This weekend, Chicago’s oldies station switched formats. WJMK-FM is now running a format called “Jack,” with the slogan “Playing what we want.”
The sound you just heard was a target demographic yawning.
I read an interview with the program director of one of the Chicago stations which is already running one of the “whatever we want” formats. He said he “got the idea” for the format from sitting in a bar and listening to the variety coming out of the jukebox. Never mind the fact that the concepts of “Jack” and “Nine” have been circling in radio program directors’ circles for years. WJMK’s owners (Infinity) got the idea from an internet-radio station out of Vancouver that licenses the “Jack” format to other stations. This is their way of chasing down that 35-44 demographic.
While listening to the new “Jack” for a couple hours yesterday, I heard: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears; “Boogie Shoes” by KC and the Sunshine Band; “Life in a Northern Town” by the Dream Academy; “Game of Love” by Santana and Michelle Branch; “Jesus is Just Alright” by the Doobie Brothers; “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World; and “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty.
It became clear what this format is all about: play songs from the last four decades that were overplayed when they were on the charts, then sprinkle in some current pop hits from bands like Green Day to seem cool. That way, the listener gets a lot of reeeeeaallllly familiar songs coupled with a few new ones. And if want to seem really hip, use the word “shuffle” or “random” or “iPod.”
Lisa described the format best: “Songs I Never Need to Hear Again Before I Die.”
“Jack” and “Nine” use a similar technique to what Time-Life uses to hook consumers into buying their “Tremendous Hits of the 80s” collections. The idea is to play little snippets of songs to get you to think, “Hey, that was a cool song!” and then hope that hearing that four seconds of “Cuts Like a Knife” by Bryan Adams will make you plop down $80 for a CD set you’ll listen to twice.
The difference, of course, is that these radio stations play the entire songs, and four minutes of Bryan Adams is a lifetime longer than four seconds. And while there might be some initial interest in hearing “Cuts Like a Knife” today, we’re still in that phase where the shrink wrap is just off the box. Six months from now it’s going to be a different story.
In the meantime, WJMK’s old format, DJs and all, is still available in streaming audio on the internet. The weird thing is that they’re still using jingles that refer to 104.3, the stations position on the FM dial. Also, I don’t believe the audience for the oldies format is inclined to sit in front of their computers and listen to the radio– I wasn’t a regular listener, but when I heard the station it was usually in a store or a restaurant. I suppose those establishments will jump to satellite radio now.
The best thing in all this is that once this fades, we can expect another fad to sweep the dial– maybe it’s time for disco to make a comeback.