Thursday, June 30, 2005

Goodbye, Oldies 104.3

I was spinning the radio dial the other day and heard some rock/pop on what I thought was Oldies 104.3. I stayed tuned and heard that it's now "Jack FM." They still have the same call letters (WJMK), but it's a completely new format. They seem to have gotten rid of live DJs. You know, like an iPod plugged into a giant antenna. Their website seems to still refer to the oldies version. I miss their jingle already.

Edit: I found some news stories about this. Chicago Tribune business news, Sun Times opinion piece. The Trib article makes references to the iPod-like programming. I swear I didn't read that before I made this post. I guess it happened a few weeks ago. "...By burying the story over the weekend, they hope to minimize criticism from the press and outcry from the public. That no doubt figured into the timing of Infinity Broadcasting, which waited until 4 p.m. Friday (June 3) to blow up two of its heritage oldies stations." Stupid bottom-line mentality.

One more story with a great quote from the man responsible:

"My job in leading the company -- for better or worse -- is to make every radio station as profitable as it can be," he said.

"People want to put their goddam foot on your neck whenever you make a change. The problem is that there's a lot of people who don't have the balls to make a change. OK? We're on the offense. We're not on the defense. OK? We might have made a mistake. Right now, I don't think we made a mistake."

6 comments:

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Tim.] WTF? No Dick Biondi?
Oh yeah, the Jack FM format sucks. If I want a shuffling playlist, I'll do it without commercials.

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Patrick.] Nope. And apparently it happened in the middle of the day, with no notice to anyone. Same thing happened to a number of other Oldies' stations owned by the same group (I think Inifinity or something like that).

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Sara.] I miss dick biondi, that was a great radio station, it was one of the few my family could agree on when in the same car together.
BRING BACK THE OLDIES!

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Travis.] Gotta love this Big Media approach to radio (Clear Channel, Infinity, etc). They can do the programming once and syndicate it in fifty different markets. That's 1/50th of the DJs to pay. No, wait, only one recorded DJ that interjects randomly between songs. That's just a one-time cost! Talk about a low bottom line!

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Mike McD.] I *grew up* on Dick Biondi...
Oh, and I love how they claim that they 'play anything'. Yeah right. More like 'we play anything as long as its 80's and 90's pop rock'
I have yet to hear any Tool, Ice Cube, or Ministry on JackFM.

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Travis.] Mike- call the DJ and request it. Oh, that's right.