Jack-FM Spreads to Maritimes

[jon]

After blowing out their on-air staff this morning, CFLT-FM in Halifax-Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, seems likely to debut the Maritimes first Jack-FM format in their promised "major announcement" at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, according to pundits in the area.

The station is currently LITE 92.9 and is owned by Rogers.

[Eldon-Mr.CFAY]

Greetings! Thanks for mentioning this Jon. But oh no not another Jack FM station. I really cannot stand the slogan Playing What We want and all the Jack FM hype from stations using this format. Just another example of big corporate radio trying to pretend to serve the listener better with a wider selection of music played. Personally I don't like this format or station at all. There are examples of Jack FM with some USA stations too and most of them sound just as bad! Just another cookie cutter big corporate hype image in my opinion! Not even close to a Free Form community minded radio station!!!

Take care everyone, 73s Eldon

[pave]

Besides the mundane approaches foisted on audiences by the mega-gorps, the real tragedy is in that the others don't have a rat's-ass clue as to what to do about it.
JACK is not a format - it's a promotion... that has worn out.
This, then, would make them (Rogers): clueless.
The ones who can't respond - stupid.

[Karen]

So, here we go again.

Why is it always the air staff that pays the price for an incompetent manager or PD, ooops, I mean Brand Manager. It never seems to fail. The management team is ultimately responsible for the sound
or format of the station. The jocks are hired to execute said format. If it fails, they air people get executed and the PD gets another life with a new format. Why don’t these companies do the right thing
and get rid of the person at the helm who can’t generate numbers? The jocks are simply doing their jobs following the game plan and using the tools they are supplied with.

Are the jocks really at fault because playing soft rock isn’t as appealing to listeners as maybe oldies would be? In today’s world, most jocks have no say whatsoever in the music they are forced to play.
Most can’t even speak the words they’d like to speak (you might remember when radio had personality), instead they have to read the same lame liner cards that are used coast to coast with the call letters
and city being the only difference between Vancouver and Halifax.

Shame on you Rogers for disrupting a bunch of innocent people’s lives for the sake of possible better ratings. I’m sure your air staff that was capable of playing Maria Carey, Tom Petty, Air Supply and
The Beatles is just as capable with tunes by Pink Floyd, Supertramp, INXS and The Counting Crows!

To those whose lives were disrupted by this boneheaded move, get a real job. Get one with some security and benefits. Corporate radio isn't where it's at.

[Aaron]

In this case, the Rogers personalities lost out more because of Newcap's bone-head move. It wasn't so much that LITE was a failure, but the opportunity to seize on Newcap's bad decision can't be ignored.

[jon]

In light of Karen's comments about blowing all the air staff out the door being so routine these days, equally telling is how it now seems quaint that Rawlco has retained Duncan Paterson "these many years" since the format change from Magic 99 to UP 99.3. He is on-air Saturday and Sunday evenings, and rounds out his full-time workweek with off air duties.

Duncan has been on-air in Edmonton since 1990, and was there at the sign-on of Magic 99 as Rob Christie's co-host on Mornings. His father was Edmonton's first open-line Psychologist, holding a PhD. in the subject and being a long-time professor at the University of Alberta before and after his very popular daily CJCA program. Duncan's brother also started in Edmonton, at CJCA in the 1980s, but has spent the last 20 years in Halifax, freelancing since last November when he was one of 94 radio folks laid off by Rogers. Until then, he had been at the station (LITE 92.9) that started this thread .

[jon]

The predictions were correct.

Griff & Caroline do the Morning Show beginning Monday. Which makes sense, since they were blown out of the Jack-like KOOL 96.5 at the end of August in a format change to Triple-A.

[skyvalleyradio]

if Jack FM is spreading out to the Maritimes, shouldn't residents there get their yearly inoculations? I've heard that regular Jack shots will prevent this insidious disease from spreading

[radiofan]

Jack FM Halifax launch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2GBYagzJnc

[jon]

This was News to me, from this morning's Broadcast Dialogue, but it brings back memories of some early Jack stations with little or no on-air staff:

There are no immediate plans for adding other on-air performers