Here in Chicago there’s a triumvirate of stations called “Nine FM,” whose tagline is “we play anything.” It’s not bad, but they don’t play just anything. I’ve yet to hear BTO followed by a Bach etude, or Hank Williams and Medieval chant in the same segment.
Last Monday I won two tickets to see Sting next Monday at the UIC Pavilion, but I don’t have them yet. When I called the station/s this morning to inquire they said they didn’t have the tickets yet, but would overnight them as soon as they arrived. I don’t know, we’ll see if they have their promotional act together yet.
As far as satellite radio taking over, I have my doubts. Until it’s free I can’t see it completely superseding broadcast.
We actually started listening to Jack-FM L.A. (KCBS-FM) a month or so ago. Liked it, too. I really like the “deep cuts” factor, where you hear stuff regular stations won’t play anymore.
Then the wife got me XM radio for the truck, and there is no going back.
I live in a city which is in the overlap zone of two “Jack” stations.
The Vancouver “Jack” is somewhat better than the Victoria “Jack” in terms of more obscure or forgotten 70s-80s stuff getting played.
I have, however, noticed something interesting on at least eight or ten occasions: both stations playing different songs by the same artist concurrently.
The odds of two stations independently deciding to play, for example, an old 10cc song, or Falco, or even Jewel, at the same time are too great to be co-incidence; I think there must be a Master Playlist somewhere, which specifies certain types of artists at certain times, and perhaps gives a list of titles to choose from on the station’s harddrive.
We do have two slightly-goofy Morning Drive types here (and the same in Vancouver, with the addition of a weird Indian engineer, Veejay); but they’re not as shouty/zany as the norm. Yet.
I’ve been giving this station a try. It sems like anything in a top 40 chart since 1970 is eligible. But there’s some kind of playlist. I’ve heard “I’ll Melt with You,” “Hand in My Pocket,” and that one T’Pau song that was a hit multiple times each. On the whole, I perfer WXPN and even WMGK, but it’s nice to have anotehr option in the car.
Some years ago when I lived north of Albany I listened to WEQX 102.7 out of Manchester, Vermont. Does it not come in that far south, or has it turned to crap?
I like to think that it might be a response to the success of Indie 103.1 in the LA market (which has only been on the air a little over a year now). Many of the DJs on Indie really do get to play whatever the hell they want, and since many of them are former (or current) rock musicians with interesting and eclectic tastes you often hear some really weird and interesting stuff.
I suspect what we’re seeing is the corporate beast trying to mimic the personal feel of 103.1.
Hmm, no “Jack” or “Bob” or sarcastic voiceovers(?), but recently a DC area “mix” station (107.3) tweaked their format to the same thing you all are talking about. A genuine mix. The new tagline is “Now playing the best mix…of everything!” They kept the DJs on that they had before the format shift, but there’s a new spark of life in their voices, like they’re actually enjoying their jobs a bit now that they can play a current pop hit followed by Cream.
I’m pretty sure that the Austin BOB-FM is owned by the same group of people that own a bunch of stations up here in the Norfolk VA area. Is there a DJ on air there named Sara, with a last name of T? I know she used to work for that company.
From what I’ve read, the “Bob” (or Bill or Fred or Ralph or whatever it is on your town) format is deliberately designed to make each station the consensus/compromise choice in the family car or minivan.
That is, if 45 year old Mom and Dad are driving in the car with their 15 year old son and 12 year old daughter, Bob’s format is designed to give EACH of them just enough of their favorite music to keep them ALL listening. So, Bob may play “Ballroom Blitz” by the Sweet for Dad, followed by Pink’s “Get the Party Started” for daughter, followed by Duran Duran’s “Rio” for Mom, followed by Everlast’s “What It’s Like” for Sonny.
In theory, there’s enough to keep everybody happy, so that someone’s not constantly demanding that the station be changed.
This’ll be my “how do they make hotdogs” post, just so you have some forewarning…this is stuff you might not really want to know, and will probably confirm your worst suspicions:
[QUOTE=Rodd Hill]
I live in a city which is in the overlap zone of two “Jack” stations…I have, however, noticed something interesting on at least eight or ten occasions: both stations playing different songs by the same artist concurrently.
The odds of two stations independently deciding to play, for example, an old 10cc song, or Falco, or even Jewel, at the same time are too great to be coincidence; I think there must be a Master Playlist somewhere, which specifies certain types of artists at certain times, and perhaps gives a list of titles to choose from on the station’s harddrive.
[QUOTE]
That’s fundamentally correct. Probably they have a computer-based music system with all the songs loaded, and another computer with the song categories broken down for scheduling purposes. Odds are that the artists’ songs are “packeted” together, meaning (for example) that if a 10CC song is supposed to spin every 30 hours, the system rotates between two and five songs by the band in that slot. You’ll probably notice that the songs will all be from a similar era in a performer’s development; Paul McCartney’s solo work would probably be in a seventies-centric category, as well as eighties, but the packet won’t cover everything by McCartney, just stuff from the relevant era. The songs that the programmer chose to represent the Band On The Run album won’t have their spins taken away every time “Ebony And Ivory” pops up, for example. (This will also explain why some artists will appear to be over-represented to some extent…if you’re an artist like Elton John with some career longevity, you’ll appear everywhere throughout a given Jack’s playlist.)
If the same company owns both stations, I’d be willing to bet that there’s some sort of corporate music direction with all the hours having exactly the same pre-determined slots for the songs, and their packets started at different points to specifically avoid the same song spinning from market to market. Ideally, that should also apply to the artists as well, but somebody’s math is off.
First of all, f*** me AND my idiocy in coding…okay, now then:
Also fundamentally right. My experience with oldies stations has been that they know they’ll never be number one in the market, but they’ll at least be the number two pick on the pushbuttons, whether you’re into country or different types of rock or whatever. It’s the default pick whenever your favorite station is playing something of no interest to you. Jack thrives on the same principle.
At a guess, I’d say they’re also skewed to the market…if the big dog in town is a classic rock station, maybe they put a few more of those songs in the mix. If it’s a CHR/“Top 40” they’ll adjust accordingly. In other words, some playlists are “deeper” than others.
There’s also a similar development in country called “Hank” radio. Same principle, only applied to country. Might be interesting to watch that one, too.
No, I love EQX. I listen to them about 90% of the time. They still play some great older songs along with the new alternative stuff. They play bands that you don’t hear anywhere else on the radio and still play great “oldies”* like The Smiths and The Cure, etc.
*God, it pained me to type “oldies” when referring to them.
Apparently one of the radio stations here in Springfield, IL switched to the Jack format last Wednesday, under the name ABE-FM. There was an article about it in the newspaper (available online here, starting about halfway down the page).
Chicago’s Q101 just glommed on to the “shuffle” craze, and I have to say, it’s pretty nice. Their shuffle seems to be purported as “all things alternative,” but I’ve found it to be broader than that. They’ve incorporated some classic rock and some punk-ish stuff too…I’d call it "mixed rock, with a bit of emphasis toward the last 10-15 years. The best part about it is the lack of top-40 stuff, so I’ll never have to hear Avril Lavigne being called “rock.”
