Jack FM

[101tm]

I wonder who would have gotten the Jack format pre-emptively? Back in 2005, IHeart/then Clear Channel wasn’t really on the bandwagon. My guess would be CD101.9.

 

[Gregg.]

Interesting to note that Entercom/Audacy still likes the Jack format, even if it doesn't want to pay Sparknet for the rights to use the Jack FM name on new stations. It just put an Adult Hits format on 103.3 Boston, replacing an underperforming Top 40 sound. Big 103.3 WBGB has a sarcastic voice and no DJs, just like Jack.

And a couple of years ago, Entercom also put Adult Hits on in Houston, 95.7 The Spot, KKHH. Audacy is still paying for the rights to Jack-FM on several stations:

--93.1 KCBS-FM Los Angeles
--100.3 KJKK Dallas
--104.1 KZJK Minneapolis
--96.3 KJAQ Seattle (originally owned by CBS but handed off to iHeart in 2017)

 

[CTListener]

Interesting to note that Entercom/Audacy still likes the Jack format, even if it doesn't want to pay Sparknet for the rights to use the Jack FM name on new stations. It just put an Adult Hits format on 103.3 Boston, replacing an underperforming Top 40 sound. Big 103.3 WBGB has a sarcastic voice and no DJs, just like Jack.

And a Jack knock-off called "Mike" was on 93.7 in Boston for several years until all-sports WEEI 850 moved there.

 

[Gregg.]

There are Jack knock-offs all over the U.S. and Canada.

Bob-FM KBPA is almost always #1 in Austin. Boise has a Bob-FM KSRV that's #4 in the recent ratings. There had been a number of Bob-FM stations in Canada but for some reason Bell Media changed all of them recently to Bounce Radio, including CFWM Winnipeg and CKLH Hamilton.

iHeart has Steve-FM in Columbia, The Lake in Greensville and The Bus in both Des Moines and Columbus. iHeart is still paying for the rights to be Jack-FM on KJAQ Seattle and WQSR Baltimore.

Cumulus has Ed-FM KDRF in Albuquerque.

Audacy has Big 103.3 Boston, 95.7 The Spot in Houston, 98.7 Simon in Greensboro, 106.5 The Lake in Cleveland and 98.1 The Lake in Chattanooga, in addition to several stations that are still Jack-FM.

While I've been writing this, I've been listening to 95.7 The Spot in Houston. A sarcastic voice has said things like "I think we've played enough commercial for now," "We're the Spot, playing a lot of great music because, well, we really don't know how to do anything else," and "It's time for more music? OK, let me press this button over here."

It's morning drive time but there is no DJ. Twice an hour, a traffic reporter gives a brief traffic update and brief weather that doesn't go more than 40 seconds, including a 10 second spot.

7 a.m. KKHH 6/14/21:

Metallica -- Enter Sandman
Nena -- 99 Luftballoons (all-German version)
Peter Frampton -- Baby, I Love Your Way
Madonna -- Vogue
Bryan Adams -- Everything I Do, I Do It for You
Fleetwood Mac -- Go Your Own Way
No Doubt -- Just A Girl
Bon Jovi -- Living on A Prayer
Cyndi Lauper -- Time After Time
'N Sync -- Bye, Bye, Bye
Toto -- Hold The Line
Supertramp -- Breakfast in America

 

[CTListener]

WKVT 92.7 Brattleboro, VT, flipped to variety hits last year as BrattFM. Same approach as all the other knock-offs. Not sure how it's doing because Brattleboro/Keene (NH) apparently is an unrated market sandwiched between Springfield and Lebanon/Hanover/White River Junction.

 

[ContinuousWave]

JACK in Buffalo never had great ratings considering it has an excellent FM signal. It was in the mid 2 to 3 share range. Now the Classic Rock format has a 1.5, so yes it has tanked. Townsquare is trying to force its Syndicated "Free Beer" Morning show on the public with no success. The next move will probably be selling the station to the Religious guys to generate some cash...

Townsquare?? I call them Clownsquare...their corporate folks are full of it....the only thing it did right was hiring their new VP of Engineering but that's it.
The company motto is "trade what you can, if you can"

 

[ContinuousWave]

There are Jack knock-offs all over the U.S. and Canada.

