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Contract on 95.7 JACK FM about to expire. . . .

R

RadioGaGa75

October 5, 2008 will mark the three-year anniversary when South Central Radio Group dropped Oldies 95.7 & 106.7 for JACK FM. Considering it has been a major flop in K-Town, one can only imagine the folks on Sharps Ridge are not going to renew their contract on JACK FM and go with a new format.

So assuming Jack's gonna "hit the road," anybody got an idea what the new format might be?
 
How do you know it's been a "major flop"? For a station to get any ratings at all for airing (and paying) no live local personalities, having no programming staff to pay, and no original imaging to produce sounds like a major success to me.

But to indulge the fantasy that 95.7/106.7 will have locally produced formats again, I think strategically, they would have to go Hot AC to take away some of Star's adult numbers and to help flank B-97.5
 
Actually, I've gotten to where I like Jack FM. For me, 93.1, Jack, and 98.7's oldies (and occasionally WQBB AM 1040) pretty well fill my music needs on Knoxville radio. I just cannot get into B97.5, I have never heard anything on Star 102 that I like, and classic rock WIMZ drove me away a couple of years ago with their repetitiveness and redneck personna. Most of my listening time goes to True Oldies 98.7 and News Talk 100.
 
sss said:
If SC was to flip the format, what about AAA?
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They'd have to hire a full knowledgeable staff and do it right for it to be successful, see WOKI in the Dick Broadcasting era. Otherwise, it will fail miserably, see WOKI in the Citadel era.
 
BRice16 said:
Hot AC? Tried and failed on that frequency. Twice.

I don't see SS trying to make the third time a charm.
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What was the competitive situation at that time? You have to remember, this isn't about one station getting ratings. It's all about synergy within the cluster. How will it help the cash cow? If they do a Hot AC on 95.7 and get a 2.0 share, yet succeed in stealing 2 shares of Star's 25-54 numbers, and help protect B-97.5 from a potential competitor, that could be considered a success.

That's why I say Jack-FM might not be the disappointment that you think it is. But I guess we'll see if South Central thinks it's worth keeping. They might do what some other stations have done when their "Jack" contract ran out. They simply dropped the "Jack" imaging but kept the "adult hits" format, programmed it locally, and just called it something else.
 
JACK is very inexpensive to run, but still they have a little income. I'm not so sure anything will happen on that signal...unless something happens with WNFZ, and that is moved over some time soon.
If they went AAA, I'd like to see Shane run it again. I do miss the old River (when it was good).
We'll see.
 
I would also like to see a Hot AC format come back to Knoxville. Also South Central has moved B97.5 in much more of a gold based direction the past couple of years so there might be room for a Hot AC or Adult CHR in their cluster. Also, personally, I would like to see a rhythmic AC (Movin') type format too. That might be an option, but it might be to close to B97.5s flashback tracks.
 
People keep talking about SCRG trying to steal shares from Star. Why not try to steal 3 or 4 shares from Frog? There's obviously a market for another Country station in K-Town. Look at Merle's ratings success on a shoestring budget and a crappy signal.

I personally think they ought to do a Classic Country format that's very 70's & 80's based with a smattering of the 60's and 90's. 95.7 & 106.7 have got a much better signal into K-Town and Blount County (the second most populated County in the Knoxville Metro) than 96.7 does. And SCRG has the pockets to aggressively promote it for a long time. They could easily blow Merle out of the water and potentially take some more shares out of WIVK's paltry 17.4 that they showed for in the trends today.

Putting a hurting on the Frog could only further JXB's and IMZ's ratings and revenue cause. That's the way I'd flank with 95.7 and 106.7.
 
RadioGaGa75 said:
People keep talking about SCRG trying to steal shares from Star. Why not try to steal 3 or 4 shares from Frog? There's obviously a market for another Country station in K-Town. Look at Merle's ratings success on a shoestring budget and a crappy signal.

I personally think they ought to do a Classic Country format that's very 70's & 80's based with a smattering of the 60's and 90's. 95.7 & 106.7 have got a much better signal into K-Town and Blount County (the second most populated County in the Knoxville Metro) than 96.7 does. And SCRG has the pockets to aggressively promote it for a long time. They could easily blow Merle out of the water and potentially take some more shares out of WIVK's paltry 17.4 that they showed for in the trends today.

Putting a hurting on the Frog could only further JXB's and IMZ's ratings and revenue cause. That's the way I'd flank with 95.7 and 106.7.
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No more country stations in the Knoxville area PLEASE!!!!!!!
 
My question is, are other stations with the JACK format using it anymore..
I heard WCBS-FM, New York City, which pioneered and syndicates the format, has dropped it.
 
csneed5 said:
My question is, are other stations with the JACK format using it anymore..
I heard WCBS-FM, New York City, which pioneered and syndicates the format, has dropped it.
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96.3 Jack-FM in Nashville is still going strong, consistantly placing in the Top 3 stations in Nashville for the last 3 or 4 rating books. 105.5 Jack-FM is Denver is still going strong when I was there earlier this summer.
 
Just to clear a few things... WCBS-FM in New York never syndicated anything. The Jack format there was locally programmed. They also had absolutely nothing to do with pioneering the format. It was pioneered on a website as an internet station. It was then picked up as a radio format in Canada before making it in the U.S. By the time it hit NY, it was already in several U.S. markets.

Also the Jack in Nashville is locally programmed as well. That is in contrast with Knoxville's Jack which is the syndicated version (as is the Chattanooga Jack)

On a somewhat related note, what is with 95.7/106.7's audio levels lately? Are they trying to overcome the weak signals with blaring the audio? They must have borrowed Spinal Tap's "11" knob!
 
I think most SC stations are really highly compressed and processed....WIMZ especially, but Jack too, and doing it with a satellite signal only amplifies the problem, in my opinion.

What are there, 8-9 tiny country stations in the East TN area?

I don't think there's enough money out there right now to mount a decent country format attack against the Frog. They are so much more than just country records...established talent, national recognition, news, UT sports, heritage, image, community involvement, record company relationships, market relationships with clients...etc. It would take much more than a country music iPod to get the job done. And the competitor would have to stick with it, profitable or not, for at least a few years before it would have any credibility, ratings, or sales. With Citadel's national financial position now, there's not been a better time to take a stab at it, but every other radio companies financial positions ain't that much better!

Flipping formats can't be cheap!
 
I agree about the processing on Jack FM recently. I'm not sure what South Central is up to, but I wish they'd get it straightened out. Right now they have transmitter bleedover onto adjacent frequencies near 95.7. They are causing interference to the northern reaches of WDOD at 96.5 for some reason. I hope they get this resolved soon or I'm contacting the FCC and filing a complaint. It began about a week or two ago.
 
BRH said:
I agree about the processing on Jack FM recently. I'm not sure what South Central is up to, but I wish they'd get it straightened out. Right now they have transmitter bleedover onto adjacent frequencies near 95.7. They are causing interference to the northern reaches of WDOD at 96.5 for some reason. I hope they get this resolved soon or I'm contacting the FCC and filing a complaint. It began about a week or two ago.
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Definately! I'm glad someone else noticed this. 95.7 is bleeding all over making it difficult and sometimes impossible for me to listen to Electric 94.9 in many areas around Knoxville. +
 
I've been told that SCC is upgrading all of their signals to HD and it is causing some pretty major problems with some of their signals. That may account for the distortion and bleed over.
 
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