Here's why Jack didn't do well in NYC. NY is not a good market for Rock and Jack was 90% Rock. Every half hour, they'd throw in an usual 70s or 80s hit, like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun or Can't Touch This. But most of it was 80s and 90s Rock.
In LA, where many young people grew up on KROQ and San Diego where many young people grew up on 91X, Jack is now their station. It plays all those 80s and 90s Rock Hits, including what was Alternative at the time.
NYC didn't have that experience. WPLJ left Rock for Top 40 in the 80s. WNEW-FM was legendary for its Progressive Rock days but wasn't that big in the 80s and 90s. So a Jack format in NYC, playing Depeche Mode and Def Leppard, doesn't make much sense.
When CBS chief Joel Hollander saw how Jack had done in Canada and the success it was having in Dallas and later LA, he thought this was the answer for all the CBS Oldies stations across the U.S. which were still playing The Four Seasons and The Temptations. He told interviewers that Jack "was a new kind of Oldies." He was right about the demographics but wrong about one identical format working in all markets, including markets that weren't that big on 80s and 90s Rock. (He also liked it because it eliminated all DJs, including a high-priced, multi-person morning show.)
So it was clear Jack was doomed in NYC. After a year and a half of bad ratings, a new PD, Brian Thomas, was brought in. He put live traffic reporters on the station who also did promos and even gave the artist and title of the last song played, like a DJ. He cut some of the corporate 80s Rock and tried to insert some Adult Alternative titles at the end. But it was too late to save Jack. The NYC audience had heard it and didn't like it.
So the decision was made to go back to an updated WCBS-FM. I know the format is now called Classic Hits but in my mind Classic Hits refers to hit-oriented Classic Rock, such as WROR Boston and WDRV Chicago, where there are no jingles, no rhythmic music or ballads, no DJs talking up song intros. Classic Hits is Classic Rock but the artists are Billy Joel and The Eagles, not so much Zeppelin and Ozzy Osbourne.
Today, WCBS-FM to most listeners is simply the old WCBS-FM minus the pre-Beatles songs and with compatible 80s hits. The morning and midday DJs had been on the old WCBS-FM. There are still jingles, songs are still talked-up, there's plenty of African-American artists. It sounds like the old WCBS-FM except Hall & Oates and Bob Segar have replaced The Four Seasons and Elvis. But hey, the original WCBS-FM updated itself over the years. Originally it played The Del Vikings and Connie Francis. There's always a progression in all formats, even Oldies.
So CBS got what it wanted after all... today's version of Oldies. They still have to pay DJs (although overnights are now voice-tracked). It's usually the #2 station in NYC. It might not be a big biller since part of its audience is over 54. But it makes decent money and costs CBS little to run. (They've owned the station since it signed on in the 1940s. No debt service.)
Gregg
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