Jack radio format kicks in nationwide, WFMU opts to continue popular Joe format

Business Week Online's Joe Helm reports on the March of the Robo DJ's:

This is the so-called Jack format that's riding radio waves all across the U.S. In the last three weeks alone, the format, or a close variant, has debuted on stations in five major metropolitan areas -- Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis, adding to the half-dozen or so that had switched since Denver inaugurated the format in the U.S. a little over a year ago.

Will the new format be enough to rescue broadcast radio from its creative doldrums? I have my doubts.

The rules guiding a Jack-formatted station are simple: Unlike a typical radio station, which regularly plays 300 or 400 hits of a particular genre, programmers on Jack stations select 700 to 1,000 songs of completely different genres. Then, they sequence them to create what radio programmers call "train wrecks" -- Billy Idol will follow Bob Marley, Elvis after Guns N' Roses, and so on. And Jack stations often (but not always) use a smart-alecky recorded voice, rather than a live DJ, to make short quips between songs.

REBEL RADIO?  Broadcast radio lately has come under increasing fire from critics and competitors for being bland, repetitive, and overly commercial. While traditional broadcasters still dominate market share, new technologies are growing fast.

Last week, XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) announced it had added 540,000 subscribers in the first quarter of this year alone, bringing its total base to almost 3.8 million. Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly turning off normal radio and clicking into MP3s and streaming audio feeds over the Internet, according to a recent survey by radio consulting and research firm Jacobs Media.

Programmers hope the looser Jack format will show just how edgy and fresh they can be. "We're not going to be constricted by radio rules," says Peter Smyth, CEO of Greater Media, which owns 19 radio stations and debuted its first Jack station, Ben-FM, on Mar. 22 in Philadelphia. "[We're doing] all the things satellite companies say we'll never do."

Listening to Jack is a bit like listening to an iPod set on shuffle. Sandy Sanderson of Canadian media company Rogers Communications (RG), who first developed the format for a Rogers station in Vancouver in late 2002, says he didn't initially have an iPod in mind, but admits there are similarities. And many think this is one of the keys to the Jack format's appeal, especially as broadcast stations compete with MP3s, Internet feeds, and satellite radio for consumers' ears.

HIT PARADE.  "It's part of a real shift in how people consume media" says Mike Stern, programming director for alternative rock station Q101 in Chicago. On Apr. 1, Q101 "jacked up," its format. While it still plays solely alternative rock, it tripled the size of its playlist to include selections from the last 20 years, not just the latest hits. "It used to be if you wanted to rent a movie, for example, you went to the Blockbuster and there were 3,000 titles. Now you can go to Netflix" and choose from 40,000, says Stern. "Now, instead of having a 6-CD changer in your car, you get an iPod."

But if the Jack format is an iPod, it's everyman's iPod. The playlist at a Jack station is generated by computer, but sometimes tweaked by human hands for maximum effect. The one rule of Jack is that while songs can be from any genre and line up in any order, all must have been Top 40 hits at some point in the last 30 years. So, paradoxically, while the mix is eclectic, the songs themselves are pretty predictable.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was in Los Angeles, without a familiar radio station to turn to, I tuned into 93.1 Jack-FM, an Infinity Broadcasting-owned station that switched to the format on Mar. 19. My reaction? Jack-FM beats most normal radio stations. With less talk and more music it feels like there are fewer ads.

The format does keep you listening -- if sometimes only out of faith that the next song will be completely different. And if you've heard some of the songs a million times, there's consolation in the probability that the million times came years ago. In that way, it's just short of genius how the format kept me patiently sitting through several songs I've never really liked.

CAR CRASH.  But the "train wrecks" between songs aren't as surprising and refreshing as promised. Listening online to the Denver station, most often a vaguely familiar '80s pop song would collide with a sort-of-familiar '70s rock ballad. Somewhere, surely, a standard-format programming executive was going into a cataleptic fit.

