Jack FM
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"Jack FM" is the moniker and on-air brand of several radio stations in Canada, the United States and now the United Kingdom. Jack stations play a mix of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s hits with some current hot adult contemporary singles. Jack stations use the slogan "playing what we want", and promote themselves as having a larger and more varied playlist than other commercial radio stations. It is not unusual for a Jack-FM station to have a playlist of over 1000 songs compared to a normal FM station which sometimes have play lists of fewer than 500 songs. The stations are officially classified as the Variety Hits or Adult Hits format by radio research companies.
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[edit] History and timeline
One of the early originators of this format was radio programmer Mike Singh, on an American Internet radio stream in 2000. However, according to Rogers Communications, the only thing taken for the first JACK-FM radio station, in Vancouver, was the name and the tagline (both trademarked by Perry). The first JACK program director, Pat Cardinal says that he was unaware of the type of music on the American website and that "JACK" was one of several names that were considered for the format. Perry named the station after a fictitious persona, "Cadillac Jack" Garrett, "a hard-living radio cowboy". The back story created by Perry for the original JACK-FM was that Garrett, a DJ who had worked a lot of "big sticks", finally got his own radio station and after years of being told what he was to play on-air was creating a station where the motto was "playing what we want." Rogers Communications licensed the trademarks from Perry for their use in Canada soon after the launch.
Beginning in late 2002, the format was adopted on Canadian radio stations owned by Rogers Communications. The first Jack station was Vancouver's CKLG-FM, which quickly shot to the top of the city's BBM radio ratings. The format was consequently adopted on other Rogers stations in 2002 and 2003. The format proved popular in many markets where it was introduced, although its success was not always as dramatic as it had been in Vancouver.
JACK was inspired by the success of CHUM Limited's "Bob FM" brand on CFWM radio in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Program director Howard Kroeger was inspired to create Bob FM after hearing a mix tape at a friend's 40th birthday party. Other Canadian broadcasters copied the concept as well, adopting such brands as Corus Entertainment's "Dave FM" and "Joe FM". In 2003, an Ottawa station launched "Frank FM" as a one-day Halloween prank. (The prank's name was possibly also inspired by the Canadian satirical magazine Frank.)
On July 29, 2005, Rawlco's CKCK in Regina, Saskatchewan became the first non-Rogers station in Canada to directly license the Jack FM brand rather than adopting an alternate name.
In 2004, American radio stations began to adopt the Jack/Bob/Dave format as well. NRC Broadcasting's KJAC 105.5 in Denver, Colorado was the first U.S. station to become "Jack FM" on April 14, 2004. A few stations have used the names of famous locals to promote the format, such as WABZ "Abe FM" in Springfield, Illinois, named for Abraham Lincoln, WBEN-FM "Ben FM" in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, named for Benjamin Franklin, 100.5 FM Louie in Louisville, Kentucky Doug-FM 93.1 WDRQ in Detroit, Michigan or The Chief 92.5 FM in Champaign, Illinois, named for the controversial symbol of the University of Illinois, Chief Illiniwek, or local symbols like WARH in St. Louis (Licensed to Granite City, IL), known as "106.5, The Arch".
On Wednesday, May 4, 2005, at noon, WQSR, an oldies station in Towson, Maryland which targeted Baltimore area listeners, changed its format from oldies to Jack FM. Listeners and staffers alike were surprised by the sudden change because many long-time DJs and on-air personalities were considered almost a Baltimore institution. WQSR received a large amount of negative publicity regarding their format change. Popular former WQSR personality Steve Rouse has since resurfaced as the new morning show host at sister station, the Soft AC-formatted WLIF.
Not long after, on Friday, June 3, 2005, at 5:00 p.m. EDT, WCBS-FM, the oldies station in New York City, switched to Jack FM without any prior warning. The switch to a more generic format has been termed The Day the Music Died by some New Yorkers[citation needed] and has drawn criticism even from non-listeners of the station,[citation needed] particularly due to the sudden firing of DJs of historic renown such as Cousin Brucie. In a partial nod to this controversy, on June 14, 2005, it was announced that the station would be unique among those with the Jack format in that it would occasionally include '50s and early '60s songs in its rotation as well as songs by performers like Frank Sinatra that are normally not part of the Jack format, though a later Web update retracted this and songs from before the late '60s were no longer played. The change in New York generated the most negative publicity of any market that switched a station to the Jack format, including a derogatory comment by the mayor himself. According to the New York Post, mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to the change by declaring he would "never listen to that f***in' CBS radio ever again", which the new Jack station picked up on, making jokes about his quip ("Hey, Mayor Bloomberg. I heard you took a shot at us in The Post. What's with all the swearin' like a sailor? Fleet week is over. It's just music.") Initially, Arbitron ratings showed a sharp decline and while ratings did recover, they never surpassed the levels that WCBS-FM had before the format switch.
