Why "Ted" instead of "Jack" - any difference?

[jimmy_1]

Is the "Jack" format the exact same thing as "Ted" or "Doug" in Detroit, or "Mike" in Boston? I can imagine each name means a tweaking of the "variety" format to better suit the demographics of a given city. (e.g., Ted may have a country song or two whereas Mike has some dance tunes and Doug is the R&B guy). Is it something like that? Others have said Jack is exclusive to Infinity, but that has been disproven. Anybody know why Columbus didn't do the same as New York and call the station Jack?

 

[xmusicmatt]

> Is the "Jack" format the exact same thing as "Ted" or "Doug"
> in Detroit, or "Mike" in Boston? I can imagine each name
> means a tweaking of the "variety" format to better suit the
> demographics of a given city. (e.g., Ted may have a country
> song or two whereas Mike has some dance tunes and Doug is
> the R&B guy). Is it something like that? Others have said
> Jack is exclusive to Infinity, but that has been disproven.
> Anybody know why Columbus didn't do the same as New York and
> call the station Jack?
>


jack is not "exclusive" to infinity, they just are the ones that seem to be doing it. I assume the reasoning behind the different names is the fact if you use Jack (I beleive the trademark rights are owned by the creator of Jack FM (an internet radio station in NY) that you'd probally have to pay some fee to do that (My guess, pure speciulation) so by going with Bob or Frank or Ted or Bill or Mike, your avoiding that aspect.

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[RickF]

> > Is the "Jack" format the exact same thing as "Ted" or
> "Doug"
> > in Detroit, or "Mike" in Boston? I can imagine each name
> > means a tweaking of the "variety" format to better suit
> the
> > demographics of a given city. (e.g., Ted may have a
> country
> > song or two whereas Mike has some dance tunes and Doug is
> > the R&B guy). Is it something like that? Others have
> said
> > Jack is exclusive to Infinity, but that has been
> disproven.
> > Anybody know why Columbus didn't do the same as New York
> and
> > call the station Jack?
> >
>
>
> jack is not "exclusive" to infinity, they just are the ones
> that seem to be doing it. I assume the reasoning behind the
> different names is the fact if you use Jack (I beleive the
> trademark rights are owned by the creator of Jack FM (an
> internet radio station in NY) that you'd probally have to
> pay some fee to do that (My guess, pure speciulation) so by
> going with Bob or Frank or Ted or Bill or Mike, your
> avoiding that aspect.
>
Ted is a 3 letter word. One letter for each listener. TED-FM

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

> > > Is the "Jack" format the exact same thing as "Ted" or
> > "Doug"
> > > in Detroit, or "Mike" in Boston? I can imagine each
> name
> > > means a tweaking of the "variety" format to better suit
> > the
> > > demographics of a given city. (e.g., Ted may have a
> > country
> > > song or two whereas Mike has some dance tunes and Doug
> is
> > > the R&B guy). Is it something like that? Others have
> > said
> > > Jack is exclusive to Infinity, but that has been
> > disproven.
> > > Anybody know why Columbus didn't do the same as New York
>
> > and
> > > call the station Jack?
> > >
> >
> >
> > jack is not "exclusive" to infinity, they just are the
> ones
> > that seem to be doing it. I assume the reasoning behind
> the
> > different names is the fact if you use Jack (I beleive the
>
> > trademark rights are owned by the creator of Jack FM (an
> > internet radio station in NY) that you'd probally have to
> > pay some fee to do that (My guess, pure speciulation) so
> by
> > going with Bob or Frank or Ted or Bill or Mike, your
> > avoiding that aspect.
> >
> Ted is a 3 letter word. One letter for each listener. TED-FM
>
Come now, let's not be so harsh. "TED-FM" is 5 letters, so you've understated their cume by a full 40%. I suppose the length of the hyphen represents the distance their signal reaches (on a good day, anyway).

Seriously, Jack is licensed, I believe, by consultant Gary Wall in the U.S., through some kind of arrangement with Jack's real Dad, Rogers Broadcasting of Canada.

The other licensed "guy" is Bob, also originally fom Canada. While these formats are indeed all pretty similar, there *are* some nuances Jack-vs.-Bob and market vs. market. Bob tends to be a bit broader in terms of era and probably also in genre of music. Bob will play a few currents, while Jack won't.

Jack tends to talk about "playing what we want", while Bob is more likely to be positioned as "We Play Anything".

The biggest success story for this format is probably Emmis' Bob-FM (KQOB)in Austin, which remains dominant 25-54.

