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Listening no more: The 'beautiful music' first played at Jones College in
1964 comes to an end

  [11]Matt Soergel
  Florida Times-Union
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  Ed Oberle, known on the air as Ed Bell, is photographed at the Jones
  College radio station in 1980. He was a pioneer in the city's radio
  industry and was known for the daily commentaries he wrote and recorded
  at Jones College. He ended each one with, "That's our view, we welcome
  yours." He died in 2013 at 100 years old.

  For 58 years the easy-listening music station broadcast from
  Jacksonville, over the city and eventually over the world. Now Jones
  College Radio, known in recent years as [13]Riverton Tower Radio, has
  fallen silent.

  The music has been there since 1964 when an FM station was donated to
  the business school run by Jack Jones that bore his family's name.

  He knew what he wanted to hear, so he took his collection of albums --
  from Mantovani,101 Strings Orchestra, the Jackie Gleason Orchestra and
  the like -- and headed to his new station.

  A Jones College Radio favorite: [14]Ed Oberle, 'smooth and mellow'
  Jacksonville radio pioneer, dies at age 100

  From Jones College to local TV celebrity: [15]Ken Amaro on his 42 years
  on TV at First Coast News

  It's been that way ever since. Even after the station went
  internet-only. Even after Jones College closed and its high-rise
  building on the St. Johns River in Arlington was turned into a
  senior-living center named Riverton Tower.

  But in a Sept. 6 [16]post on the webpage for Riverton Tower Radio,
  Kenneth Jones, Jack Jones' son, addressed the station's listeners and
  supporters: "It is with sorrow that I inform you that our streaming
  service has ended. We have great appreciation for your love and
  support over the many decades of service to you, our listeners around
  the world."

  He wrote that he was "surprised and honored" that so many people tuned
  in from so far away, including places such as Japan, Africa and South
  and Central America.
  In 2009 Ken Jones, general manager of Jones College Radio, looks
  through some of the station's many thousands of old record albums. The
  first "beautiful music" played by the station in 1964 came straight
  from his father Jack's collection.

  On a Facebook page devoted to the station, fans thanked Kenneth Jones
  for keeping the music alive for so long and expressed sadness that it
  had come to an end.

  "Why????? JCR has been the backdrop for my life FOREVER!!!" wrote one.

  "This breaks my heart as well, to me this station is heavenly," wrote
  another. "Most soothing radio I've ever heard."

A proud history of playing music for the masses

  When reached by the Times-Union, Jones had no comment. But in a 2009
  story in the paper, he had told how the station came to be and vowed to
  keep the radio station his father founded playing for years to come --
  something he managed to accomplish.

  The story noted how the late Jack Jones had shaped the easy-listening
  sound and personality of Jones College Radio since its founding:

  "FM radio wasn't that big a deal back then, and Jones had such a strong
  personality that he was instantly able to put his stamp on the new
  station.

  "He was particular: If a particular LP had a particular track he didn't
  particularly like, he'd put red nail polish between the grooves,
  rendering it unplayable.

  "And he was known to call DJs on his two-way radio in his car if he
  wasn't pleased with what he heard."

  At Jones College and elsewhere: [17]Battle rages on accreditation,
  college money

  Jones College Radio used to broadcast its easy-listening tunes (also
  known as "beautiful music") from WKTZ (90.9 FM) and WJAX (1220 AM).

  But [18]as noted in a Times-Union story from 2014, Jones College sold
  the frequencies to Educational Media Foundation for about $3.4 million,
  a move approved by the Federal Communications Commission."

  The new owners turned the channels into contemporary Christian music
  stations, while Jones College's easy listening went online only (it had
  already had an internet presence for years).

  The online station counted on contributions to offset operating
  expenses and had in recent years noted that [19]that balance had not
  been a favorable one.

  Jones College dated to 1918 when Annie Harper Jones founded the school
  in her home on what is now Prudential Drive. It began with fewer than
  50 students and specialized in business training. It [20]closed its
  doors in 2017, just shy of its 100th birthday.

  Just before its closing, the school's website said the school offered
  bachelor's degrees in six disciplines, ranging from allied health
  management and business administration to elementary education. It also
  issued associate's degrees in four areas, including computer
  information systems and legal assistant. Online degrees were offered as
  well.
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