What does Jack mean for radio and especially Hot AC--Is Jack Tomorrow's Hot
AC?
There is a new Jack station popping up in a market almost every day
now...Why did it take so long for American radio to embrace this format when
it was such a success across the Canadian border over two years ago?
by: Guy Zapoleon | June 1, 2005

Comments? Email Guy Zapoleon


There is a new Jack station popping up in a market almost every day
now...Why did it take so long for American radio to embrace this format when
it was such a success across the Canadian border over two years ago? Mark
Ramsey, of Mercury Research in the US, started showing that there was room
for a wide variety music format centered in the 70s and 80s, however most
research companies didnt show this hole existed. It took Canada to think
outside the US format box to come up with Jack.
What happened to Radio?
Anybody in radio who has the smallest modicum of a social life has heard the
repetition complaints from their friends and neighbors for years. Those of
us with Top 40 backgrounds are accustomed to such comments, as the nature of
our format involves repetition. But when you start hearing these kinds of
complaints about Rock, Oldies, and even Triple A stations (!)… shouldn't we
have woken up and smelled the coffee long before now? Since the Telecom bill
in 1995 as our industry got gobbled up by consolidators, we threw any long
term thinking and a lot of the common sense we had out the window. As an
industry we did stop listening and feeling our radio stations with our
emotions and started analyzing them on paper...Our industry got the "tighter
is righter" fever and we overplayed music. With their hands forced by the
high prices that were paid in the mad scramble for radio stations,
consolidators cut radio station staffs, and cut budgets and starved our
radio stations of the tools they needed to create great entertainment. We
fired or shut down personalities and took the remaining staffs and doubled
their workload and responsibility. The final result being that we took a lot
the passion out of radio station staffs, and that took the passion out of
what came out of the speakers.
Radio has survived just fine, but now there are iPods, music on the
Internet, and Satellite Radio and the public woke up to the fact that radio
has changed and other compelling music options exist without commercials.
Now radio owners have to pick up the gauntlet and reinvest in their stations
in order to be ready to face the challenge that is coming fast to threaten
radio.
The Search For Variety
We drove listeners to their iPods and satellite radio for musical variety
over the last 10 years. We program radio stations to Arbitron diary keepers
not to the mass audience that's out there (and they aren't necessarily the
same) In an effort to garner lots of TSL in order to get big ratings, you
have to program a music mix that builds this consensus among a wide
audience. When you do auditorium research you see about 200 songs that ALOT
of people love, so around 200-250 titles is where programmers stop filling
out their libraries Problem is those GREAT songs people love become songs
people are tired of given a ton of airplay. The sad thing is that research
never told us to play 200 song play lists...it was the interpretation of
what was a good score and the lack of patience in reading the signs of what
a good developing score with new music to determine whether to hold on to a
new song. All we had to do was listen to our radio stations like a listener
and we would know they were too tight...musically this misreading the
research has gotten us in the trouble we're in, especially with variety
formats (Oldies, AC, Hot AC, Classic Hits/Rock). Listeners would rather hear
the songs they like, not love, in the mix so they don't hear “Jack & Diane,”
or “Good Lovin',” or “Stairway to Heaven” over and over again without
relief. The success of Jack is proof of this.
Looking back to the beginning of Hot AC
When I was part of the team that built KHMX in 1990, I remember apartment
shopping in Houston, looking through a resident's album collection while
taking a tour, and realizing that the music in that collection wasn't being
played on the radio. That mentality was incorporated into the music that
went into the highly successful launch of KHMX. That experience seems to
mirror the current iPod-inspired mix of the Jack-type formats.
In 1990 I had a sound in my head that I passionately felt was missing from
radio at the time. There were not any upbeat, fun, radio stations that
played Pop-Rock (with some Pop) music for women 25-39 who grew up with the
Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. These were listeners who grew up with Top 40 in
the 70s and early 80s and the music mix is really very similar to the
essence of what Jack is today. One major difference is that I strongly
believed in personalities who were involved with listeners on the air and
off the air, sweepers were at a minimum and personalities and listeners on
the air were dominant.
What's funny when you look at a play list from 1990's KHMX Houston, the
first 80s-centric Mix Hot AC. I see a balance of fun upbeat Pop & Rock
currents from Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Robert Palmer, Poison, Taylor Dayne
and a gold library filled with a lot of 80s titles and some 70s titles from
U2, Eddie Money, Bangles, Eurythmics, Journey, Boston, and Fleetwood Mac.
All songs and artists that are the core of what Jack is today. Its just
another example of what happened to this format as programmers abandoned the
original 25-34 females fans who loved the radio station when they reached
their upper 30's, and as this music didn't have the same appeal to the new
25-34 female audience (as did Pop Alternative music) and so many of these
songs were put on the shelf or were played lightly by Mainstream AC. Also
the KHMX library during the early 90s was 500 titles, in an effort to
deliver on the Variety Promise, something that was during the late 90s
Modern AC phase of Hot AC.
The cultural differences we faced in 1990 vs. today are dramatically
different, the competition for a radio listener's attention is dramatically
more competitive than in 1990, but our job of capturing pop culture with our
radio content and keeping listeners in touch still remains job #1 for us as
programmers.
Programming to ARB diary keepers not the mass listeners
Ratings and TSL have been sagging for years. In many ways consolidation has
caused a lot of the problems we face today. It is difficult to take risks
when you look at the millions upon millions of dollars that a radio station
is worth. Its difficult to spend money on programming and talent when you
operate on half of the budget your radio station operated on 10 years ago.
And if its not part of your budget, and your operating is based on quarterly
results, when you run a major corporation (in any field) its so much easier
to preserve the status quo. However we all know "programming by the numbers"
doesn't work...great entertainment has to be created using great intuition
and great creativity. We don't allow experimentation these days--there is
too much at stake, plus our creative people are saddled with so much
programming, administrative or production responsibility that they don't
have time just sit, brainstorm, and create.
Taking Risks
There have been radio stations that have taken chances and done things
differently over the past 15 years, as mentioned previously KHMX Houston,
Triple A WMMO, Z100 in New York City, WKTU New York, Triple A KPIG in
Northern California, and Music/Talk WKXW in Trenton New Jersey. All these
stations took chances to create magic. Great radio stations of the past had
great personalities, great contesting and outstanding theatre of the mind
production that captured listener's imagination and listening loyalty
marketing. Great radio stations great are unique, local and all know how
important great personalities are to their success. They also know that
while they have a long term strategy, the programming staff/air staff have
to be empowered to work their magic on the spot and not forced to follow a
stagnant never changing cookie cutter blueprint layed out by an ivory tower
directive.

