• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

How Long Can "Jack" Stay Out Of Pittsburgh?

J

Joseph_Gallant

Guest
Today (June 3rd), Infinity flipped two of it's longtime oldies stations, Chicago's WJMK-104.3 and New York's legendary WCBS-FM-101.1 (after 33 years as an oldies station) to "Jack". In fact, the two stations flipped at the very same time (5 P.M. EDT, 4 P.M. CDT).

Although not in the area, this board leads me to suggest that the "Jack" craze has yet to reach Pittsburgh. That may make Pittsburgh one of the last large markets not to have been "Hi-'Jack'ed", to coin a pun.

How long do you think it will be until the Steel City gets a "Jack"-type format?? And who will take the plunge??

My guess is that the answer to the first question is: no more than a few weeks. Probably no later than the July 4th weekend, maybe sooner. The "Jack" format has become so hot that stations have been racing each other to be the one to launch it in a particular city, fearful that if they hesitate, they lose out. As for the second question, I'm inviting those in and near Pittsburgh to respond and give their opinions.
 
My guess would be WZPT / Star 100.7

Although, with the impending departure of Stern to satellite, what's to say that K-Rock won't do it? The other thing that I've heard is that all of the old B94 / 93.7 / 93.7 'BZZ / Whatever music is still on hard drive and has been updated week-to-week..<P ID="signature">______________
Aaron Tyler
Afternoons / MD
WVZA / Marion - Carbondale, IL
www.kissfm927.com

Weekends / Swing
KSLZ / St. Louis
WAKZ / Youngstown, OH
</P>
 
> My guess would be WZPT / Star 100.7
>
> Although, with the impending departure of Stern to
> satellite, what's to say that K-Rock won't do it? The other
> thing that I've heard is that all of the old B94 / 93.7 /
> 93.7 'BZZ / Whatever music is still on hard drive and has
> been updated week-to-week..
>

This definitely is not a market that jumps on the format
of the moment. Pittsburgh didn't get an alternative station
until a year and a half after Kurt Cobain died. However, since
they are an Infinity station, 93.7 makes perfect sense after
Stern's finished.
 
> > My guess would be WZPT / Star 100.7
> >
> > Although, with the impending departure of Stern to
> > satellite, what's to say that K-Rock won't do it? The
> other
> > thing that I've heard is that all of the old B94 / 93.7 /
> > 93.7 'BZZ / Whatever music is still on hard drive and has
> > been updated week-to-week..
> >
>
> This definitely is not a market that jumps on the format
> of the moment. Pittsburgh didn't get an alternative station
>
> until a year and a half after Kurt Cobain died. However,
> since
> they are an Infinity station, 93.7 makes perfect sense after
>
> Stern's finished.
>


Infinity's been the driving force behind the format so far. Star has low 12+ numbers but no waste; they're already in the top 5 25-54 consistently. So among Infinity's properties only K-Rock remains as a candidate.

But consider this: Clear Channel has also been killing off oldies stations this year, as an example, Big 100.3 in Orlando is now "La Nueva Rumba 100.3". 3WS is now run by a programmer whose career has been spent in rock formats. They played the Beatles "Revolution" at 9AM a couple of weeks ago (a _little_ loud for the oldies crowd at that time of day, ya think?). And Infinity flipped WSRQ in Baltimore because they had evidence that CC was going to a something along the lines of a Jack format in that market.

And of course the obvious choice is the station that won't do it; 97RRK. They had their opportunity in January and passed (and what's even more ironic is that the "Classic Trax" show on Y97 in the 80s was very visionary, as it was the front end of the wave that saw Classic Rock become a format... the salespeople could have been on the streets with a pitch like "History Repates Itself at 97JACKFM... but then, no one has a sense of history in this business anymore...).<P ID="signature">______________
"With God as my witness, I could have sworn turkeys could fly."</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Part-timer on 06/04/05 02:15 PM.</FONT></P>
 
Another thought on Infinity's options

In my opinion, Infiniy's the best company at looking at the big picture when deciding what formats to mix together in a market. Having said that, I think these posssibilities exist for a Jack format on one of their stations...

Star and Jack would overlap too much. So would Jack and K-Rock...

But Jack and B-94 works really well.

