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Jack FM

AM Rocks writes... >>>WQXR, if I remember correctly, was considered the more "pop" of the classical stations. WNCN had the snob appeal.<<<

WQXR-AM-FM, owned by the NY Times, was a "full service" classical station. Hourly newscasts, interviews with classical music artists in town to play at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center or the Met, a one-hour news and NY Times features magazine at 6pm, and Casper Citron's high-brow talk show from 11pm to midnight. Maybe in the 1960s, WNCN was more snobbish. It was all-music, while WQXR was more an AM station than FM. WNCN was only on FM and probably aimed at folks who were more serious about their classical music tastes.

But by the late 70s, when most people had FM radios in their homes and cars, WNCN had gone more mass-appeal, while WQXR remained more traditional. Once the classical format had returned after the brief WQIV rock episode, WNCN DJs were instructed to sound like FM album rock DJs, except they played classical music instead of rock album tracks.

The funny thing is, today's listener-supported 105.9 WQXR and its DJs sound more like WNCN than the old WQXR. One or two of them had been on WNCN.
 
Gregg. said:
But by the late 70s, when most people had FM radios in their homes and cars, WNCN had gone more mass-appeal, while WQXR remained more traditional. Once the classical format had returned after the brief WQIV rock episode, WNCN DJs were instructed to sound like FM album rock DJs, except they played classical music instead of rock album tracks.
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Preston Trombly of SiriusXM's Symphony Hall worked for both WNCN and WQXR. He still sounds like an FM album rock DJ and is easily my favorite host on the channel.
 
CassChopper96 said:
Looking at the dallas and Los angeles Markets where Audacy owns both the Classic Hits and Jack FM station. It's too late now but I think Jack fm could have worked in the largest radio market in the country had it not replaced the classic hits WCBS -FM format and it aired on a different signal
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They need to put the Jack brand on the HD subchannel.
 
CTListener said:
NEED to? How would it help them make more money? Or even please substantially more listeners, given public apathy toward HD when it's not being relayed by an analog FM translator?
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Cars need to catch up with HD Radio for it to become viable. Many now have it, but take my Ridgeline for example. Since I have the second lowest tier, it comes was standard AM-FM. I have an antenna built for HD and Satellite, but you need to pay for a higher model to get those. Most people also don't want to run up their data to stream HD stations. I do it at times, but not much. I personally miss the early days of HD, when it had more niche stations. It's now a way to rebroadcast AM stations. You get a niche station or a jukebox with a former station's name. I believe that's what happened to Jack in New York. They renamed it Tony and put it on HD-2 for a while.
 
Sorry...satellite radio is better than just about anything you'll find on HD. Also, many people have unlimited data and so data quotas are not as much of an issue as it used to be on those old metered plans. If you create your own playlists, most music services allow you to download it to your phone...you can use WiFi for that and incur minimal mobile data traffic.

As for a "Jack" station now...how would it materially differ from CBS-FM or Lite? Jack was basically a classic hits station. Maybe it skewed a little more current that CBS-FM or a little more rock than Lite, but is it different enough to be "NEEDED?"
 
luperm said:
As for a "Jack" station now...how would it materially differ from CBS-FM or Lite? Jack was basically a classic hits station.
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That's not at all true. Jack is very different from a classic hits station. In fact, it's SO different, that Entercom owns one of each in several markets, most notably LA.
 
TheBigA said:
That's not at all true. Jack is very different from a classic hits station. In fact, it's SO different, that Entercom owns one of each in several markets, most notably LA.
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I've heard the format described as "a mile wide, an inch deep" -- familiar songs by well-known artists in styles and genres that aren't often heard together in the same format. An occasional song might get an "oh wow," but that song will typically be the only song or one of only two or three songs by that performer on the playlist. All the songs played are backed by extensive research, and the "We play anything" positioner often associated with the format is not even close to true.
 
luperm said:
Sorry...satellite radio is better than just about anything you'll find on HD. Also, many people have unlimited data and so data quotas are not as much of an issue as it used to be on those old metered plans. If you create your own playlists, most music services allow you to download it to your phone...you can use WiFi for that and incur minimal mobile data traffic.

