The answer to the question is...

[leethalweapon]

Everybody complains about JACK doing poorly in the book. Firstly, they are going up. Secondly, look at the suburban markets. 12+, they are doing very nicely in some of them. Same goes for 'PLJ. I would guess JACK's demo's would be a good read as well.

 

[Jay F]

JACK/NY has had an extremely different ratings pattern than most of the country has seen. In most other markets JACK comes on very strong and then falls from there, sometimes it's a small decline and stays strong 25-54, in other markets it plummets drastically.

JACK/NY got off to a very poor start, has had slow and steady growth, and is now doing half way decent.

Why did NYC react so differently than other markets when it comes to JACK? My guess is that so many people were angry about CBS-FM flipping that they didn't give JACK a chance. When they finally did listen some listeners realized they like JACK better than they thought they would.

 

[neo11]

Jack is indeed on the way up, at least for now. I saw some numbers posted on the dentist board, closing in on the top 10 (and comfortably within the top 10 in December) in 25-54 overall and just out of the top 5 in 25-54 men. 12+ they are now tied with PLJ.

I'd say that PLJ potentially has a lot to lose. Both Jack and Fresh target that station in different ways. If Fresh takes off and Jack continues to build on its audience, it looks like PLJ will be the big loser, much more so than Lite FM. There is money to be made there...while PLJ's numbers have been thin for a while, they bill quite well. I'm sure it's a piece of the pie CBS would love to have, along with whatever Lite FM listeners/billing they can get.

I think right now the biggest question mark among the CBS-owned FM's is Free FM. O&A had some disappointing numbers and I think the only show that displayed any growth was JV & Elvis. The station's numbers overall seem flat. 12+ they are only just above WALK-FM out of Long Island and behind WADO!

I know that CBS will give Free FM more time, especially with their new PD and the recent change's he's made but right now I'd say 92.3 is their weakest link.

 

[BACKnUSSR]

Comrades....heres the weird thing about New York.
It may sound strange, but there is truth in it....New York almost more than any other market in America falls in love with its radio stations. Its NOT just about music (where in other markets it is).

You see strange (out of demo) older audience for both Z-100 and WKTU (diehards that never grew out of it). WPLJ holds that 80's pop "Bon Jovi" audience (no matter how large or small it may be). A similar trend holds true for both WRKS & WBLS the cache of their brands is more important to listeners than the songs. The CBS-FM audience is still scattered at the moment and will come to rest over a variety of stations. The truth is many of them probably sampled the all-news stations, Lite, WQCD, WFAN and other stations as well and have just remained there.

So the real challenge for JACK will be to find that audience. Its not as easy as it might have been in other markets (like Los Angeles...where there was no real mainstream 80's station [STAR was very, very new wave heavy, KBIG was disco heavy] so there was a hole for the Def Leppard, Prince, Mellencamp, Bon Jovi, Springsteen variety KCBS brought) JACK has real competition for those listeners other JACK FM's could cobble together and except in certain suburban markets where maybe a local station that did that has moved away...it will be a tough road. 'PLJ doesnt have as wide a net to cats as it once did...but it serves the listener that they have chosen to focus on quite well....and the billing supports that.

 

[BACKnUSSR]

Comrades....heres the weird thing about New York.
It may sound strange, but there is truth in it....New York almost more than any other market in America falls in love with its radio stations. Its NOT just about music (where in other markets it is).

You see strange (out of demo) older audience for both Z-100 and WKTU (diehards that never grew out of it). WPLJ holds that 80's pop "Bon Jovi" audience (no matter how large or small it may be). A similar trend holds true for both WRKS & WBLS the cache of their brands is more important to listeners than the songs. The CBS-FM audience is still scattered at the moment and will come to rest over a variety of stations. The truth is many of them probably sampled the all-news stations, Lite, WQCD, WFAN and other stations as well and have just remained there.

So the real challenge for JACK will be to find that audience. Its not as easy as it might have been in other markets (like Los Angeles...where there was no real mainstream 80's station [STAR was very, very new wave heavy, KBIG was disco heavy] so there was a hole for the Def Leppard, Prince, Mellencamp, Bon Jovi, Springsteen variety KCBS brought) JACK has real competition for those listeners other JACK FM's could cobble together and except in certain suburban markets where maybe a local station that did that has moved away...it will be a tough road. 'PLJ doesnt have as wide a net to cast as it once did...but it serves the listener that they have chosen to focus on quite well....and the billing supports that.