TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Change is in the Air For Boston Radio

Change is in the Air For Boston Radio

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Tue, 26 Apr 2005 23:44:09 -0400

By Clea Simon, Globe Correspondent | April 21, 2005

In the old days -- two months ago -- listeners knew what to expect.
You could turn on 'Mix' WBMX-FM (98.5) for fun new pop by Rob Thomas
or Green Day and get the occasional nostalgic Bon Jovi tune mixed in.
WBOS-FM (92.9) played it mellow but fresh, with the latest adult rock
from Los Lonely Boys or the Wallflowers. And 'Star' WQSX-FM (93.7)
was dance music old and new: Donna Summer meets Salt-N-Pepa.

Then, suddenly, they all started sounding a little similar and a
little strange. Rock tunes ran into hip-hop, a current top hit segued
into a '70s throwback. DJs were muted, if there at all, and everyone
was advertising the playlist was wide open.

Are the playlists -- the formatting -- really gone? Not exactly.
Boston radio may be putting more tunes into rotation, but they'll
probably be tunes you already know. Because Boston, to varying
degrees, is going 'Jack' -- a hot new radio format designed to win
back listeners and snare a bigger piece of an ever-diminishing pie.

What is 'Jack'?

Put simply, it's a format that abandons the conventional wisdom that
listeners respond to song repetition and station self-promotion.
Instead, it substitutes a broad playlist of familiar hits that cross
musical genres and programs them with virtually no talk.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/04/21/change_is_in_the_air_for_boston_radio/

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