As for a "Jack" station now...how would it materially differ from CBS-FM or Lite? Jack was basically a classic hits station. Maybe it skewed a little more current that CBS-FM or a little more rock than Lite, but is it different enough to be "NEEDED?"
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Define "many." Does it relate to a population that you know, the entire market, multiple markets? I know it's offered, but that doesn't translate to subscribers. I see it the same as WiFi calling.
 
luperm said:
Sorry...satellite radio is better than just about anything you'll find on HD. Also, many people have unlimited data and so data quotas are not as much of an issue as it used to be on those old metered plans. If you create your own playlists, most music services allow you to download it to your phone...you can use WiFi for that and incur minimal mobile data traffic.

As for a "Jack" station now...how would it materially differ from CBS-FM or Lite? Jack was basically a classic hits station. Maybe it skewed a little more current that CBS-FM or a little more rock than Lite, but is it different enough to be "NEEDED?"
Click to expand...

Jack FM plays a lot of songs that weren't hits on the pop charts, distinguishing themselves from Classic Hits. A Classic Hits radio station wouldn't play the likes of Motley Crue or Soundgarden very frequently.

Also, originally, when Jack FM was launched in the mid-00s, Classic Hits/Oldies stations weren't into the 80s during that time. Jack FM stations leaned into the 80s, and they indeed played songs that weren't pop hits, hence giving the meaning to having a shuffled iPod on the radio.


As for satellite radio, the music stations seem heavily geared towards Middle America, despite being programmed in NYC. As an example, Hits 1 and The Pulse played lots of post-grunge and eschewed a lot of rhythmic material for the longest time, even though they were both classified as pop stations. And the rock stations do not necessarily have wider playlists compared to a terrestrial station. (I mean, you couldn't convince me that the likes of WFUV and WXRT are less adventurous than The Spectrum, Alt Nation, or Sirius XMU) Also, the audio quality of satellite radio has been widely debated, with some saying that the audio quality is worse than FM, let alone CD.
 
BruceNYC said:
This is "water under the bridge". It is certainly not worth discussing 16 years after the worst format change in NYC radio history was executed.
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"Worst format change in NYC history"?

There have been a bunch!

THAT deserves its own topic...

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
gr8oldies said:
There have been Jills (and other female names) over the years. One is also on a powerful MW signal at 531 in Algeria
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The Algerian station is Jil with one ā€œlā€. It means youth or adolescence, loosely translated. It is state run.
 
victorres43 said:
Jack FM plays a lot of songs that weren't hits on the pop charts, distinguishing themselves from Classic Hits. A Classic Hits radio station wouldn't play the likes of Motley Crue or Soundgarden very frequently.

Also, originally, when Jack FM was launched in the mid-00s, Classic Hits/Oldies stations weren't into the 80s during that time. Jack FM stations leaned into the 80s, and they indeed played songs that weren't pop hits, hence giving the meaning to having a shuffled iPod on the radio.


As for satellite radio, the music stations seem heavily geared towards Middle America, despite being programmed in NYC. As an example, Hits 1 and The Pulse played lots of post-grunge and eschewed a lot of rhythmic material for the longest time, even though they were both classified as pop stations. And the rock stations do not necessarily have wider playlists compared to a terrestrial station. (I mean, you couldn't convince me that the likes of WFUV and WXRT are less adventurous than The Spectrum, Alt Nation, or Sirius XMU) Also, the audio quality of satellite radio has been widely debated, with some saying that the audio quality is worse than FM, let alone CD.
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I recently got a new car that has SXM free for a long while. I was surprised at how much theyā€™ve changed The Pulse and Hits 1 since 2016. They actually sound like true Hot AC/Adult top 40 and CHR stations now, respectively. 5 years ago Hits 1 was a mess and sounded nothing like a CHR format heard in most markets.

Their Venus channel is a lot like a Rhythmic Hot AC/CHR hybrid, I like it a lot. Itā€™s a formula not really found on terrestrial radio.

The sound quality also seems to have notably improved and doesnā€™t sound swimmy like it did before.
 
Pop rocks is a pretty good sounding channel that might appeal to Jack FM fans, but I'm pretty underwhelmed with SXM in general. I can easily put together a list of favorite stations on TuneIn which, combined with Spotify and a couple of local FM favorites, is more diverse and more tailored to me than satellite which is yet another subscription bill.
 
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