Bob-FM KBPA is almost always #1 in Austin. Boise has a Bob-FM KSRV that's #4 in the recent ratings. There had been a number of Bob-FM stations in Canada but for some reason Bell Media changed all of them recently to Bounce Radio, including CFWM Winnipeg and CKLH Hamilton.

iHeart has Steve-FM in Columbia, The Lake in Greensville and The Bus in both Des Moines and Columbus. iHeart is still paying for the rights to be Jack-FM on KJAQ Seattle and WQSR Baltimore.

Cumulus has Ed-FM KDRF in Albuquerque.

Audacy has Big 103.3 Boston, 95.7 The Spot in Houston, 98.7 Simon in Greensboro, 106.5 The Lake in Cleveland and 98.1 The Lake in Chattanooga, in addition to several stations that are still Jack-FM.

While I've been writing this, I've been listening to 95.7 The Spot in Houston. A sarcastic voice has said things like "I think we've played enough commercial for now," "We're the Spot, playing a lot of great music because, well, we really don't know how to do anything else," and "It's time for more music? OK, let me press this button over here."

It's morning drive time but there is no DJ. Twice an hour, a traffic reporter gives a brief traffic update and brief weather that doesn't go more than 40 seconds, including a 10 second spot.

7 a.m. KKHH 6/14/21:

Metallica -- Enter Sandman
Nena -- 99 Luftballoons (all-German version)
Peter Frampton -- Baby, I Love Your Way
Madonna -- Vogue
Bryan Adams -- Everything I Do, I Do It for You
Fleetwood Mac -- Go Your Own Way
No Doubt -- Just A Girl
Bon Jovi -- Living on A Prayer
Cyndi Lauper -- Time After Time
'N Sync -- Bye, Bye, Bye
Toto -- Hold The Line
Supertramp -- Breakfast in America

Is KBPA still doing well after it's downgrade???
And KKHH needs a refresh....its been around for too long and little change. In fact it was patterned after 104.1 The Spot, KVDU iHearts NOLA but that one really sucks now....the only change has been dropped the female imaging voice with a bland, boring male voice but the same 300 songs keep playing...makes me want to throw up..
A JACK in Houston like the one in Dallas would have been better than The Spot IMHO...Cumeless tried it on 103.7 before selling it to EMF but it wasn't done right..which doesn't surprise me

 

[Mediafrog+]

Is KBPA still doing well after it's downgrade???

KBPA is still doing fine. Although the downgrade was from a C0 to a C1, the transmitter was moved to the western hills tower farm in Austin, which actually improved coverage in the relevant geographic listening area of the market.

And KKHH needs a refresh....its been around for too long and little change. In fact it was patterned after 104.1 The Spot, KVDU iHearts NOLA but that one really sucks now....the only change has been dropped the female imaging voice with a bland, boring male voice but the same 300 songs keep playing...makes me want to throw up..

Agree with your assessment of KKHH, it is mind-numbingly stale. I enjoyed it for its first couple of years, but grew increasingly tired of much of the music...and I completely gave up on the station about six months ago as the entire playlist had been burnt to a crisp. It desperately needs a refresh, or at the very least, a rest rotation for many of the tunes.

A JACK in Houston like the one in Dallas would have been better than The Spot IMHO...Cumeless tried it on 103.7 before selling it to EMF but it wasn't done right..which doesn't surprise me

I listen to the Jack in DFW whenever I'm visiting there, and it is vastly better than the Spot in Houston.

 

[CTListener]

Agree with your assessment of KKHH, it is mind-numbingly stale. I enjoyed it for its first couple of years, but grew increasingly tired of much of the music...and I completely gave up on the station about six months ago as the entire playlist had been burnt to a crisp. It desperately needs a refresh, or at the very least, a rest rotation for many of the tunes.

And the radio pros on the board will tell you time and time again that the "burnt to a crisp" tag, in reality, makes it to very few songs, and big-market programmers are well aware of those that do, and either drop them from further use or rest them. You may be tired of "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Go Your Own Way," but the average non-radio-geek, musically unadventurous listener -- in other words, the vast majority -- still loves those songs.

 

[Least]

Interesting to note that Entercom/Audacy still likes the Jack format, even if it doesn't want to pay Sparknet for the rights to use the Jack FM name on new stations. It just put an Adult Hits format on 103.3 Boston, replacing an underperforming Top 40 sound. Big 103.3 WBGB has a sarcastic voice and no DJs, just like Jack.

