What Brought Us To Jack

[lfuss]

For the last decade or so, many contemporary radio stations brought in high-priced consultants who told them the "safe" songs to play.  (In case you don't know, a radio consultant is some guy from another market who owns a briefcase).  The "safe" lists were all based on research.  (The research was all based on the opinions of a couple of high-school cheerleaders and a homeless guy named Homer who hung out behind Denny's).  "These are the songs your listeners want to hear", the experts said.  "Play only these songs and no others and you'll be successful."  As a result, some stations, particularly oldies and AC stations, existed on a playlist of as few as 250 songs.  That's why you never heard songs like Rocky Burnette "Tired of Toein' The Line"; Elvin Bishop "Fooled Around And Fell In Love"; or Greg Kihn Band "Jeopardy."  Those songs weren't on the list.  Stations played the same songs over and over and over and over and over until listeners got tired of them.  Radio listenership was declining because people found other ways of listening to music they liked.  Think Ipods.

Then along comes some of the same radio stations that beat the same 250 songs to death for years and they come up with a plan.  "Hey, let's play some really cool songs that people haven't heard in a while.  And we'll give it an off-the-wall name like 'Jack'.  Yea, that's the ticket."  Thus, JACK-FM was born, first in Canada and then it spread to the U.S.  The radio stations all treat it as if it's some amazing new format akin to the second coming of Christ.

But alas, it's not really a new format, it's just Classic Hits/Adult AC with a big playlist and a cheesy attitude.  It will be fun to listen to for a while, but then we'll all get just as tired of hearing "Whip It" and "Love Shack" as we did of the 250 songs on the aforementioned list.  And I'm already getting tired of the cheesy liners, especially the "ka-ching" one.  Do listeners really understand that?

With no air talent, the format will get real old real fast.  But I guess no air talent is better than the surfer-dude types on KMXB and the guy who sounds like a girl on KWNR.

That's my opinion.

Larry F.
Professional Curmudgeon

[noisebox]

yeah...what he said.

maybe it's time for music directors to actually direct some music? instead of letting the software do it, then human not check it, print it out...hmmmm...did i just hear the same artist 4 songs apart? oops! whatever. did all the spots run that break? check!

now it's a novel concept to have...what, 1,000 songs in the library? whoopeee! there's 3 days worth of music.

for these "jack", "bob", "dave", "bill" (that's what they're hoping these name stations do, right? bill...ha ha ha...sorry) to say "we play whatever we want"...takes the listener even FURTHER out of the equation. but they knew that, right? what's the point of calling a station to make requests when nobody's home anyway?

way to sell some more ipods, radio.

good luck to 'ya!

"curmudgeon in training"

(mr. fuss, can i use that?)

______________
"...on a scale of 1 to 10, I give her a 2 - that's only because I've NEVER seen a 1."

[Weavewords]

Larry, you hit the nail on the head regarding how consultants led to radio redundancy.  You can take the most classic Beatles song, and if you play it ad infinitum, even the most ardent Beatlemaniac will become tone deaf.

But "Loveshack" and "Whip It" have hardly been out of circulation.  They are among the most burned-out pieces of music in the last thirty years. (Is it just me or is "Loveshack" one of the worst songs ever?)  JACK is a refreshing change simply because they play more than that.

[lfuss]

> But "Loveshack" and "Whip It" have hardly been out of
> circulation.  They are among the most burned-out pieces of
> music in the last thirty years.

Sorry, that just happened to be the songs I heard while I was writing my little commentary.

[lfuss]

> "curmudgeon in training"
>
> (mr. fuss, can i use that?)

Sure, just send the royalty checks to me :-)

LF

[nic]

> Greg Kihn Band "Jeopardy."

Hey there's a name i know...i actually interned on his morning show in san jose.
man did he have some stories...nothing like some good ol tiajuana hookers!!

[Slurpee]

What brought us to "Jack"?

Simple!  The corporate sloths in their infinite wisdom found another way to cut costs and bring more money to the bottom line.  They already cut promotion budgets, cuts sales commissions what was left?  No DJ's...

The sad fact is, no "music" only station has EVER won in the ratings.  Listeners will ALWAYS be attracted to entertaining programming.  How many songs an hour do Howard and Rush play?  NONE!  Yet they command huge numbers nation wide.  The KOMP Morning Show does play music and they do well, why?  Cause they have PERSONALITY.  These big corporate giants would do well to use their smaller market stations to actually train tomorrows DJ's.  But wait, that would require having program directors that can actually teach and train them and a GM that see's more to his station that just sales.

And, if "Jack" is such a great idea, who's gonna do the Bill Heard remote if there are no DJ's?  Jack is a fad..  I'll bet anyone, who wants to take it, $1000.00 that Jack will not be around 18-24 months from now.  The reason people are NOT listening to radio as much or at all anymore is because radio has FAILED to be entertaining.  If I want to hear just music, I'll put in a CD.  

When I listen to radio, I want to be entertained, that means play the songs I like and have someone who's IQ is higher than their shoe size talking about something between the songs, not just reading the GM/Sales/PD/Consulant approved liner card.

Personality = Listeners
Listeners = Ratings
Ratings = Revenue
Revenue = Happy Share Holders

[lfuss]

> And, if "Jack" is such a great idea, who's gonna do the Bill
> Heard remote if there are no DJ's?

Some guy was doing a remote at a Baskin-Robbins yesterday afternoon.  It was just a voice on the radio - not a personality to draw a crowd.  No reason to go by and see him.

> When I listen to radio, I want to be entertained, that means
> play the songs I like and have someone who's IQ is higher
> than their shoe size

You can forget that in Las Vegas.  Listen to the surfer-dude sounding midday guy with no personality on KMXB and you'll know what I mean.

LF