Frankly, I'm still shocked some of you even use TWC as your only source of music. There are plenty of other ways to find smooth jazz and other non-vocal songs that you're deeming as the only suitable music for a LF. TWC was never meant to be a music channel but rather a weather channel. All of us should be thankful that they even bothered to have music at all during the past 30 years!
I didn't know what Smooth Jazz was as a 7 year old and I didn't have any interest in it until I started hearing artists like The Rippingtons, Pat Metheny, Spyro Gyra, etc. and then I thought, "Wow, this is nice!" I remember how the first time when I was 7 and I heard Linus and Lucy play during a snowstorm, I was thinking "Hey, it's the Charlie Brown Song! They're playing the Charlie Brown Song!" I would immediately start dancing and humming the song everytime it played. If there was nothing on that day, I would purposely leave it on TWC just so I could hear it again.
I was exposed to smooth jazz as I knew it around late 1996/early 1997 by tuning in to the now-defunct WSJT 94.1, but I had already liked the music played on TWC since like 1995, without knowing exactly what it was. I have vivid memories of the songs by Kenny G, Trammell Starks, David Reinstein, Chris Camozzi, Craig Peyton, Torcauto Mariano, etc. But TWC and radio surely exposed me to the genre, and helped me to really appreciate it too. It was cool to hear songs that played on radio also on TWC, and vice versa. I remember a guy named Tom Sanchez would talk about songs like Brian Hughes being heard on TWC, and I think he had a crush on Jeanetta Jones.
I had sent an email of a list of songs I heard on TWC to be played on the radio, including Suede and St. Elsewehere. As it turns out, about a year later, I heard Suede, and shortly after that, St. Elsewhere was being used. Right now, there are only maybe 4-5 songs I like right now. TWC has made up its mind to shun anything even remotely associated with smooth jazz, and it is mind boggling and sad. Indie jazz and new age artists will no longer get the major exposure they previously got. I am concerned that with the new musical direction, standards like Linus and Lucy won't be back Christmas time, but instead there will be a bunch of country, and rock and vocal music instead.