Nabco's Ted is closer to a Bob than a Jack. For instance, its slogan is "We Play Everything", its logo is similar to KQOB's, and musically it seems to be one of the broader stations of this ilk. E.g., Ted even throws in some select 60's stuff (which I personally enjoy, though I'm not sure it makes sense for the format) and some occasional soft AC (which I personally can't stand, which makes absolutely no sense for the format, and which the other stations steer clear of). All that said, the musical heart of the format is pretty much the same everywhere it's done.

Given the Blitz's precipitous decline of late, which continued with the new trend released a couple days ago, Nabco may seriously want to consider putting Ted at 99.7 if it looks like this format is going to have legs. The Blitz's ratings must be particularly anemic outside of mornings now...just imagine what kind of mess the station will be in after Stern switches to satellite in Jan 06, if the music-daypart numbers don't pick up. While WBNS-FM has managed to drop even further below 4 than the Blitz, their demos are better and they're doing without the Stern boost. Maybe BNS-FM could become a Jack. It wouldn't be too jarring a transition, since the format is largely a variant of Hot AC anyway. In fact, a number of AC's and Hot AC's have either moved toward a Jack/Bob-type music philosophy, or made a full-blown switch, with promising results thus far.<P ID="signature">______________
Nu_Roo_2 formerly Nu__Roo formerly Nu_Roo</P>

 

[dab1100]

Bill, or George, anything but Sue

"Jack" is a licensed trademark, so hence the use of "Ted." There is no hard and fast "Jack" or "Bob" template. The execution and music mix varies a bit even between co-owned "Jack" stations, so saying "Ted" is more of a "Bob" than a "Jack," is sorta' like saying a station is more of a "Kiss" than a "Q". CC's Kiss-branded stations vary considerably from city to city. Some lean pop/mainstream.... some lean more urban/dance. I wouldn't look for WBNS to get Jacked anytime soon. While they're not that hot 12+, they're doing extremely well in-demo and the word is that billings are on the upswing. While a full-powered station would be a formidable competitor to a rim-shot like "Ted" the two stations would probably cannibalize each other. Columbus already has three oldies stations... WTDA, WODB, and WLZT (they don't say oldies but when I was in town a month or so ago, I didn't hear one current). If someone does the Jack knee-jerk, my money would be on WAZU.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Re: Bill, or George, anything but Sue

> "Jack" is a licensed trademark, so hence the use of "Ted."
> There is no hard and fast "Jack" or "Bob" template. The
> execution and music mix varies a bit even between co-owned
> "Jack" stations, so saying "Ted" is more of a "Bob" than a
> "Jack," is sorta' like saying a station is more of a "Kiss"
> than a "Q".

Not true, especially as far as Jack goes. Yes, as I said there is definitely variation in execution between, say a Jack in Market A and a Jack in market B, but the Jacks are all commonly licensed and share certain "rules". While there may be a few exceptions I'm unaware of, Jacks consistently (1) Position themselves as "playing what we want" (or something along those lines), and (2) do NOT play currents or very recent recurrents as some of the others like Ted do. (Heck, Ted's website even lists John Mayer and Avril Lavigne as two of their core artists. But despite the presence of newer music in some of the non-Jack sations, I fully agree with you that this is basically a type of oldies format.)

>I wouldn't look for WBNS to get Jacked
> anytime soon. While they're not that hot 12+, they're doing
> extremely well in-demo and the word is that billings are on
> the upswing.

Did you see the latest trend? I know 12+ is just a beauty pageant, but it's hard to believe their demo performance can be *that* good when they are headed toward something below 3 12+ if the current pattern continues. For a full-power signal in Columbus, that's pretty bad. (Although I'll be the first to admit that once in awhile stations like WPLJ New York and WXRT Chicago can make a lot of money even with bad 12+ ratings). Also, while BNS might not get "Jacked" per se, they might head in more of that direction musically as a lot of big Hot AC's have done. In fact, they're already more gold-heavy and at least a bit broader than they were a few months ago.

> While a full-powered station would be a formidable competitor to a rim-shot like "Ted" the two stations would probably cannibalize each other.

I don't think a BIG signal like BNS would worry too much about cannibalization from a weakling Class A that can't seem to break a 1 share.

Getting back to Jack vs. Bob, here's what the AP has to say (and yes, I realize the mainstream press is hardly "the" authority on radio, but they are interiewing seasoned radio vets here):

"While the original Canadian formats, called Jack and Bob, differ somewhat — Bob introduces more new music and Jack sticks to older hits — they and other U.S. variety stations share some basic themes."

Here's a link to the full article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7966705




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Nu_Roo_2 formerly Nu__Roo formerly Nu_Roo</P>