Allen Kepler, Founder of the Smooth Jazz Network, tells the story of how “smooth jazz” came to be in an interview looking back on his 40-year career.
Kepler was involved in the think tank that created the term “Smooth Jazz” for the legendary station WNUA / Chicago back in the 80’s. Soon after, he created the Smooth Jazz Network consultancy which launched dozens of Smooth Jazz branded radio stations across the US. In 2007 he created the first countdown show for the format, currently heard on dozens of radio stations and streams around the world.
“Every time I see the phrase “Smooth Jazz,” whether it is in a social media group, a concert series, a cruise or a hotel in Manila promoting a smooth jazz night, I am proud of what we created back in the day,” Allen Kepler says. “There has never been more high-quality music out there in this genre and our network now provides the music for dozens of radio stations and streams around the world.”
The full interview is featured in this year's BEATS Magazine, view it here or read the text version below.
Shelbi Gerritsen: You’re celebrating 40 years in Smooth Jazz radio and music. When did it all start?
Allen Kepler: My introduction to what would later be called “Smooth Jazz” came in high school band in 1979. I played French Horn in Concert band and Orchestra but wanted to join the jazz band with my friend and future Grammy-winning guitarist Norman Brown. I had to learn trombone over the summer to join. We played everything from Dixieland to contemporary jazz covers of Steely Dan tunes.
SG: How did you get into radio?
AK: During college winter break in late 1984, I went to visit my sister Pam Meredith and her husband Greg in San Diego. I was majoring in Radio, TV, Film and bowling haha. I was on the varsity bowling team at the time. My brother-in-law Greg picked me up at the airport and when he started his car Grover Washington Jr’s “Winelight” was playing. I asked him where he got the tape and he said, “It’s the radio! 98.1 KIFM.” I was shocked to hear this music on a radio station. I listened throughout my visit and asked Pam and Greg, if I could stay with them when I moved to San Diego. They said “Sure!” probably not taking me seriously. I returned to the University of Kansas and told all of my buddies, “I’m moving to San Diego and I’m gonna work for this radio station.” They kind of laughed it off, but I was determined. After only a few short months in San Diego, I landed a part-time position at KIFM!
Fast forward to December of 1987 and I was working overnight at WNUA in Chicago. The radio station was so eclectic back then. The playlist was nearly 2500 songs. I programmed the evening music and station MD Mike Fischer programmed the daytime music. The station garnered a lot of buzz and excitement, but the ratings were not very good. The audience was loyal, but very small for such a large market station.
The radio station was owned by Pyramid Broadcasting which also owned a research firm Broadcast Architecture (BA). They were introducing a new type of research for radio where listeners would turn a dial up or down while listening to the familiar hook portions of songs and rating them. We tested over 600 titles on this initial study and it was revealing. I learned a lot about what listeners thought of our music over the course of the following year and it wasn’t the same as what you might hear from callers to the air studio.
In late 1989, we did a study with BA to find a name for this format of music. While we had discussed names like “Jazz”, “Light Jazz”, “Smooth Jazz”, “Relaxing Music” etc. we all felt it best to play some of the music for listeners and let them describe it in their own words. Many said, “It’s jazz, but…” One of the women we spoke with said, “It’s Jazz…yes it’s…Smooth Jazz”. Although in retrospect this was a breakthrough moment, the management team at that time felt that “Smooth Jazz” was too limiting, so they adopted the moniker “Smooth Rock, Smooth Jazz”. Ratings continued to drop. John Gehron came in as the new General Manager. At that time, I was also the Marketing Director.
In my first meeting with John I strongly recommended changing our moniker to “Smooth Jazz.” John said, “That is exactly what I was thinking. But don’t we have some billboards and marketing up? We don’t have budget to change until next year.” I told him, we only have three painted wallboards up - we could paint over the ‘smooth rock’ portion. That’s what we did and the rest is ‘smooth jazz’ history!
SG: And how did you start with Broadcast Architecture?
AK: Literally within weeks of John Gehron taking over WNUA, Frank Cody and Owen Leach were in town. They had an opening at their firm to program this style of music for shows on a radio station in Tokyo called J-WAVE. Programming and music were more my thing, so it was a perfect fit. That was one of the most creative and fun parts of my time in the format. The programming team in Tokyo was amazing to work with and this was really a launch pad for our consulting division, The Smooth Jazz Network (SJN).
SG: How did the Smooth Jazz Network start?
AK: While I was programming for J-WAVE, I continued to work on WNUA’s research. At some point in 1991, Owen and Frank came down the hall to my studio and told me that WQCD in New York was struggling in the ratings and asked if I could help. So, I set up basic categories, clocks and helped them to create a blend of music that would show variety from song to song, while also giving the audience something familiar to grab onto throughout the hour. This would keep people listening longer and also open the door for more new listeners. WQCD saw a slight increase which fueled budgets for research the following year. Within a year, WQCD had dramatically increased their market share to TOP 5 among adult listeners.
With the success at WNUA and WQCD Frank Cody and I felt it would be a perfect time to start assisting other stations. I suggested we call it The Smooth Jazz Network. Not in the sense of a standard radio network, but a group of stations networking with their local audiences and together through our consultancy. It was a success - in most cases we helped moves stations from the bottom of the ratings list to the TOP 5 with adults (several to #1). Around the country we launched new smooth jazz stations in Detroit, Washington DC, Kansas City, and Honolulu and many others. Over the years, I personally worked with over 50 smooth jazz stations.
We kept the format on much longer and in a much more successful way than it would have experienced otherwise.
SG: And there have been some challenging times.
AK: Yes, for sure. Just as the music business had to make major adjustments due to record stores disappearing, mega mergers with the labels and streaming / downloading – we too had to deal with large radio group mergers, cutbacks to sales teams and the advent of the new ratings system PPM.
Like the music business, over the course of several years, we worked to reinvent how we get the music to listeners and thank goodness we stuck with it. From labels to independent artists, locally owned radio stations and streamers, we found many ways to keep the music alive.
SG: So how is it in the current day?
AK: My focus for the past 15 years has really been on fostering new music and new artists. The playing field has changed so much in both radio and the music industry. We’re now really focused on the enthusiastic, core listeners, while gaining new younger listeners all the time. For example, several of the key artists in smooth jazz are in their 30’s or younger. Jazmin Ghent, Adam Hawley, Vincent Ingala, Lindsey Webster, Justin Lee Schultz and many others are part of this new generation of artists.
One of my yearly highlights is being one of the hosts on the Dave Koz Cruise. It is so cool to see the enthusiasm of thousands of listeners on board the ship. They love the veteran artists Rick Braun, Peter White, Richard Elliot, Candy Dulfer, Jonathan Butler and of course Dave. Meanwhile I see new connections with younger artists like Vincent Ingala, Justin Lee Schultz, Casey Abrams, Adrian Crutchfield, Eric Darius, Kayla Waters and so many others. The annual cruise is a real connection with my smooth jazz family and I treasure every journey.
The bottom line is the music is getting out to fans in many more ways than it did back in the day. Smooth Jazz is not only on the radio, but thousands of streaming channels, including our own Smooth Jazz Network, SiriusXM, Spotify and countless live events and tours annually. It is truly an exciting time to be involved with this special genre of music and artistry.