Lincoln Financial Media Smooth AC 98.1 KIFM San Diego shifted to Soft AC “Easy 98.1” at 10am this morning.
The station’s airstaff stays in place with Greg Cook in mornings, PD Mike Vasquez in middays, Dawne Davis in afternoons, and Maria Lopez at night. KIFM registered a 3.5 share in the July PPM’s trailing CBS AC 96.5 KYXY’s 4.0.
The station’s first hour consisted of:
Commodores – Easy
Eagles – New Kid In Town
Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
Ambrosia – Biggest Part Of Me
Stephen Bishop – On And On
Elton John – Little Jeannie
Four Tops – Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I Got)
Phil Collins – Against All Odds
Wilson Phillips – Release Me
Bee Gees – Too Much Heaven
Spinners – Working My Way Back To You
Air Supply – The One That You Love
Captain & Tennille – Do That To Me One More Time
Norah Jones – Don’t Know Why
johndavis 
Markie63 
We’re almost seeing a renaissance of soft AC in a few markets while Hot AC is nearly indistinguishable from CHR.
It’s so retro, it just might work.
Laughable. What a shame what this once powerhouse smooth jazz station has become. They have reached the bottom of the barrel. They have no clue how to run radio. Lincoln should clearly get out of the radio business. Very sad to read this article.
Considering KIFM hasn’t been Smooth Jazz in a few years I’m not quite sure how that’s an argument for LFM to get out of the business.
Smooth Jazz as a format is practically extinct. The fact that another operator is shifting to Soft AC, a format that too has been considered extinct for quite some time could be looked at as the same risk taking that is lacking from many other operators.
With Finest City and Clear Channel both doing some flavor of Old School, that’s going to cut into the Smooth FM approach that KIFM was on. Easy delivers the same approach without sharing the soft urban-ish titles those stations will play in midday. And since most of those songs haven’t been on the radio in several years (the Walrus doesn’t go that soft) it might work.
Lance,
As a listener, I look at this at an entirely different angle than radio people do. Smooth jazz is extinct thanks to the radio people who made it that way, at least on terrestrial radio. Good thing there is internet radio to save us listeners from the dregs of crap broadcasted over the air. May I direct you to 106.3, Smooth FM, WEIB in Northampton, Mass. Here is a station that really cares about the format and music.