The city of Cleveland has a brand-new radio station that appears to be picking up a full head of steam and moving swiftly down the tracks towards the ever mythical and elusive, “Radioland”. Welcome to Cleveland’s Smooth Jazz WJZZ.
Cleveland’s Smooth Jazz WJZZ is not really a new station, but a station that is rearing its head to peek out from the darkness after the ravages of Covid-19 forced ownership to close its doors. Temporarily that is.
After station owner, Myron Grace, cranked up the 24-7 jazz station to the awaiting worldwide audience in November of 2019, who would have known that just 4 short months later, the entire world would go into “shelter in place” mode, crippling the infant station before it could even walk.
Fast forward the tape 3 years and a few meetings later and Grace, along with longtime Cleveland journalist and radio host, Ray Robinson, decides to relaunch the station. Much to their surprise, their former listeners grabbed hold of their signal and haven’t turned it loose.
Robinson, now acting as Program Director and show host, is searching around for good programming to fill the air waves. “There are a ton pf interesting topics and people who live within a stone’s throw of each of us. Some of these people are natural born story tellers and we want to hear their stories. I’m looking for show hosts, disc jockeys, and individuals with above average knowledge of the radio business and who know how to create an effective and exciting radio show.”
Several of the station’s voices and show hosts have been on-air radio and/or television personalities for some time in Cleveland. Current on-air personalities to take up the days are; Robinson, Vicky Trotter ( Miss V.) , Rev. Jerome McKay, Mikki Hardwick-Lett, Vincent White, Nikki B and station owner Grace. There are several new shows due to be added to the lineup in the coming days.
The station is definitely a jazz station, yet, they add a lot of different flavors to please a larger demographic. Outside of the heavy jazz, there are classic R & B shows, religious programming, motivational shows and more in their daily rotation.
Go to www.clevelandsmoothjazzwjzz.com to catch an outstanding lineup of shows.