first radio format change of 2009.........

Well, we made it almost 2 weeks into 2009 before a major market radio format change. Not bad.

Even though it happened in Atlanta, it is merely a jazz station (107.5 FM) being pulled for a new format that has yet to be unveiled. Jazz stations have vanished within the past year and a half in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and Memphis, that I know of. Some analysts say it is to cut expenses since perhaps the new format will allow for fewer or no air personalities. I contend that the audience for jazz was never sizable enough to sustain anything above a minor audience rating, and even the smaller, local, and niche advertisers have cut back to the point of no immediate return.