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The Battle Of Jack and Earl

W

wimzfan

Now we've got two new guys living in radioland, Jack and Earl, there's sure to be a war brewing up soon between the two. They both play basically the same thing and are after the same audience. I thought it would be interesting for all of us to predict who we think the winner of this soon to be battle will be. Will Jack be accepted and loved by everyone or will Earl run him off?

This kinda reminds me of the war between Hot and Wild a while back that went on for a couple of years. I wonder if the battle of Jack and Earl will go on that long or longer.

I think Earl will probably come out the winner after this is over. I've listened to both and 98.7 seems to have a little more variety with their music. They reach back further and pull out deeper cuts and they play more current stuff too. They stay away from too much disco too. The times I've had 95.7/106.7 on, it sounds like a disco jukebox. Earl says that they play everything and they're locally programmed. Jack says they play what they want and that send the message "screw the listeners, we'll play what we want." Also, Citadel has the time and money to play around with Earl (I know, that doesn't sound right at all.) But since Citadel has their Frog to bring in the money, I think that they might be able to hang in there longer than South Central could with their Jack FM.

My predicted winner - Earl. I give the battle two years tops, then Jack will be running to the nearest hole with it's tail between it's legs.
 
> Citadel has the time and money to play around with Earl (I
> know, that doesn't sound right at all.) But since Citadel
> has their Frog to bring in the money, I think that they
> might be able to hang in there longer than South Central
> could with their Jack FM.
>
> My predicted winner - Earl. I give the battle two years
> tops, then Jack will be running to the nearest hole with
> it's tail between it's legs.
>

I don't disagree with your programming overview. But you've got it all wrong about Citadel having the money. They are a publicly traded company under constant pressure every quarter. Yes WIVK spins off a lot of cash. But that money is already earmarked for shareholders, not a format war in Knoxville.

South Central's stations are all paid for, the only stockholders are family members, and they have the ability to take the huge cash that B and IMZ spin off to fight a war. Those two throw off almost as cash as WIVK.

Citadel blinked first against a much weaker public company in the Hot Wild war. Unless they win the Jack-Earl battle outright quickly, they will have to blink long before South Central does.

That having been said, I like Earl better too.
 
> > Citadel has the time and money to play around with Earl (I
>
> > know, that doesn't sound right at all.) But since Citadel
>
> > has their Frog to bring in the money, I think that they
> > might be able to hang in there longer than South Central
> > could with their Jack FM.
> >
> > My predicted winner - Earl. I give the battle two years
> > tops, then Jack will be running to the nearest hole with
> > it's tail between it's legs.
>
> Citadel blinked first against a much weaker public company
> in the Hot Wild war. Unless they win the Jack-Earl battle
> outright quickly, they will have to blink long before South
> Central does.
>
> That having been said, I like Earl better too.
>
The Jack format that Knoxville is getting compared to Nashville's Jack's format is as different as night and day. Jack-FM in Nashville is locally programmed while Knoxville's Jack-FM comes from the ABC satellite programming. I'm a big fan of Nashville's Jack-FM where as I am not overly impressed with Knoxville's Jack-FM. I did have the opportunity to hear Earl while I was in Knoxville last week and I was not very impressed with him either. I preferred the River format over Earl. They both sounded alot a like to me, though I do like to hear a disco song every now and then because it takes me back to when I was in high school and the memories of some young ladies I dated at the time. But if I had to pick a winner, I would go with Earl-FM due to the fact he is on a stronger signal than Jack-FM is.
 
> The Jack format that Knoxville is getting compared to
> Nashville's Jack's format is as different as night and day.
> Jack-FM in Nashville is locally programmed while Knoxville's
> Jack-FM comes from the ABC satellite programming. I'm a big
> fan of Nashville's Jack-FM where as I am not overly
> impressed with Knoxville's Jack-FM. I did have the
> opportunity to hear Earl while I was in Knoxville last week
> and I was not very impressed with him either. I preferred
> the River format over Earl. They both sounded alot a like to
> me, though I do like to hear a disco song every now and then
> because it takes me back to when I was in high school and
> the memories of some young ladies I dated at the time. But
> if I had to pick a winner, I would go with Earl-FM due to
> the fact he is on a stronger signal than Jack-FM is.
>
I didn't like Jack to well when it went on, but I've not turned the radio off Earl very much at all since it went on. They variety of music they play just amazes me. They play stuff that I've not heard on the radio in years. You mentioned disco. It takes me back to some rather wild times in the 70's as well. I can stand disco on Earl, because they play the cream of the disco crop - all the good stuff. I like their promos in between songs too. They're funny and pleasant to listen too. Jack sounds like, by saying "we play what we want" they're really saying "screw the listeners, we don't care what they want to hear." The executives that run Earl probably feel the same way, but atleast they make us think differently. Earl 98.7 would be even better if they brought back some of the on air personalities.
 
