Faq

We have compiled an FAQ list of questions we frequently receive on similar topics grouped by subject. You may find the answer to your question here.

Music Programme

Our motto sets out our core principle: «Music. Pure.» We broadcast pure music: jazz, soul and blues to relax by, to discover, and to enjoy – no presentation, and no advertising.
The programme is balanced throughout the year and – with the exception of the Christmas programme during the Advent period – does not take special account of topical events such as birthdays, anniversaries of deaths, celebrations, public holidays or seasons.

Radio Swiss Jazz plays a mix of mainstream jazz, swing, and melodic soul and blues. The station has also decided to make sure that Swiss music accounts for 50%.

It is impossible to put together a music schedule which satisfies the tastes and wishes of all listeners. This is particularly true of music programming, which is why we also rely very heavily on listener research. Our aim here is to find out what musical styles most of our listeners like, which divide opinion significantly, and what sort of music makes people switch to a different station. The majority of our listeners prefer jazz standards, blues, soul and modern yet melodic jazz. They tend to either love or hate Dixieland and New Orleans jazz, as well as very old recordings.

As radio providers, we face the challenge of putting together a music schedule that is sufficiently popular with the audience to justify the money that has been invested in it. We, too, are measured according to our audience share and our reach. Special programming would make some listeners switch off if they didn’t like that particular style of music.

Radio Swiss Jazz is a licence-fee-funded radio station under public law that is run by SRG SSR. As such, part of its remit is to support Swiss music. The station fulfils this part of its remit by ensuring that 50% of the music we play originates from Switzerland. Of course, when selecting Swiss songs, we make sure that each one fits in with our musical format, and that the recording meets our quality standards. It is also important to us to play a broad repertoire of Swiss productions, and thus enable our listeners to explore the diversity of Swiss jazz music.

«CH» indicates that the piece played has a link to Switzerland. This may relate to the performer or the composer.

We play a very large number of compositions and standards from the 1920s to 1950s, but often use newer performances. This is because of the poor recording quality of older records.

There are different reasons for delays and changes to the programme. These are generally technical in nature. The music schedule is amended at 4.00 a.m. every morning, so that the timings are all correct once more.

We plan a break of two seconds between each piece of music. It is not always easy to tell where a piece ends. Is it the final note, or a moment of complete silence? The station is automated, so we cannot process all of the pieces in our schedule at once. We have some 12,000 tracks on our playlist. Perception is a very personal thing.

We need recordings in Wave format, i.e. preferably on an official CD, with all of the information we need about the musician, performers, producer, label, distributor, contact person, year, etc. We register the CD and scan it into our system. You or your label will then receive confirmation of receipt. You will be notified automatically if we decide to include one of your pieces in our playlist. This may take some time.

There is no problem with recording as long as it is for your own use only.

These excerpts cannot be any longer for copyright reasons.

We’re always happy to receive non-binding suggestions in writing at the email address info@radioswissjazz.ch. Owing to the large number of requests and tips, we cannot respond to all the enquiries that we receive.

We do not offer a requests show. As part of our station philosophy, our music producers regularly select new tracks for inclusion in our schedule.

The number of sound storage media orders via our playlist and delivery by corresponding trade partners has fallen significantly in recent years. In addition, an increasing number of titles in our range are no longer available on physical sound storage media. The detailed information on the titles and albums on our website (including label and order number details) are so comprehensive that available sound storage media can be directly ordered from online retailers.
At the same time, the number of music download providers has significantly increased in recent years. We have therefore decided not to favour a particular supplier by including a direct link.

For copyright reasons, we are unfortunately unable to make copies of the tracks we play, even if they are no longer available.

Reception

If you click on «Start the radio» or listen via the external player on our website you will receive Radio Swiss Jazz in mp3 format and at a quality of 128 kbps. If you use the app, you will activate the aacPlus stream at 32 kbps as standard. However, if you click on «HQ» at the bottom of the app, you can switch to the aacPlus stream at 96 kbps and thus enjoy a higher level of quality.

You can use our own app to listen to the station on an iPhone, or iPad, or a smartphone or tablet using the Android operating system. The app is available from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. If you use an iPad, you may have to remove the «iPad» search filter in the App Store before the app will be shown.
In view of the low market share occupied by the Microsoft operating system (as at September 2014), we do not offer a dedicated app for Windows Phone. We recommend the «TuneIn» radio app as an alternative for Windows Phone users.

To listen to our station in the car, you need a DAB+ car radio, or a car radio with internet reception. In Switzerland, more and more vehicles are being equipped with DAB+ radios. There are also various options for retrofitting VHF radios with DAB+ technology. Please ask your dealer or garage mechanic. Please note that our station is available via DAB+ in cars only in Switzerland and in border areas of neighbouring countries. For more information, please visit www.dabplus.ch.

The best thing is to do an automatic station search on your radio, which will update the list of all available stations. It sometimes helps to change the location of the radio whilst the station search is running.

Our station is not broadcast via FM, but rather on the digital DAB+ network. With DAB+, stations are not allocated a frequency in the conventional sense. After an automatic station search on your radio, you’ll find us under the name «Swiss Jazz+».

We are aware of the problem. When updates are carried out to the operating systems of smartphones and tablets, all app providers need a certain amount of time to update their apps accordingly. This is unfortunately also the case with us and is unavoidable.

Our iPhone app will also work on your iPad, but to find the app itself, you will have to remove the «iPad» filter in the App Store.

In view of the very rapid pace of technical progress, a gradual increase in streaming quality is likely in the medium term, but no definite plans have yet been made. Improving streaming quality means that we will need more bandwidth for each station, and that means much higher costs. However, only a small proportion of our listeners – those with the corresponding hi fi equipment – will be able to benefit from the marginal improvement in sound quality. Our 96kbps AAC+ stream offers a slightly better-quality sound, if you would like to try it.

From 2016, in order to receive our programme via Eutelsat Hotbird satellite, you need a DVB-S2-compatible receiver. Otherwise reception will unfortunately no longer be possible. Our programme has not been broadcast via the Astra satellite for some time.

Various

We are a music programme of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR and are financed by the licence fees paid by Swiss tax payers.

We are often asked if we have any use for old records. However, we are pleased to refer you to the «swissjazzorama» Swiss jazz archive, as well as to the Swiss National Sound Archives. The latter only archives records with a link to Switzerland, however.

This is basically permitted, and we do not demand remuneration. On the other hand, you are obliged to follow your country’s rules for licence fees in public areas in order to protect the artists’ copyrights.

We do not accept direct applications. Any vacancies will be published on the SRG SSR website. Internships are unfortunately not possible at our station.