Yeah, WE know "Jack" (FM)...

Here's a re-post of a news item from the planetzeb.net news for April, 2005. I was getting so many questions about the whole thing that I figured it was time to break the silence and go on record with a single, simple statement that sums up the alleged "new craze" in rock/pop broadcast radio formatting. My apologies if you've seen this before. :)


Popular-question-to-PLANET ZEB!-time, team! And here it is.... "hey! Love your station, but did you know there's an FM music station in my area that calls itself "Jack" that's trying to sound like you?" Answer: yeah, we know about the "Jack FM" format.... and we're not particularly impressed for a number of reasons:

(1) we've been doing that type of format for ages-- in fact, what you hear on PLANET ZEB! is actually a carefully-thought-out rock/pop "hybrid" format, reminiscent of "loose FM radio" of the late 1970s, that a friend of mine and I created and implemented back at WLCS AM 910, Baton Rouge LA, in 1984-- and while both broadcast and early internet radio stations wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole (or an 8-foot norwegian... rimshot), around here we were convinced early on that it offered exactly the type of variety and excitement that radio aficianados desperately wanted back in their listening experience... and we've been doing it day in and day out for YOU since early 2000!!!

(2) The "Jack" concept has only been around for about a year-and-some-odd, interestingly after a flurry of planetzeb.net / planetzeb.com website hits from various radio stations, corporate radio group HQs and a few well-known radio consultancies which began back in the Summer of '02 and continued for about a year thereafter! We're not saying anyone "stole" our format-- that's a tough legal nut to crack. But we thought the circumstantial evidence was curious... particularly as the site hits began to climb from the aforementioned sources during our massive upswing in listening hours a year and a half ago! But let's just say that if PLANET ZEB!'s great success, thanks to you, WAS ripped off by anyone, we're proud of the fact that collectively, the station and its much-appreciated-listeners around the world fired a successful warning shot across commercial radio's bow by teaching them a new set of formatting rules to replace that "over-specialization, niche genre" BS which has been the paradigm in broadcast radio consulting for the past two decades. I've never subscribed to it, and never will.

(3) Leave it to corporate radio to take a good thing and screw it up: "Jack FM" has been so initially popular in the markets in which it's been tried in Canada and the U.S., the consultant who now owns the rights to the "name/concept/franchise" is helping them pop up all over North America. So now.... completely blinded to what makes stations of PLANET ZEB!'s ilk unique (namely, a personally-owned-and-groomed sui generis kind of station that actually cares enough about its listeners to maintain its uniqueness)... these guys are cloning "Jacks" at an unprecedent rate. In so doing, they're helping destroy their own alleged creation by watering it down into some kind of identity-less blob that you can hear any time, anywhere, same level of predictability. Blah.

(4) Now here's the kicker (man, if only Infinity had listened to ME instead of the "Jack consultants" before they bought into the crappy positioning)-- if you're familiar with the "Jack clone" format in your own market, you've also doubtless heard their wonderful slogan-- "playing what we want." HAAAAHHH! I suppose someone thought it was a great "up yours" kind of positioning statement, and it does sound quite a great deal like a few of the "joke" liners we've been playing for the last three years (from my nutty friend Frank) which say "it's EVERYTHING Zebby wants...." (hmm! Maybe I DO have an intellectual property infringement case after all!). Here's the difference-- with us, it's a joke which has been well-received by the folks who've emailed in to share a laugh with us over it (our tag line: "... except for various pills, booze, a winning lottery ticket and a hooker"). With "Jack," it's allegedly an attitude, which raises this question in my mind... do you guys really expect to ATTRACT and KEEP the "target demographic" that likes this kind of variety in their radio station by insinuating to them that your station is "private," and that you don't give a rat's ass about giving them any input whatsoever? PLANET ZEB! has always prided itself on making sure listeners knew that they had as much of a stake-- and as much control-- over what got on the air as I did. "Playing what we want".... well... go right ahead with the testosterone overdose, guys. Hey-- why don't you smack a couple of puppies or hamsters across the head while you're at it if you're feeling so macho?!!!

So in the end, we're happy to let the multi-market-corporate-controlled "Jacks" of the world do as they please; they basically piggybacked onto what PLANET ZEB! has been doing for years and are now trying to sell it in a store-brand kind of label that's the same from chain to chain. And that, in the end, is why I'm convinced they'll belly-flop after perhaps the "novelty" of the format has worn off (we figure they have one thing right: listeners are so tired of the "narrow genre" approach to radio that they can't take it any more). In the meantime, YOU'RE in the right place to hear where the whole ball of wax started, right here on your computer. My programming and consulting philosophy has always been emphasis on "down home" radio, where people know they can come... listen... enjoy... and not be bothered by spam, overhyped but poor "jock personalities" or any of the other mess that multi-market-concept-format flavors of the day seem to create. And by the way, it's the same story now as it was when PLANET ZEB! started back in 2000.... we're playing what YOU want.... the music YOU remember, on the station that NEVER forgot!!!