Hot AC: Adapting and Doing the Basics
WMMO and KHMX made adjustment to adapt as listeners tastes changed and
market conditions changed. Many of the Hot AC's struggling today didn't
adapt and didn't do the basics that upbeat adult formats must do to survive.
There are basics that must be done for Hot AC to survive especially in the
crisis mode this format is in now with the Jack format at its throat...
Here are the basics needed for Hot AC to survive as described in my article
Hot AC=Mercedes Benz from 2003..
· Marketing: Some form of outside Marketing is essential during Spring and
Fall
· Mornings: A strong morning show is essential
· Research: the radio station target's needs and music and implement the
results wisely
For the last few years, most companies starved Hot AC radio stations instead
of heeding the warnings. The format was struggling due to not following this
formula, taking hits due to the 80s format, and it got hit again in 2005
with Jack. Now, unless Hot AC takes immediate action to correct itself, the
format is in serious trouble, because:
The Jack format done properly and marketed well is poised to become the
upbeat Variety station in the market, a position held by the successful Hot
AC's in their markets. Because Jack is a broader variety format, this has
put Hot AC on the endangered species list of formats. Jack is already
produced with great production values that are a lot more "fun" than a
majority of Hot ACs and although Jack has no DJ's it has a lot more
personality than many Hot AC's do with a full time air staff.

Comments? Email Guy Zapoleon