To my ears it was neither that jarring nor interesting. Because many of these stations previously carried the '70s rock format, the playlist seems to be anchored in that genre. It often felt like I was listening to the soundtracks of several car commercials in a row.

While Jack stations are generating a lot of buzz right now, it's still too early to tell how well they'll do in the long-run. For many of the newest stations to employ the format, ratings aren't even available. The format's veterans have seen good, if not phenomenal, results.

The U.S.'s oldest Jack station, NRC Broadcasting-owned KJAC 105.5 in Denver, has moved up from 23rd place to 16th in its market in just over a year, according to Arbitron ratings. It maintains a 2.4% share of the Denver market (Denver's No. 1 station, newsradio KOA, has a 6.9% share). Infinity's Dallas station, which has been on the Jack beat since July, 2004, ranks 12th overall but is first with the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, says a company representative.

Will these and the other stations continue to climb, or will the novelty wear off for others, as it did for me? We still don't know, Jack.

Comments

[Chris T.]

Is that "Jack" as in "jackshit" as in "They don't know jackshit about radio?"

[Bat Guano]

Not only does it sound like an iPod, it sounds like some lame-ass stranger's iPod.

Could there be a connection between this and all we've been hearing lately about Bush's iPod? That we're being brainwashed into thinking a little boomer rock, white-bread jingoistic country rock and the oddball ("My Sharona") track makes for edgy musical entertainment?

[Gerard]

there's a station in Austin with a similar shuffle-play format called "Bob". Not Bob Dobbs, presumably. Maybe they didn't want to pay Jack the royalties.

[Bonnie]

Why does Corporate America feel some canned-man recorded voice with rude comments will replace a personality? Don't we get enough of that from the companies we work for? We don't need it from a radio station we CHOOSE to listen to!

[Bigus Dickus]

You know, there's a reason that these songs are no longer on conventional FM radio playlists: THEY SUCK!

[Bob swenson]

Jack just took over K ROCK in seattle.Lame

[Ranger]

Mix 104 Fm in the Twin Cities just switched over to the Jack format also. It's a nice change to have a radio station that actually plays music and I don't miss the DJ's. The 70's, 80's, 90's and current music is nice as their competion is KDWB 101.3, KS95 94.5.

My only negative comment is that the one voice does get annoying. It would be nice to have a few voice doing the "cute promos".

[Jack]

Keep up the good work. I'm likin it.

[Shannon]

PUT BACK K-ROCK...Who listens to a radio station that plays Dancing Queen one minute and Smashing Pumpkins the next...I have removed the preset button in both of my cars...IT IS SO BOGUS!!

[Jacked in PDX]

Our oldies station here in Portland (97.1 KISN/KKSN) just got "jacked." Now it's 70s/80s/90s. I hope there's another oldies station somewhere on the dial; I hate this crap.

[James]

Yup, Seems New York's Krock Radio (92.3 WXRK) has been the latest victim of the "Jack" format, It's new slogan "Great Rock, Period." signifies the randomness of the iPod theory. Personally I like it better than the alternative format from before which I knew the playlist by heart. It does keep it more interesting and more liking to songs I thought I never would (especially the 80's hair metal :p) We'll see where it goes from here. Damn clearchannel!

[Lauren]

I don't like the fact that no one makes the playlist and it's just a historical top 40. an easy pick for hits, but not all that interesting. In Seattle they're calling it "we play what we want" but this certainly doesn't sound like free-form to me...

[Janice]

Jack format doesn't know Jack about listeners. Who wants a pseudo personality when you can have a live human playing songs that meet your interests.

The playlist is only part of radio. I have a cd, mp3 player but I still liked to listen to a live human and news, traffic etc....not a marketing ploy innane voice.

[Matt]

We just got one in Madison, WI. The station has gone through 5 formats in maybe four years: '80s -> '70s and '80s -> "retro to right now" -> Classic Hits -> "Charlie" aka Jack. I wonder if this was planned. Owned by Entercom, fwiw.

[Mark]

I don't know. It kind of rocks. LA just got it. I liked the old station but they kept playing the same heavy rotation...day in, day out, year in, year out. At least this feels fresher. Maybe I need satellite radio...?