As a result, on July 6, 2007, WCBS-FM announced it would be switching its Jack format back to "Oldies" on July 12, a move attributed mostly to the newly appointed CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason. [1]. Three of the fired DJs and staff (Dan Taylor, Bob Shannon, and Mr. G) returned to the station, along with newsman Al Meredith (who had stayed at the station during Jack FM doing his Sunday morning public affairs show), as well as DJ Pat St. John who had previously left CBS-FM for Q104.3 about a year before the flip to Jack. CBS-FM was reborn and Jack FM became available only on HD radio and online at www.ilikejack.com. WCBS-FM HD2 replaced Cogan's voiceovers with the voice of CBS-FM's Pat St. John at the beginning of February 2008 and by May 7, 2008 started indentfying itself as 101.1 HD2 and WCBS FM HD2 instead of 101.1 Jack FM and Ilikejack.com though the music mix still sounded the same.
On the same day that WCBS-FM made the switch, another station owned by CBS, 104.3 WJMK, an oldies station in Chicago, Illinois, changed format to 104.3 Jack FM as well. The change at WJMK didn't attract as much attention as the change to WCBS, but it still drew the ire of its listeners. The oldies format has since returned to the Chicago airwaves with the introduction of WZZN (94.7 FM).
All Jack FM stations in Canada and the United States, except for WBUF use Howard Cogan as the "voice" of Jack. The original webstream features the voices of Famous Amos, Anita Bonita, and Bob Perry. WBUF in Buffalo, New York does not use Howard Cogan because they are located at 92.9 MHz; they are trying to distance themselves from Toronto's 92.5 Jack FM, as both stations can be picked up easily in most of each other's markets.
Stations using the "Jack" name are very strictly licensed by the format's owner, Big Sticks Broadcasting. There are several terms that the station must agree to, one of them being the fact that disc jockeys are not to be used for at least the first few months of the format, among other things. Big Sticks has also been very protective of its format, unsuccessfully filing suit against Bonneville International for its use of the Jack FM "playing what we want" trademark and other phrases said to infringe. For this reason many stations using a Jack-like format use slightly different slogans to avoid infringing Big Sticks' service marks: BEN in Philadelphia uses the tagline "playing anything we feel like", for instance. WDRQ in Detroit uses the line "93.1 DOUG FM - We Play…EVERYTHING!"
On July 5, 2005, it was announced that Bohn & Associates Media and Wall Media formed SparkNet Communications L.P. as the exclusive U.S. licensor and owner of the Jack FM format. SparkNet has, in turn, licensed the format to ABC Radio Networks for satellite-based syndication to stations in U.S. markets outside the 40 largest. This satellite-fed Jack became active in October 2005, and now serves many of the smaller Jack stations, such as Evansville and Knoxville.
In late September 2005, CJAQ-FM in Toronto, Ontario announced that it would become the first DJ-free station in Canada. Pat Cardinal, general manager and program director of the station, announced that "The move came as a result of listener feedback". "The audience has been telling us that they want no DJs on Jack. They want more music." When it first launched - 92.5 Jack FM operated without disc jockeys in an effort to establish the "Playing What We Want" concept which was new to Toronto. DJs were introduced within weeks. In November of 2005, Cardinal defended his decision in an interview with Michael Hainsworth of Report on Business Television and stated why he doesn't see commercial-free iPods and satellite radio as a threat to a non-DJ format.
In mid-October 2005, Entravison Radio launched a Spanish-language version of the Jack format dubbed "José" with the "We Play What We Want" tagline translated into Spanish as "Toca lo que Quiere." "José" went live on six FM and AM stations in Sacramento, Stockton, and Modesto, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Denver, Colorado.
On October 25, 2005, Infinity Broadcasting announced that it would be replacing Howard Stern with Jack FM on some of its stations. Stern left terrestrial radio for Sirius Satellite Radio in late 2005.
In mid-May 2006, the playlist of CJAQ-FM in Toronto, Ontario evolved into a classic rock format. The '80s Top 40 acts such as Madonna, Duran Duran, Kim Wilde, Cyndi Lauper, Falco etc. have been dropped in favor of an all-rock format. Station IDs such as "Playing what we want" remain.
One of the main criticisms of the Jack FM format has been that with the elimination (or at least reduction) of the role of the DJ, radio is losing its main selling point over an iPod, which is the sense that a live person is programming your music. Newsday described the format, with a lack of local programming and personalities, as "another step toward the McDonaldization of radio".
