Smooth Jazz and More – 103.1 WLOQ…

I was a weekend Smooth Jazz DJ for about three years in the early 2000s, right as the number of stations that could make the format work on commercial radio was getting smaller. I was never one of the main on-air talent at Orlando’s WLOQ, 103.1 FM, but you might hear me Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings. I’d be playing – still on CDs – Euge Groove or Mindi Abair or Acoustic Alchemy. Smooth Jazz was never my personal favorite, but it can be nice while reading or studying – not a lot of lyrics to distract you.

At a time when most radio stations are owned by giant corporations, WLOQ was still owned by a family – Gross Communications. As the station fiddled with the playlist, the on-air tagline went from “Smooth Jazz One-Oh-Three-Point-One W-L-O-Q” to “Smooth Jazz and More” and, for a little while, just “Smooth.” The station would play Billy Joel and Van Morrison, not traditional Smooth Jazz artists, because co-owner Herb Gross liked those guys. Since I was the only person in the offices during my weekend shift, I talked to Herb a couple of times when he’d call the red phone and put in a personal request. If I owned a radio station, I would be playing Nick Lowe every day.

Remember when James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” was everywhere in 2005? I take a small bit of credit (and blame) for getting it played on WLOQ after bringing the song to program director Brian Morgan. The world definitely got sick of it, but I think the song fit in pretty well to WLOQ’s loose format.  As part of the 20th anniversary reissue of the album “Back to Bedlam,” Blunt jokingly promised to change his name to Blunty McBluntface (or whatever people chose) if it re-charted at number one. Turns out you can be a one hit wonder (in the U.S.) and still have a sense of humor about it.