>
> This kinda reminds me of the war between Hot and Wild a
> while back that went on for a couple of years. I wonder if
> the battle of Jack and Earl will go on that long or longer.
>
>


i just wanted to comment on the idea that jack and earl will have a "battle." i guess that is what you'd call it, but wouldn't a more accurate comparison be the battle going on between EZ 88 and Studio 1040? ooooh, even better, the battle going on between West 105.3 and WUTK (whatever they are calling it this semester).
 
> Now we've got two new guys living in radioland, Jack and
> Earl, there's sure to be a war brewing up soon between the
> two. They both play basically the same thing and are after
> the same audience. I thought it would be interesting for
> all of us to predict who we think the winner of this soon to
> be battle will be. Will Jack be accepted and loved by
> everyone or will Earl run him off?

Will either of the formats be able to maintain an audience after one year? I'm reading about markets that had one JACK station and the numbers fell 50% one year after the debut.


> This kinda reminds me of the war between Hot and Wild a
> while back that went on for a couple of years.

Doesn't remind me of that. HOT had a PD that sort of knew what he was doing LOL Can we say that for JACK or EARL?

> But since Citadel has their Frog to bring in the money, I think that they
> might be able to hang in there longer than South Central could with their Jack FM.

That's similar to comments that people used to post about WILD. In fact WILD's PD even emailed something along that line of thinking to someone he was trying to hire about 6 months before WILD went away.
>
> My predicted winner - Earl. I give the battle two years
> tops, then Jack will be running to the nearest hole with
> it's tail between it's legs.
>

Your prediction may be right though :)<P ID="signature">______________
Free Lil Kim
April 29, 2005 5pm What a glorious day it was
</P>
 
WUTK has a better signal.

>
> i just wanted to comment on the idea that jack and earl will
> have a "battle." i guess that is what you'd call it, but
> wouldn't a more accurate comparison be the battle going on
> between EZ 88 and Studio 1040? ooooh, even better, the
> battle going on between West 105.3 and WUTK (whatever they
> are calling it this semester).
>
 
Re: The SKIRMISH Of Jack and Earl

> WUTK has a better signal.
>
> >
> > i just wanted to comment on the idea that jack and earl
> will
> > have a "battle." i guess that is what you'd call it, but
> > wouldn't a more accurate comparison be the battle going on
>
> > between EZ 88 and Studio 1040? ooooh, even better, the
> > battle going on between West 105.3 and WUTK (whatever they
>
> > are calling it this semester).
> >
>

HHHHAAAAA!! Too funny! They're not even battles...more like a skirmish!!!
 
> Now we've got two new guys living in radioland, Jack and
> Earl, there's sure to be a war brewing up soon between the
> two. They both play basically the same thing and are after
> the same audience. I thought it would be interesting for
> all of us to predict who we think the winner of this soon to
> be battle will be. Will Jack be accepted and loved by
> everyone or will Earl run him off?
> My predicted winner - Earl. I give the battle two years
> tops, then Jack will be running to the nearest hole with
> it's tail between it's legs.

Musically, I would have to agree that Earl is better. I agree with the other poster who said Jack in Nashville is much better than the satellite fed Jack FM. However, I have noticed something about Earl that may spell trouble. Although the imaging between songs is at least different and sometimes funny, it often doesn't even mention the station name. In a market where you have a direct competitor, you should mention who you are if you're going to break up the music. For example, a few minutes ago, I heard a woman screaming, "Ooooohhhh....Stop, or something terrible will happen!", going directly into stopset. That was it. No mention of 98.7 Earl FM. I've heard several imaging tags like this one. Mentioning who you are after every song may be irritating and maybe even unnecessary, but very little mention of who you are can be a problem. Radio is a passive medium, and listeners need to remember who you are to write you down, especially when you're doing a format that generally has a low TSL.
 
So, there are now a minimum of 5 stations in town where you can hear Journey, correct? Just can't get enough Steve Perry, I tell you what.
 
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