[pauhana]

WQSR-FM 105.7 in Baltimore has been Jacked; they fired a morning show staff that had been on for 17 years; it has gone from an oldies station to noise that I will no longer listen to. I wrote to the head man in NY and pointed out to him that we all have other options then the JACK format. Its sucks.

[egon14]

WBUF in Buffalo just switched to Jack from a "Talk Radio for Guys" format that was only a few months old. They were just advertising on Sunday that their talk format was new material that you couldn't hear anywhere else. Now we have a bunch of old crap playing randomly. If I wanted to hear old music, why would I be listening to a talk radio station?

[Jeffrey J. Chapman]

Jack FM just barged it's sweet ass on 92.9 WBUF-Buffalo. 92.9 has been the everyman's station for at least the last 10 years of my memory...going from all female rock, to smooth jazz..."dancin' oldies".... and most recently, all-talk.

Ahem.

1. No DJ
2. Figure this out - Jim Croce, Nirvana, Pat Benetar, and ABC (the band). ?
2a. Don't forget the Pina Colada - Escape song from Rupert Holmes.
3. I miss Don and Mike.

-J

[MJ Ferguson]

Yup: radio of the 70's is back guys..crappy radio of the seventies that is. 'Jack'? good idea if run right..BUT! Isn't that really why reality tv is a 'hit' with networks? You dont have to pay 'stars' millions like Cheers and Seinfeld and Friends, get losers to work for next to nothing and other losers will watch. Hmmm..get rid if REAL jocks and pay some guy to be your 'voice'?!? Sounds like sevenites corporate radio all over again..didnt that kill radio the first time around? I miss Don & Mike and Brother Wease on BUF too.

[j]

Jack FM took over 92.9 in Buffalo, NY and it blows! I miss Don and Mike and Brother Wease.

[Marcia]

I personally like 106.5 the Arch and the different genres. I don't listen to just one kind of genre of music. I love almost all kinds of music, and I like going from the 70s to the 80s to the 90s to now. Works for me.

Jack is cool!!

[Brent]

Worst format EVER! I feel like I've been slaped in the face by 92.9 WBUF. All JACK will do is convince me that I'd rather hear a shuffle from my OWN MP3 player. Maybe they want to eliminate all key demographics leaving only one, people who are too stupid to shuffle music themselves.

[Simon Pole]

I'm from Vancouver, where the first "Jack" station started. I have to say, when it first went on the air, it was a real relief from what the other FM commercial stations were playing. The emphasis seemed to be on 80s pop hits you hadn't heard in a long time, which no one else was playing.

Jack quickly became the station that was played in the grocery store, the variety store etc.

That being said, after the novelty wore off, I found myself listening to Jack much less. Its still good to punch on, to see if they are playing an old hit you want to hear -- but you only want to hear the old songs so many times.

In Vancouver, we were lucky because Jack just replaced bad FM stations, and didn't kill the AM oldies stations we have -- of which there are two. The first (650 CISL) is a traditional oldies stations that still has a couple of old Vancouver DJs from the 50s who were on the mainstream rock stations at that time -- its kind of nice that they're still spinning records in town. The other is 600 CKDB Adult Favourites, that plays Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. etc.

[Jason]

WCBS-FM in New York, oldies bastion for 30 years, turns out to be the station that fell victim to "Jack," as opposed to WXRK. Great. Now the formerly alternative but recently "broadened" WXRK, predictable classic rocker Q-104, and the cloyingly named "Jack" provide us with three stations that play roughly the same music.

[RADIO JOE]

Last comment is correct, WCBS 101.1 NY, Along with it's on air personalites, got JACKED OFF. I don't think infinity radio knows jack, comparing the listeners to the old format to be "relitive" to be dealing with craftmatic beds. If thats what they think, they can go to a religion format. All I will say is, I'm glad to have sirius radio,ch.4-8, and I don't need a craftmatic. (yet).