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H-Town Rock
A new radio station is born this morning. Houston will get its own “Jack” format, a format that has succeeded in other major markets for years. What is “Jack” you say? The idea behind the format is (as radio programmers say) your iPod on shuffle mode. That is, if you iPod only included popular mainstream songs from the 1960’s to present time.
The switch will be happening on 103.7 FM at 10:37 a.m. this morning (clever, huh?). Formally, the station was KIOL (it will now be KHJK). KIOL was a reincarnation of the old rock station KLOL, but its ratings kept falling after its move (it seems that not many people really want to hear new Ted Nugent songs).
To give you a sample of what to expect, here’s a sample hour from the Jack station in San Diego:
Depeche Mode “Policy of Truth”
No Doubt “Hey Baby”
John Lennon “(Just Like) Starting Over”
Men At Work “It’s a Mistake”
Lita Ford “Kiss Me Deadly”
UB40 “Can’t Help Falling in Love”
Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
Eddie Money “Two Tickets to Paradise”
Janet Jackson “When I Think of You”
Jack Johnson “Upside Down”
The Beatles "Paperback Writer"
Basically, think of Mix 96.5, Sunny 99.1, and Classic Hits 107.5 combined together, and you get Jack. Nothing earth shattering, but at least it’s a change.
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The other "Jack" in Texas is pretty good (at least it's not repetitious, chatty garbage.
If it is anything like the "Bob" station I've caught a few times in Austin, it'll be welcome.
I am tired of the same old drivel, where you here the same 100 songs for a week or 2 then the next rotation starts.
I'm cautiously optomistic about the new station. I'm not taking it personally because I never was a KLOL or KIOL listener to begin with. I don't like the idea that DJs are put out of a job...but at the same time I question the big bucks paid to radio personalities at the "big" stations, who play the same top 40 (more like top 20!) over and over and over and over, regardless of requests. I once emailed a nice dj over at Mix 96.5 begging them to stop playing Rockstar and Lips of an Angel...she wrote back to say she really had no control over it, they had to play the chart toppers. I like the spontenaity of the new Jack station in town. Mix 96.5's idea of playing an old-school song is playing the Spin Doctor's Two Princes every day for like two weeks in a row! I loved that song back in the day, and hearing it now and then is great, but they are redundant even with their flashback-type songs!
Anyway, I like it so far! Don't like the sex shop commercials, though.
I agree with you on "Rockstar" and "Lips of an Angel." Bands like Nickelback and Hinder (and the other 500 that sound just like them) is what makes radio so boring and predictable these days.
It'll be interesting to see how Jack does. The signal is so weak west of downtown -- it'll be hard for them to compete with the other Houston stations.
As for the ads for sex shops on Jack, those are probably leftovers from the Rok KIOL days (they're running them through their agreed dates). I think strip bars, beer companies, and sex shops are all that ever advertised on KIOL. Shows a great deal about their listeners.
when tuning in, KLOL was on the presets, so i wasn't thrilled about the Mega101 change.
as far as Jack goes - the website gives hints about its trendoid nature, but it is interesting, however, to hear Eye of the Tiger and Jeremy back to back...