would someone tell CBS radio to wake up with the Jack FM format

[36james]

sorry you guys but im fed up with this, its humilating, KKGO does better than Jack FM does, ratings wise, i dont know what billing Jack FM, does, i think i was told its in the top 5, but i could be wrong, but why bill for a station with a lowly 2.5 ratings share, here is what needs to happen,

have Jack FM evolve into a Hot AC station to compete with MY FM, the classic rock/classic hits format is slowly dying, we have more Asians and Latinos, living here in LA, than we did a decade ago, they listen to more modern music like MY FM, KISS FM, and KOST Fm, the genre that listened to classic rock back 10 years ago isnt the same group anymore cultures change and so does your listeners, please CBS radio listen to my advice HOT AC.

 

[36james]

they just killed Sophie at 103.7 FM in San Diego for a more modern type format, called energy, the Jack format in LA has floundered for the past 3 years, time to kill it.

 

[michael hagerty]

I'll save David the trouble:

The 2.5 is listeners age 6 and over. It's irrelevant. What matters is 25-54. And that doesn't matter if the station bills better than the ratings would indicate. Nobody runs a radio station to see a monthly report card from Arbitron. They run a radio station to see the money.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

LA's version of JACK-FM is an extremely profitable radio station, with solid 25-54 numbers; IIRC, it was #1 in that category for one book short of three years upon its debut, and you can thank the brilliant Kevin Weatherly for that.

I also believe that David stated that it ranks thirteenth in billing and seventh in 25-54 (although I might have those figures reversed) among all LA radio stations, so the folks at CBS have to be delirious with its performance however you choose to measure it.

 

[RicoGregg]

have Jack FM evolve into a Hot AC station to compete with MY FM, the classic rock/classic hits format is slowly dying, we have more Asians and Latinos, living here in LA, than we did a decade ago, they listen to more modern music like MY FM, KISS FM,  and KOST Fm, the genre that listened to classic rock back 10 years ago isnt the same group anymore cultures change and so does your listeners, please CBS radio listen to my advice HOT AC.

In the Los Angeles Radio Graveyard, there are many tombstones of former AC stations, hot and otherwise, that thought they could compete with KOST and KBIG (MY FM).

Some of the headstones read: KSRF, KOCM, KXEZ (the one endorsed by Divine Brown), KLIT, KIQQ, KMGG, KNOB, KEZY, and on the AM band, KWNK and KIIS-AM.

LA has a history of not being good to AC.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I'll save David the trouble:

The 2.5 is listeners age 6 and over. It's irrelevant. What matters is 25-54. And that doesn't matter if the station bills better than the ratings would indicate. Nobody runs a radio station to see a monthly report card from Arbitron. They run a radio station to see the money.

What he said.

 

[davideduardo]

have Jack FM evolve into a Hot AC station to compete with MY FM, the classic rock/classic hits format is slowly dying, we have more Asians and Latinos, living here in LA, than we did a decade ago, they listen to more modern music like MY FM, KISS FM, and KOST Fm, the genre that listened to classic rock back 10 years ago isnt the same group anymore cultures change and so does your listeners, please CBS radio listen to my advice HOT AC.

In the Los Angeles Radio Graveyard, there are many tombstones of former AC stations, hot and otherwise, that thought they could compete with KOST and KBIG (MY FM).

And KLVE

Some of the headstones read: KSRF, KOCM, KXEZ (the one endorsed by Divine Brown), KLIT, KIQQ, KMGG, KNOB, KEZY, and on the AM band, KWNK and KIIS-AM.

And KXOL "El Sol 96.3"

And, pu-leese, it's K-LIT with a hyphen.

 

[calguy]

I would point out that most of the competitors of KOST over the years had somewhat inferior signals. The exceptions would be KBIG, KMGG and KHTZ. KBIG came close when they were head to head with KOST, but never could muster the numbers. I feel this was mostly do to the consistency of KOST's programming, talent and leadership. It has had it's ups and downs in the early part of this century, but endures. LA has been good to KOST, that's for sure. The fact that KOST is doing so well now is amazing considering it's current leadership. I have to wonder what KOST would sound like today is CC had left it alone and left Stella Prado in autonomous control. I think it would still be a leader, but sound a lot better. Just my personal opinion...

 

[Marv-L.A.]

I agree with 1,000,000,000,000%; Ms. Prado spent almost two decades learning the format inside and out from the format's most pre-eminent PD of the past THREE decades.

Get the heck out of the way and permit her to do all the things that Mr. Kaye taught her, and put Ted Ziegenbusch or Christine Martindale in PM drive.

 

[calguy]

I agree with 1,000,000,000,000%; Ms. Prado spent almost two decades learning the format inside and out from the format's most pre-eminent PD of the past THREE decades.

Get the heck out of the way and permit her to do all the things that Mr. Kaye taught her, and put Ted Ziegenbusch or Christine Martindale in PM drive.

I still wish the station had the talent that CC let go to improve their bottom line. They had a good line up until making changes in 2007. All those people have now gone to CBS. The Wave sounds pretty good, especially with weekenders that anywhere else would be full-time. They didn't spend 20 plus years at KOST because they sucked, Kaye wouldn't have kept them all those years if they did.

 

[vonrollskyway1]

Jack FM in San Diego is doing real good...A perfect morning show that has heritage..

 

[casual observer]

The operational overhead in running JACK-FM is virtually non-existent. No announcers and management is part of the CBS cluster vs. having a dedicated staff. That's economical.

 

[calguy]

Well yeah, wipe out most of your talent and you save money. Personally never cared for the Jack format. Smarmy image voice, ipod concept. Not my thing even though I like most of the music they play, just don't like the overall sound of the format...

 

[davideduardo]

The operational overhead in running JACK-FM is virtually non-existent. No announcers and management is part of the CBS cluster vs. having a dedicated staff. That's economical.

Every station in a cluster has a proportional share of costs, as well as similar direct costs for each station.

So KCBS-FM pays a share of management, accounting, traffic, insurance, rent, office utilities, etc. And they directly pay sales and agency commissions, rep firm commissions, selling costs, promotion and marketing, transmitter site rent, electricity, technical costs, music licensing fees, website development, etc.

So we are down to the on-air staff as the ONLY difference. Jack has quite skillful and qualified production people in the studios all the time who take and edit calls and place them in the format. These folks are in the same range of cost as non-name announcer... and are actually much more expensive than voice tracking using someone from another station or market.

The savings over not having announcers (not a high-profile, often PPM damaging morning "show") are at most around a hundred k a year, a drop in the bucket for a station that bills in the $30 million a year range.

 

[ronkaram]

I've been listening to Jack FM (jackfm.de) in Berlin. A somewhat different mix that probably wouldn't work in LA but it's a nice change.