Or, if they think that B-94 has too much baggage, then Jack appears at 93.7 and Star goes "90's and Now" like Q102 in Cincinnati and Q104 in Cleveland, both very good Infinity Hot ACs.

<P ID="signature">______________
"With God as my witness, I could have sworn turkeys could fly."</P>
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

Why not bring back B94 with star's jocks and format and Jack goes to 100.7?
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

> Why not bring back B94 with star's jocks and format and Jack
> goes to 100.7?
>

I'm sure Keith Clarke would like nothing better than to reunite the JDBS morning show on the B. That was his baby.

The rest of Star's jocks are out of the demo if it's going to be a pure CHR. Really the morning show is too, but I'd bet they'd give them another shot anyway. But remember, the CHR competition is the Freak Show "Hot Girl check-in" and "Scotty talks to girls."<P ID="signature">______________
"With God as my witness, I could have sworn turkeys could fly."</P>
 
Why wait?

> However,
> since
> they are an Infinity station, 93.7 makes perfect sense after
>
> Stern's finished.
>

What difference does it make if they wait for Howard Stern's morning talk show to end before they switch the music they play the rest of the day? If they're gonna switch, why not just go ahead and switch?
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

Look at Kiss' numbers after 937 switched to K-Rock. It has to tell somebody something that people still want to hear today's music. B94 should live on. 961 plays the same songs over and over again and the morning show and Scotty talk about the same thing everyday but with new callers. I just want to blow my head off after i hear Scotty and Bonics' fake laughs every break in the music. I would just recommend that they stop talking. Pull the call letters back from Florida and bring back the B.

> > Why not bring back B94 with star's jocks and format and
> Jack
> > goes to 100.7?
> >
>
> I'm sure Keith Clarke would like nothing better than to
> reunite the JDBS morning show on the B. That was his baby.
>
> The rest of Star's jocks are out of the demo if it's going
> to be a pure CHR. Really the morning show is too, but I'd
> bet they'd give them another shot anyway. But remember, the
> CHR competition is the Freak Show "Hot Girl check-in" and
> "Scotty talks to girls."
>
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

I got a question. Why is the B94 music still on the harddrives and why would they update it continuously? Hummm...are we sensing a comeback? I think it was completely asinine to pull B94 in the first place. You got a successful 22 year old station...Hummm..let's scratch it for some guy who is gonna leave us in a year anyway! Sounds like a plan to me! (Sarcasm)
<P ID="signature">______________
-S</P>
 
Re: Why wait?

> What difference does it make if they wait for Howard Stern's
> morning talk show to end before they switch the music they
> play the rest of the day? If they're gonna switch, why not
> just go ahead and switch?


Just ask the Sales Manager that question? I'm in sales (not radio) and if I was the Sales Manager or Rep for Stern. I would bleed every penny until the minute Stern is off the air, you don't know how long it will be until they can charge the rate I'm sure they are getting right now for Stern.

just my input, I could be wrong
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

I just hope that if B94 comes back, it will not be with all the rythmic garbage that it left with. Hopefully a more balanced CHR like WNCI sounding would return to the Burgh.
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

B94 lost its way and was tanking badly. That's why the switch was made. It was not successful by any stretch of anyone's spin.

You can argue they didn't make the right choice for a new format, but there's no disputing that what they were doing wasn't making it, your loyalty notwithstanding.

Don't know why the music is on the hard drives other than it might be corporate policy to keep an updated music library for any major format so they're not scrambling to put one together at the last minute. I would assume they assemble the music for distribution to all the stations in the chain.





> I got a question. Why is the B94 music still on the
> harddrives and why would they update it continuously?
> Hummm...are we sensing a comeback? I think it was
> completely asinine to pull B94 in the first place. You got
> a successful 22 year old station...Hummm..let's scratch it
> for some guy who is gonna leave us in a year anyway! Sounds
> like a plan to me! (Sarcasm)
>
 
> My guess would be WZPT / Star 100.7.
Playing PD, I'd leave this one alone. They're trailing WSHH, sure, but they're ahead of LiteRock. JJRK&B may sound better on a "Jack" because of the older songs, but why fool with success? Oh, you're saying KC's already done that?

