UltraSmoothJazz.com features 14 customized streams, including Brazilian jazz; Broadway jazz; Chill With Mindi Abair; funky straight-ahead Groove and Mellow jazz; new age; smooth covers; sax; guitar, Sunday Brunch; and on chitownsmoothjazz, Chicago Connection, which features artists who have some kind of link to the city, among others. Another intriguing highlight is a new music channel – particularly a boon to those who have an insatiable appetite for brand spanking new tuneage.

 

Former 'NUA air personalities O'Dell and Danae Alexander provides cool, emotionally coherent liners, rather than back-announcing songs (titles of which appear minimized on-screen, along with all info on the release, including CD cover art, which effectively reinforces the station's lifestyle attributes).

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The Straight Skinny

 

 

Windy City Options Fit Format Fans

New iterations fill abyss left by WNUA's flip

 

 

By Carol Archer

We're going to utilize what BA does best and complement it with a strong local identity, music and personality that resonate with Chicago listeners. – Rick O'Dell

ChiTownSmoothJazz's comprehensive playlist is reminiscent of Smooth Jazz in earlier, edgier incarnations, although it's not particularly formatted, as such. To my ear, its mix is reminiscent of iPod Shuffle – not a bad thing, everything considered. Regarding music research, Hanson notes, "We can be more adventurous than broadcast radio because we have a 'skip' button -- so if a listener doesn't like a song, they aren't forced to either listen through it or change stations. But we're also collecting song ratings on our player, and we'll be using those to make our playlists even better."

 

Hanson points out that in terms of ad sales, he's able to run the same national buys that run on AccuRadio, "plus we're seeing sponsorship buys from cruise operators and concert promoters. One neat thing we're able to offer advertisers is what we call a 'Triple-Play Avail' -- a 30-second radio spot with two banner ads (one 300x250, one 728x90), all appearing simultaneously. It's a very effective ad unit."