Jack FM
"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 100 songs. The stations are officially classified as the Variety Hits or Adult Hits format by radio research companies.
History
One of the early originators of this format was radio programmer Bob Perry, 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). 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" whose motto was "playing what we want." Rogers Communications licensed the trademarks from Perry for their use in Canada soon after the launch.
Beginning late in 2002, the format was adopted on Canadian radio stations owned by Rogers Communications. The first Jack station was Vancouver's CKLG, 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 WMHX "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 or The Chief 92.5 FM in Champaign, Illinois, named for the controversial mascot of the University of Illinois, Chief Illiniwek, or local symbols like WRCH in St. Louis, (Licensed to Granite City, IL) known as "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.
The most vehement opposition to a Jack-FM format switch came 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 New Yorkers and has drawn criticism even from non-listeners of the station, particularly due to the sudden firing of DJs of historic renown. 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 1950s and early 1960s 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 it seems that songs from before the late 1960s are no longer played. While this does not mean that it will be the least successful of the Jack FM stations, it definitely 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 (expletive) 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 did show a sharp decline.
On the same day that WCBS-FM made the switch, another stationed 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. And as with WCBS, it occurred not long after the original station hired a famous "oldies" figure to be its morning host (Mickey Dolenz for WCBS and David Cassidy for WJMK).
All Jack FM stations in Canada and the United States (except the original webstream on JACK.FM and Buffalo, New York) use Howard Cogan as the "voice" of Jack . The original webstream features the voices of Famous Amos, Bonita, and Bob Perry. Buffalo, New York's station 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, (CJAQ), and both stations can be picked up easily in the other market.
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. The majority of the Jack FM stations in the United States are owned by CBS Radio.
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 satelite-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 in Toronto, Ontario announced that it would become the first jock-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 play list of CJAQ in Toronto, Ontario evolved into a classic-rock format. The 80s Top-40 bands 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".
VarietyHits.com is a website that keeps track of the entire genre, inclusive of the Jack brand. It lists every station in North America that carries the format, with information on each station, when it picked up the format, etc.
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.
In October 2006, the UK's first Jack FM format station won a broadcast licence for the Oxford area [1]. 106 Jack FM Oxford will start broadcasting some time in 2007.
Other controversy
CKLG in Vancouver, British Columbia has faced allegations of racism around some of its promotional bumpers [2] [3] , in which a man named Vijay Chandra sings in an Indian accent to advertise the Larry and Willy show [4].
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.
Canada
- Calgary, Alberta – CKIS 96.9 [5]
- Orillia, Ontario – CICX 105.9 [6]
- Regina, Saskatchewan – CKCK 94.5 [7]
- Smiths Falls/Ottawa, Ontario – CJET 92.3 [8]
- Toronto, Ontario – CJAQ 92.5 [9]
- Vancouver, British Columbia – CKLG 96.9 [10]
- Victoria, British Columbia – CHTT 103.1 [11]
United States
- Aspen/Vail, Colorado – KKCH 92.7/92.3/100.1/107.5
- Baltimore, Maryland – WQSR 102.7 [12]
- Buffalo, New York – WBUF 92.9 [13]
- Charleston, West Virginia – WKAZ 107.3 [14]
- Chattanooga, Tennessee – WHJK 95.3 [15]
- Chicago, Illinois – WJMK 104.3 [16]
- Columbia/Boonville, Missouri – KWJK 93.1/103.5 [17]
- Dallas, Texas – KJKK 100.3 [18]
- Denver, Colorado – KJAC 105.5 [19]
- Evansville, Indiana – WEJK 107.1 [20]
- Fresno, California – KFJK 105.9 [21]
- Hayden/Craig/Steamboat Springs, Colorado – KIDN 95.5/95.9 [22]
- Indianapolis, Indiana – WJJK 104.5 [23]
- Jackson, Mississippi – WWJK 94.7 [24]
- Kansas City, Missouri – KCJK 105.1 [25]
- Kodiak, Alaska – KRXX 101.1 [26]
- Knoxville, Tennessee – WRMX/WQRX 95.7/106.7 [27]
- Las Vegas, Nevada – KKJJ 100.5 [28]
- Los Angeles, California – KCBS-FM 93.1 [29]
- Marion/Carbondale, Illinois – WXLT 103.5 [30]
- Memphis, Tennessee – KQLJ 105.3 [31]
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota – KZJK 104.1 [32]
- Missoula, Montana – KYJK 105.9 [33]
- Nashville, Tennessee – WCJK 96.3 [34]
- New York City, New York – WCBS-FM 101.1 [35]
- Norridge, Illinois – WRHS 89.7 [36]
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – KOJK 97.3 [37]
- Redding, California – KESR 107.1 [38]
- Sacramento, California – KQJK 93.7 [39]
- Salt Lake City/Provo, Utah – KJQN/KNJQ 103.1/105.1 [40]
- San Antonio, Texas – KJXK 102.7 [41]
- San Diego, California – KFMB-FM 100.7 [42]
- Savannah, Georgia – WGCO-FM 98.3 [43]
- Seattle, Washington – KJAQ 96.5 [44]
- Stevens Point, Wisconsin – WSPT 97.9
- Susanville, California – KLZN 96.3
- Wheeling, West Virginia – WYJK 100.5 [45]
- York, Alabama – WSLY 104.9 [46]
United Kingdom
- Oxford, Oxfordshire – Jack FM 106 [47]
See also
- Froggy (brand), is also a brand of country music radio stations, which are also independently owned and operated, most owned at one time by Forever Broadcasting, but use the same or similar logo.
- KISS-FM (brand), is also a brand of radio stations, where unless they were under Clear Channel Communications, each individual station is independently operated.
- The Fox (brand), is also a brand of radio stations, where unless they were under Clear Channel Communications, each individual station is independently operated.
- ESPN Radio, is also a brand of radio stations, where they are generally tied to the same set of broadcast programs, but are not all necessarily owned by the same operator. Most local broadcasts of these stations have nothing to do with the national network.
- 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 under an adult hits format.