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JACK-FM Baltimore vs. MIX 107.3 Washington

L

luckenbg

Even though many people have called MIX 107.3 a Variety Hits station, I'm not so sure. After listening to both JACK-FM in Baltimore and MIX 107.3 in Washington, the two stations sound very different. The first month of MIX 107.3's new format sounded a lot more like JACK than it does today. Lately MIX 107.3 sounds like a Hot Adult Contemporary station that is playing a much larger quantity of re-currents than they used to play. I get very bored listening to MIX because the surprise factor seems to be gone, whereas JACK-FM surprises me every time I listen to it.

I suspect that MIX simply changed their format as a preemptive move against someone else in the market adopting JACK (such as WARW). In fact, when MIX first changed formats they played up this whole stunt about Jack Diamond hijacking the station and made lots of references to Jack's iPOD. Now that JACK is on in Baltimore it's like MIX is no longer worried about having a JACK in Washington and they're starting to revert to their old format.

I'm disappointed that JACK-FM isn't on in Washington, and annoyed with MIX for doing a lame imitation just to preempt the real thing. I'm curious if anyone thinks that infinity may still go ahead and put JACK on in Washington even with MIX doing their thing. I sure hope Infinity would consider it (I can pick up the Washington stations much clearer).

Gary
 
A classic driven Jack perhaps would just force a more New music driven Mix on my opinion, but I'm not from Washington, and don't know that market very well.<P ID="signature">______________
"If you never say NO, How much is your YES worth?"









</P>
 
> A classic driven Jack perhaps would just force a more New
> music driven Mix on my opinion, but I'm not from Washington,
> and don't know that market very well.

The thing with JACK-FM is that it doesn't (or at least hasn't, to this point) taken a "classic leaning" approach anywhere. It's 1974-2005, taking hit songs from multiple genres that test well and putting approx. 1,000-1,200 into the playlist. Now JACK-FM stations do have playlists that vary by 25% in some cases from market to market, i.e. San Diego vs. Los Angeles, but it's not as if one is "classic driven" per se.

Now a Variety Hits station that's *not* the JACK-FM brand (which is a licensed brand which much be acquired for a given market) could try something like that, though personally I think that takes the Variety out of the equation and makes it a glorified Classic Hits station with a large playlist. But that's just my opinion.<P ID="signature">______________
Lou Pickney
Tampa, FL
RadioHotTalk.com & VarietyHits.com</P>
 
> Even though many people have called MIX 107.3 a Variety Hits
> station, I'm not so sure. After listening to both JACK-FM
> in Baltimore and MIX 107.3 in Washington, the two stations
> sound very different. The first month of MIX 107.3's new
> format sounded a lot more like JACK than it does today.
> Lately MIX 107.3 sounds like a Hot Adult Contemporary
> station that is playing a much larger quantity of
> re-currents than they used to play. I get very bored
> listening to MIX because the surprise factor seems to be
> gone, whereas JACK-FM surprises me every time I listen to
> it.

Seattle adult CHR KPLZ (owned by Fisher Broadcasting) once tried the adult hits format, but sent it to Infinity's KRQI 96.5 (ditching the classic alternative format), and becoming 96-5 Jack FM (KJAQ). Now KPLZ is a full-blown hot AC station (without the R&B and hard pop they used to play, kinda like when KNDD segued from modern rock classic alternative in November '03, and months later became an alternative station with no active rock tunes), with whatever weekends.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by PassDutch on 06/10/05 08:38 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> Even though many people have called MIX 107.3 a Variety Hits
> station, I'm not so sure. After listening to both JACK-FM
> in Baltimore and MIX 107.3 in Washington, the two stations
> sound very different. The first month of MIX 107.3's new
> format sounded a lot more like JACK than it does today.
> Lately MIX 107.3 sounds like a Hot Adult Contemporary
> station that is playing a much larger quantity of
> re-currents than they used to play. I get very bored
> listening to MIX because the surprise factor seems to be
> gone, whereas JACK-FM surprises me every time I listen to
> it.

Completely agreed.

The first day I listened to the "new" Mix I was amazed at the variety. I don't think I've gone back there since the first week though. Mix brought back a lot of songs they'd ditched from the library, but there's nothing revolutionary about their sound. It's just the old format with a couple of extra "spice" cuts per hour.

Baltimore's Jack-FM has a whole different attitude, a wider library, and a more 70's/80's based approach. I still enjoy listening to Jack to see what they're going to play next. It seems like they've actually expanded the playlist since signing on.

Bottom line: There's definitely still a hole for the pure "Jack" format in DC and if Infinity were upset with 94.7's performance, I think we'd see a flip and Mix would be the big loser. In New York, the fact that PLJ leaned towards Variety Hits didn't stop 101.1 from flipping to Jack.
 
> The first day I listened to the "new" Mix I was amazed at
> the variety. I don't think I've gone back there since the
> first week though. Mix brought back a lot of songs they'd
> ditched from the library, but there's nothing revolutionary
> about their sound. It's just the old format with a couple
> of extra "spice" cuts per hour.
>
> Baltimore's Jack-FM has a whole different attitude, a wider
> library, and a more 70's/80's based approach. I still enjoy
> listening to Jack to see what they're going to play next.
> It seems like they've actually expanded the playlist since
> signing on.
>
> Bottom line: There's definitely still a hole for the pure
> "Jack" format in DC and if Infinity were upset with 94.7's
> performance, I think we'd see a flip and Mix would be the
> big loser. In New York, the fact that PLJ leaned towards
> Variety Hits didn't stop 101.1 from flipping to Jack.
>

Well, looks like Washington's Mix 107.3 has returned to the old hot AC format, after trying adult hits for a few months. Maybe Washington's Z104 (the lowest-rated FM in Washington) will flip to either Max FM (like Bonneville's Max FM in San Francisco). Or maybe Washington's oldies station WBIG-FM might flip. The good way to flip is WJFK-FM 106.7 and keep Stern there, just like WBUF in Buffalo did!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by PassDutch on 06/12/05 05:05 PM.</FONT></P>
 
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