And a couple of years ago, Entercom also put Adult Hits on in Houston, 95.7 The Spot, KKHH. Audacy is still paying for the rights to Jack-FM on several stations:

--93.1 KCBS-FM Los Angeles
--100.3 KJKK Dallas
--104.1 KZJK Minneapolis
--96.3 KJAQ Seattle (originally owned by CBS but handed off to iHeart in 2017)

If I'm right, the Boston station is voiced by the same guy who voices the Jack stations too.

 

[nd2023]

I wonder why Audacy is paying for the Jack FM trademark for stations that it sold

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder why Audacy is paying for the Jack FM trademark for stations that it sold

Not totally uncommon to pay a consulting fee to keep a format or consultant out of a market. As an example, several station I know of paid Mike Joseph to lock the Hot Hits name and keep it out of their markets.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

And the radio pros on the board will tell you time and time again that the "burnt to a crisp" tag, in reality, makes it to very few songs, and big-market programmers are well aware of those that do, and either drop them from further use or rest them. You may be tired of "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Go Your Own Way," but the average non-radio-geek, musically unadventurous listener -- in other words, the vast majority -- still loves those songs.

If the audience wants to hear the songs they are not burned to anything. It’s not a pejorative to be a “pro” or understand how the business works. Conversely, it can be pretentious to dismiss those who aren’t “musically adventurous” (really?), according to your definition, as somehow lesser than you.

 

[CTListener]

If the audience wants to hear the songs they are not burned to anything. It’s not a pejorative to be a “pro” or understand how the business works. Conversely, it can be pretentious to dismiss those who aren’t “musically adventurous” (really?), according to your definition, as somehow lesser than you.

I love to hear different songs and new artists, but will always love old favorites no matter how often I hear them. I respect both sides equally: the people who work in the business (the pros) and the people who make their stations successful (the listeners). It's just that the average listeners don't post in, or even know of the existence of, forums like this. If I came across as condescending toward them, then I apologize. I loved Top 40 radio from the '60s through the '80s, and have listened to country radio most years from the '90s through today -- all have had tight playlists, but since they were playing current songs that I liked, that didn't matter. I'm sure that if I liked the songs our local alt, hot AC and urban stations are now playing, I'd feel the same way about them.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

I might add the pros make the stations successful. Sure, there are outside factors beyond one’s control, and the best plans can fail. And perhaps there are cases of success despite bad plans or little work. But usually, success is the result of some serious “blood sweat and tears.” 😄

 

[vw86]

iHeart has JACK-FM in Baltimore and it does well. It's a former CBS JACK from the mid 2000s that sold to iHeart and has now been successful in Baltimore for 16 years.

Also - 1065 The Lake in Cleveland is iHeart, not Audacy.

 

[Jeffrey]

This entire thread was discussed on the NYRMB in 2005. Why repeat it?

Because it keeps the radio boards alive. We're already down to the same 7 people posting. We're also free to skip posts

 

[AMRocks]

The WNCN to WQIV flip is arguably the most notorious format change ever. Sure got a huge amount of press and chatter at the time, quite amazing in the pre-internet age.

However, is it the worst format change ever? Set aside all the blowback from Classical fans. Given the NYC radio landscape at the time, was WQIV a bad idea? Was it a bad station? Had it replaced some format that nobody cared about and had stuck around, would we have thought differently about it? I would love to hear an extended aircheck of WQIV, or at least read a lengthy playlist sample.

I guess what I am saying is that WQIV had too many distractions that prevented objective evaluation of the station.

I found it interesting 20 years later when WNCN finally died for good, and without any apparent drama switched to WAXQ. I suppose a large portion of its listener base had moved to retirement communities in Florida, or had taken up permanent residence in various Tri-State Area cemeteries. Of course, the remaining Classical audience still had WQXR (was there a major "difference" between WQXR and WNCN, and what made Classical fans choose one over the other...just curious...I am only familiar with WQXR.)

I know we're talking about almost half a century ago, but I would be interested to hear from anyone who was in NYC at the time and remembers WQIV.

WQXR, if I remember correctly, was considered the more "pop" of the classical stations. WNCN had the snob appeal. 😉

Also, let's not forget that WQIV was the "quad" station. Quadraphonic was the hot thing at the time.

 

[MVB13]

I dont think jack played adele.

Love Adele. Great singer and good song! Lol.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

This entire thread was discussed on the NYRMB in 2005. Why repeat it?

Because it keeps the radio boards alive. We're already down to the same 7 people posting.

Well, that, plus the fact that radio hasn't done anything new since 2005 and like the industry itself, most of the members who post here seem to be somewhat stuck in the past.