>Although, with the impending departure of Stern to satellite, what's to say that K-Rock won't do it?
That would be the logical choice.....bleed Stern for as much as you can though! Pimp him, then if you're #s drop below 'RRK, dump him faster than a prom date! Then go with "Jack." Latest Spring P1 shows 2 of the 3 stations playing classic rock dropped, and one remained stagnant. The K-Rock jocks sound more upbeat, so "Jack" would sound better there.

>The other thing that I've heard is that all of the old B94/93.7/93.7 'BZZ / Whatever music is still on hard drive and has been updated week-to-week..
NO! 1) Whatever you called it, IT'S DEAD! There will be/should be/NO resurrection! Why? Can anyone recall how Bs #s were? They were always in a fight in the top 5 of 12+.....KISS is sandwiched between 2 stations who target 25 and older audiences.....in fact, all 6 stations ahead of KISS have pretty much the same target demos! Pittsburgh is not a youngster's town.....you graduate high school, go to college elsewhere. Come to Pittsburgh for college, then you move elsewhere when you get your degree. To me, all it sounds like is that KISS just recycles every so often with the same amount of listeners.....no gain, but just different faces. KISS accomplished 1 thing, they destroyed a heritage CHR, but B more or less did that internally. But KISS has failed to gain because they're not in a hip town for the 25 & younger set. SOOOOOO, that's why we will NEVER have another B here!
 
> > JJRK&B may sound
> better on a "Jack" because of the older songs, but why fool
> with success? Oh, you're saying KC's already done that?
>

Jack formats have no jocks.<P ID="signature">______________
"With God as my witness, I could have sworn turkeys could fly."</P>
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

> B94 lost its way and was tanking badly. That's why the
> switch was made. It was not successful by any stretch of
> anyone's spin.
>

B94 was having problems, but the switch was made because corporate forced Stern down the local management's throat.<P ID="signature">______________
"With God as my witness, I could have sworn turkeys could fly."</P>
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

B 94 was going to change no matter what Stern did. It had to. It was getting killed. Look at the ratings and the consistent downward trend.



> > B94 lost its way and was tanking badly. That's why the
> > switch was made. It was not successful by any stretch of
> > anyone's spin.
> >
>
> B94 was having problems, but the switch was made because
> corporate forced Stern down the local management's throat.
>
 
Re: Why wait?

> > What difference does it make if they wait for Howard
> Stern's
> > morning talk show to end before they switch the music they
>
> > play the rest of the day? If they're gonna switch, why not
>
> > just go ahead and switch?
>
>
> Just ask the Sales Manager that question? I'm in sales (not
> radio) and if I was the Sales Manager or Rep for Stern. I
> would bleed every penny until the minute Stern is off the
> air, you don't know how long it will be until they can
> charge the rate I'm sure they are getting right now for
> Stern.
>
> just my input, I could be wrong

I do not dispute for a minute that they would want to milk Stern's show for every last dime until the minute that the plug is pulled. That makes perfect sense. But I don't understand what having Stern's talk show on in the morning has to do with what music they play the rest of the day.

Does their contract with Stern require them to play what they're currently playing when Stern's not on?
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

> B94 was having problems, but the switch was made because
> corporate forced Stern down the local management's throat.
>

Again I ask, what does having Stern's talk show in the morning have to do with what music gets played when Stern isn't on the air? Before CC dropped Stern from the X, the X didn't play the stuff that 93.7 is playing now.

Also, has there ever been a station that successfully returned to a prior format after switching? I'm not talking about after a long time and lots of in-between formats, I'm talking about saying "oops, we blew it" and changing back to an earlier format and identity.
 
Re: Another thought on Infinity's options

> > B94 was having problems, but the switch was made because
> > corporate forced Stern down the local management's throat.
>
> >
>
> Again I ask, what does having Stern's talk show in the
> morning have to do with what music gets played when Stern
> isn't on the air? Before CC dropped Stern from the X, the X
> didn't play the stuff that 93.7 is playing now.
>
Actually Infinity's already done that in a couple of markets. In Buffalo I believe they've gone CHR the rest of the day after Howard, and in Sacramento, Spanish. Yes, Spanish. (Si). <P ID="signature">______________
"With God as my witness, I could have sworn turkeys could fly."</P>
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom