Proving my once-upon-a-time point that you can JACKify any format, witness the birth of Indianapolis’s newest Country station: 97.1 Hank FM. “He plays anything Country.”
And this is just scratching the surface. Already today I’ve heard about three stations cherry-picking JACKisms in order to either block the format or borrow from it.
I just want to be the voice of reason for those of you inclined to listen to some:
If everybody copies the JACK language what was once clever will quickly become cliche. What was once un-Radio will quickly become Nouveau Radio. What was once exceptional will quickly become mundane. And what was once a refreshing change of pace for bored Radio listeners will become the latest reason to be bored.
What listeners want from us is something fresh, not the same something twisted like a pretzel into every single format category.
The audience wants us to think outside the proverbial box. They don’t want every box to come labeled with some guy’s name, be it Jack, Bob, Dave, Ben, or Hank.