Jax Radio: 'Edgier' E-Z Listening Format Launching On WJCT-HD3

Jacksonville’s public radio station is filling the absence of easy-listening sounds on the radio since the November shift of Jones College Radio’s AM and FM frequencies to Christian broadcasting.

Called “Relax Radio,” WJCT 89.9 FM HD3 officially will kick off its jazzed-up easy-listening sounds on April 16, according to jacksonville.com.

WJCT-FM music director David Luckin, also host of Electro Lounge at 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 10 p.m. Saturdays, said the new program will “fill the void when Jones College signed off.”

But it isn’t elevator music. Luckin said to think of it as “songs you listened to with your mother and songs that you grew up with.” That includes everything from Glenn Miller’s big band sound and Elvis to the rock harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash’s 1969 hit, “Marrakesh Express” and even some Grateful Dead.

“I would describe this as easy listening for baby boomers, and younger people will be attracted to the wider variety and they will have some things they remember,” Luckin said. “We have as early as Bing Crosby and as late as Michael Bublé, so it is pretty broad in the easy listening way. It is kind of ‘Mad Man’-ish.”

WJCT 89.9 FM (98 Kw) Red=60dBu Local Coverage Area

Jones College Radio began transmitting in 1964 in easy-listening format on WKTZ 90.9 FM and WJAX 1220 AM. But when Jones College sold the frequencies to Educational Media Foundation, the format changed to religious broadcasting. Jones College continues to play its easy-listening format on its website, wktz.jones.edu.

WJCT-FM already broadcasts classical music on its HD2 channel.