DZLL-FM

DZLL (Smooth FM 107.1)
City Baguio City
Branding Smooth FM 107.1
Frequency 107.1 MHz
Format Pop Jazz, Bossa Nova, Soul, R&B
Class A/B/C
Callsign meaning DZ
MeLLow Touch (former branding)
Owner Primax Broadcasting Network

Smooth FM 107.1 (DZLL 107.1) is an FM radio station owned by Primax Broadcasting Network. Its studio and transmitter is located at Upper Dominican Hill, Baguio City, Philippines. The station's radio format consists of Pop Jazz, Bossa Nova, Soul and R&B.

Smooth FM 107.1, formerly known as Smooth Jazz 107.1, was a very popular radio station in Baguio City during the years 2000–2003 with young professionals, college and high school students. Little was known about the pioneering D.J.'s like Danny V., Dr. Soul, and Johnny Handsome when the station was transitioned from Mellow Touch (which ran a love song format) to Smooth Jazz 107.1 in 1997.

Contrary to its name, Smooth Jazz structured its playlist on American Top 40 hits during a time when the Baguio City radio scene was dominated by the novelty (or masa) sound. It was also the only radio station at that time that intentionally did not play music by Boy Bands. D.J.'s like Nicki, K.C. Jones, and J. Webber played a big part in the station's rise to fame. The Smooth Jazz 107.1 format was a mix of Alternative, Nu-Metal, Hip-Hop, R&B, love songs and pop Jazz.

Rise to Fame

During its transition from Mellow Touch 107.1 in 1997, Smooth Jazz's radio format was strictly jazz. With the rising popularity of Hip Hop and R&B in the late 90s, Smooth Jazz 107.1 slowly started incorporating hit songs from these genres into its playlist and was the only radio station in Baguio City doing so at that time. The growing number of listeners requesting for more R&B and Hip Hop songs led to the birth of Smooth Jazz's first flagship program, the Beatbox.

The Beatbox

Established by DJ John McKnight, the Beatbox was the first radio program in Baguio solely dedicated to R&B (McKnight would later move to rival station Jesse @ 102.3 to establish a similar program called "The Groove"). Fil-Canadian KC Jones took over after McKnight and soon the program started to gain momentum. Jones added a weekly countdown and partnered with radio personality Private Ryan.

KC Jones left Smooth Jazz in 2000 to go back to Canada. The Beatbox was then taken over by Fil-American J. Webber who started incorporating more Hip Hop and Rap to the program. This coincided with increased popularity of those genres in the early 2000s. The KBP-RRC radio survey of that year had Smooth Jazz 107.1 capturing the number 1 spot for the time slot of the Beatbox. Webby (as he was called by his listeners), also used the Beatbox to promote local rap groups such as the 2600 Kings (formerly Six Sign) and the Renegades of Funk. Webber allowed these groups to perform on air which led to some of them being signed by Philippine hip hop legend Boom Dayupay.

J. Webber left in 2002 and the Beatbox was then managed by John Blaze (later known as DJ Blaze of K-Lite) until the station reformatted.

The Breakfast Club

DJ's Nicki and Sebastian Kidd hosted the morning show called "The Breakfast Club". Another innovative radio program in Baguio City that closely followed the format of Manila personalities like Chico and Delamar, The Breakfast Club would evolve around random topics which would let listeners interact with the DJs and give their opinion. Nicki and Kidd's thoughtful and witty comments drew even more listeners to Smooth Jazz 107.1 every morning.

Reformat to Smooth FM 107.1

In the 2nd half of 2002, Smooth Jazz lost 3 of its popular personalities who played major roles in the station's success. Jersey and J. Webber moved to ABS-CBN's MOR 103.1, while Nicki pursued another career outside radio. The tagline is now "Your Stress-Free Radio" replacing the erstwhile popular catchphrase "Take it Easy."

Smooth FM used to be an affiliate of Raven Broadcasting Corporation in Manila. It was known as City Lite 107.1. City Lite was dropped from the name when Raven Broadcasting Corporation changed hands sometime in 2000 and 107.1 ceased to be an affiliate.

Smooth Jazz 107.1 Program Line Up (2000-2003)

Monday to Saturday
5:00 am – 11:00 am The Breakfast Club
11:00 am – 4:00 pm The Smooth Jazz Express
4:00 pm – 8:00 pm The Beatbox
8:00 pm – 12:00 am The Midnight Serenade

Sunday
5:00 am – 11:00 am Retrobution
8:00 pm – 12:00 am Master's Jazz

Former DJs

Side Kicks

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.