theJazz Blog

We may only be half a year into theJazz’s life but the station has just won its first major award. We were delighted to become the first ever recipient of the Chairman’s Award at the Arqivas, the biggest annual event for the commercial radio world. The great and the good of UK radio were at the event in London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel to hear RadioCentre chairman Paul Brown call theJazz the industry’s 'single most impressive development in the past 12 months'. ...more

Well, it is only two months since we launched our presenter-led schedule, but theJazz has already been shortlisted for a major award. We are up for the title of ‘digital station of the year’ at one of the industry’s most significant events, the Arqiva Awards for the UK’s commercial stations. Of course if it is fantastic news for all involved and a great credit to the team which has been working away to get the station on air, but our thanks must also go to you for listening....more

A quick note to flag up our first weekend of regular programming here on theJazz. At 9pm tonight, there's a very welcome return to the nation's airwaves for Mike Chadwick with The Cutting Edge. Each week, Mike will be presenting three hours of contemporary jazz, covering a range of styles from post bop to fusion direct from our Manchester studios....more

If you have sent an email into us over the past few days, first of can I say "thank you". We are working our way through all of your messages and promise to reply personally to as many as we possibly can. For the more common questions about playlist information, theJazz 500 and the music we play, read on.... ...more

I hope that you agree that it's been a great weekend of listening as we counted down theJazz 500. We've had such a great response that we've decided to make the chart an annual event every Easter, so you'll have the opportunity to have your say next year. In the next few days, we'll publish the full top 500 here on the website , but in the meantime, here's a reminder of the Top 30 ...more

I have to confess that my heart skipped a beat ths morning as the digital clock on my desk clicked to show the time at 09:00. It gave all of us a real buzz to hear Helen Mayhew begin a whole new phase of theJazz's development, as the first presenter on the station. The rest of this weekend is now given over to our countdown of the UK's favourite 500 jazz tracks, as voted by visitors to www.thejazz.com ...more

We're all a bit bleary-eyed here at theJazz today. We didn't finish getting things ready for the beginning of theJazz 500 until the early hours of this morning. Our behind the scenes team, made up of theJazz's Creative Director, Tim Lihoreau; Executive Producer, Richard Porter; and producers David Carr and Chris Suckling were here long into the night making sure that we had all of the music ready, with exactly the right versions of each track, in exactly the right order. ...more

It's all hands to the deck here at theJazz HQ, as the clock ticks ever closer to the second phase of our launch at 9am this Friday morning. ...more

As promised, I'm absolutely delighted to be able to reveal our new line-up of presenters on theJazz. Our programmes kick off at 9am on Good Friday, with the launch of theJazz 500 - the chart compiled from your votes. ...more

We're getting very close to announcing our line-up of presenters now. We'll have some names that you'll be familiar with from jazz radio programmes on other stations; some names that you'll know better from their "day jobs" as well-respected jazz musicians; and some presenters who are well-known, but not necessarily for their love of jazz. ...more