The station was created in 2001 by Jimi King. JK has always exclusively picked the tracks that make up the playlist, but as stated on the homepage it's the listeners that choose which tracks come off. It's this policy that JK believes makes the winning formula that keeps the regular listeners happy and that has provided what many people see as the perfect smooth jazz mix to accompany them throughout their working day.

New Beginnings

In 2004 JK collaborated with web broadcaster Sky.fm to create their smooth jazz channel, using the same principles and knowledge of listener likes and dislikes from the Soft Jazz UK project to programme the playlist for the Sky service.

Sky.fm Smooth Jazz is now the world's largest smooth jazz Internet station, with an audience exceeding 11,000 listeners at certain peak times of the day. Although many Soft Jazz UK listeners made the transition to Sky.fm, JK still keeps Soft Jazz UK channel running as it's clear that some people are quite happy with the Live365 feed. And indeed there are some tracks which have proved popular with Live365 audiences but not with Sky's and vice versa. In fact, the Live365 service is still so popular that on most working days it frequently exceeds the maximum number of permitted listeners, and is only available to Live365 Premium Subscribers.

JK also has a blog called Jimi King's Smooth Jazz Mutterings, which details the comings and goings of the smooth jazz world. Every Sunday he presents a live radio show (complete with video feed) on the Sky.fm network. There's also a Facebook Presence associated with the Sunday broadcast, that allows people to use Facebook chat to send messages live into the studio, and a Smooth Jazz Live Show Facebook Page so that regulars can keep up to date with the sunday show and associated events. You can also get updates on Twitter.

Over the years a few artists from the world of smooth jazz have stopped by for a chat, and an archive of those video visits can be found on Youtube.