmes before.”
The new station will be based in Leicester Square and is a replacement for Primetime Radio on the Digital One multiplex. theJazz will initially be available on DAB digital radio and online at theJazz.com, but also on Sky and ntl:Telewest in the new year.