102.2 Jazz FM - History

History

The station was launched as a result of a ten year campaign by musician Dave Lee, who was inspired after listening to a Los Angeles jazz radio station, which has since turned into a classical station. The licence to broadcast was given in 1990 to London Jazz Radio who subsequently changed their name to Jazz FM on launch. Jazz FM launched on 4 March 1990 with an Ella Fitzgerald concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Ella was flown in by the station to perform the concert to play with the Count Basie Orchestra and the concert was Ella's last appearance in Europe. To promote the station, Jazz FM paid out £750,000 for advertising on ITV.

Jazz FM faced insolvency in its early life. Broadcast Investments made an offer of £348,000 to purchase the station. Broadcast Investments withdrew their offer when Golden Rose Communications made a higher offer of £500,000 for the station. Golden Rose Communications took over the station in 1991. Former finance director Alastair Mackenzie stated that in an interview in 2002 that the station had run out of money three times in 1991, and he also helped with a management buy-in of the station for £435,000 in 1992.

Jazz FM's licence was put up for renewal in 1993 by the Radio Authority. As well as Jazz FM, there was a bid for the licence from Euro Jazz London, which included ex-Jazz FM employees. Jazz FM retained its licence to broadcast.

In 1994, the name of the station was changed to JFM by the station's management in order to appeal to more listeners who may have been put off by the name "jazz" in Jazz FM, and who thought that Jazz FM only played jazz records. The station spent £500,000 on publicising the name change. Richard Wheatly was appointed chief executive officer in 1995 to revive JFM which was running out of money due to both JFM and sister radio station Viva AM, a radio station for women. When Wheatly joined JFM, the station had three months cash remaining in the bank. Golden Rose Communications was floated on the stock exchange in the early part of 1995. Wheatly sold Viva AM which was losing £100,000 a month before the sale for £3 million to Mohamed Al-Fayed as part of his cost-cutting plans. After 15 months of being branded as JFM, in the autumn of 1995 the name reverted back to Jazz FM after Wheatly asked the Radio Authority for approval to change the name of the station back from JFM to Jazz FM. The change back to Jazz FM was reported to have cost £900,000.

Golden Rose Communications opened a jazz themed restaurant, Cafe Jazbar in Liverpool in April 1997. The restaurant was operated under a joint venture with Regent Inns. A travel service in partnership with Thomas Cook Group and British Airways was also set up. There were also plans for jazz retail outlets named Jazshops selling CDs and merchandise.

In December 1997, Golden Rose Communications planned to make a bid for Melody 105.4 FM which did not succeed. The station was purchased by EMAP and rebranded as Magic 105.4 FM.

From 1998, Jazz FM also looked to expand its operation across the UK. The station made bids to run stations on FM frequencies in Central Scotland, the North East of England, South Wales, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and Glasgow. Jazz FM withdrew from bidding for a FM licence in the East Midlands because of chief executive Richard Wheatly's belief that a dance station would secure the licence. The East Midlands FM licence was awarded to Saga 106.6 FM which started broadcasting in 2003. Jazz FM did become a member of the MXR consortium and did launch on DAB multiplexes operated by MXR as well as Switch Digital multiplexes in London and Central Scotland.

The station signed a deal with Clear Channel Communications in February 1999. The deal not only invested £3 million into the station but also allowed Jazz FM to advertise on unused advertising billboards.

On 12 December 1999, Golden Rose Communications changed its name to Jazz FM plc.

In January 2002, Jazz FM plc made a £20 million bid for London talk radio station London News Radio. The bid was backed by the Guardian Media Group and Clear Channel International. If the bid had succeeded, the station would have combined London News Radio's operations with its own in order to save money. The station was later sold to the Chrysalis Group for £23.5 million.

In 2002, US radio audience research company Arbitron announced that Jazz FM was the most listened to Internet radio station.

In May 2002, the Guardian Media Group made a bid of £41 million to Jazz FM plc at 180p a share. The bid came on the day when the draft Communication Bill was published Jazz FM plc's largest shareholder, Clear Channel had been waiting for a 220p a share bid, but agreed to the 180p a share bid in late May. Herald Investment Management who had a 7.7% stake in the company and Aberforth Partners were not happy with the 180p a share bid. On 6 June, GMG raised its bid to 195p a share to secure the institutional shareholders who were holding out for a better bid. Richard Wheatly announced that he would leave Jazz FM once the takeover was complete. The offer was declared wholly unconditional on 5 July. In December 2002, GMG moved its sales operation from Clear Channel Radio Sales to the Chrysalis Group, inline with the sales operation for other GMG Radio stations.