In September 2006, Rawlco-owned CKCK-FM (the only non-Rogers operated Jack FM station) changed its slogan from the traditional "Playing What We Want" to "The Greatest Rock Of All Time" and added announcers to their afternoon drive show. This station also follows the "classic rock" format, similar to CJAQ-FM in Toronto.
In October 2006, the UK's first Jack FM format station won a broadcast licence for the Oxford area [2]. 106 Jack FM Oxford started broadcasting at 1:06 PM BST on Thursday 18th October 2007 [3]. Three further JACK FM stations are currently planned on DAB digital radio from 2008 for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire region, Northamptonshire and Northeast Wales and West Cheshire [4].
On October 22, 2007 WJMK in Chicago announced that radio personality Steve Dahl would be morning drive personality as of Nov. 5, the first personality on the station since it went to the Jack format.
There is one nationally syndicated satellite format using the "Jack FM" name; after several years at ABC Radio, it was recently acquired by Dial Global.
In Madrid (Spain), a station called Pepe Radio follows the Jacks philosophy.
[edit] Other controversy
CKLG in Vancouver, British Columbia has faced allegations of racism around some of its promotional bumpers [5] [6] , in which a radio engineer for the station named Vijay Chandra sings in an Indian accent to advertise the Larry and Willy show [7].
[edit] Jack FM stations
Radio stations are listed here if they specifically use the Jack FM brand. Stations branded as Bob FM are listed on that article; stations using alternate brands are listed at adult hits.
[edit] Canada (arranged by province)
- Calgary, Alberta – CKIS 96.9
- Vancouver, British Columbia – CKLG 96.9
- Victoria, British Columbia – CHTT 103.1
- Smiths Falls/Ottawa, Ontario – CJET 92.3
- Toronto, Ontario – CJAQ 92.5
- Regina, Saskatchewan – CKCK 94.5
- www.edgefm.net Edge Fm with The Edge, Eyepoke FM, The Horse Bisquit Hour, and The Fantasy Vixen Show
[edit] United States (arranged by state)
- Fresno, California – KFJK 105.9
- Los Angeles, California – KCBS-FM 93.1
- Palm Springs, California – KAJR-FM 95.9
- Redding, California – KESR 107.1
- Sacramento, California – KQJK 93.7
- San Diego, California – KFMB-FM 100.7
- Susanville, California – KLZN 96.3
- Aspen/Vail, Colorado – KKCH
- Denver, Colorado – KJAC 105.5
- Hayden/Craig/Steamboat Springs, Colorado – KIDN 95.5/95.9
- Vero Beach, Florida – WJKD 99.7
- Chicago, Illinois – WJMK 104.3
- Marion/Carbondale, Illinois – WXLT 103.5
- Norridge, Illinois – WRHS 89.7
- Evansville, Indiana – WEJK 107.1
- Lake Charles, Louisiana; KBIU 103.3
- Baltimore, Maryland – WQSR 102.7
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota – KZJK 104.1
- Jackson, Mississippi – WWJK 94.7
- Columbia/Boonville, Missouri – KWJK 93.1/103.5
- Kansas City, Missouri – KCJK 105.1
- West Plains, Missouri – KSPQ 93.9
- Missoula, Montana – KYJK 105.9
- Buffalo, New York – WBUF 92.9
- Las Vegas, Nevada – KKJJ 100.5
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – KOJK 97.3
- Chattanooga, Tennessee – WHJK 95.3
- Knoxville, Tennessee – WRMX/WQRX 95.7/106.7
- Nashville, Tennessee – WCJK 96.3
- Amarillo, Texas – KPRF 98.7
- Bryan/College Station, Texas – KXCS-FM 103.9
- Dallas, Texas – KJKK 100.3
- Houston, Texas – KHJK 103.7
- Longview/Tyler, Texas – KAJK-FM 99.3
- Lubbock, Texas – KJDL-FM 105.3
- McAllen, Texas – KJAV 104.9
- San Antonio, Texas – KJXK 102.7
- Salt Lake City/Provo, Utah – KJQN/KNJQ 103.1/105.1
- Seattle, Washington – KJAQ 96.5
- Wheeling, West Virginia – WYJK 100.5
- Stevens Point, Wisconsin – WSPT 97.9
[edit] United Kingdom
- Oxford, Oxfordshire – 106 Jack FM www.jackfm.co.uk
[edit] See also
- Bob FM is also a brand of radio stations that also play a large variety of music from the 70's, 80's, and 90's with "in-your-face" branding under an adult hits format.
[edit] External links
- Sparknet Communication's JACK FM website
- SparkNet Holdings, Inc.'s old website for the Jack FM format
- Billy Anderson's Jack & Bob FM Guide
- The website of Howard Cogan, "the voice of Jack"
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