Unfortunately for Cumulus, that stick is as far as it will go toward Houston. In order to move it closer, there would have to be some arrangement with the competing Corpus frequency. You know, the one we hear in Houston on those bad inversion days.
They're not under any contractual obligation to continue using the name "Jack". As long as they're paying the licensing fee for the contract term, it doesn't matter. Looking at their website and listening to a continued, random use of the name "Jack", one wonders exactly who is making the decisions there. Everyone knows that programming strategy for Cumulus is dictated top down from Atlanta. Argue about their real versus self perceived strengths and this still doesn't make sense. Perhaps the sales manager (who considers himself a programmer) is pulling the strings to keep some mention of Jack because he sold it that way.
Whomever is making this foolish decision is killing any opportunity the new format has by confusing the listener. The newest incarnation of 103.7, no matter how well conceptualized and targeted, should not use the name "Jack" at all. And alternative formats as well as triple A both engage their listeners by utilizing high website interactive involvement. On the web, it's all STILL Jack, even the new items being posted. Duh!
Robison and Fant teamed for an exceptional station in creating The Buzz years ago. Fant is gone. Robison is probably the sane, strategic voice screaming to do this new thing right. Too bad for him, he's working for Cumulus. We'll never know how well his creation could do.
As for KFNC, 97.5's future. Cumulus would have already changed that to another format if they had an idea of what to do with it. Right now, ESPN is an exclusive, even though there are 3 other sports stations.