KCBS-FM
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| KCBS-FM | |
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| City of license | Los Angeles, California |
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| Broadcast area | Greater Los Angeles |
| Branding | 93.1 Jack FM |
| Slogan | Playing What We Want |
| First air date | 1948 |
| Frequency | 93.1 (MHz)  |
| Format | Adult Hits |
| ERP | 28,500 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | Columbia Broadcasting System (former legal name of CBS). |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Website | www.931jackfm.com |
KCBS-FM is a radio station in Los Angeles, California broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area on 93.1 FM.
KCBS-FM airs an adult hits music format branded as "Jack-FM".
Like other radio stations of similar format, the Jack FM playlist runs the gamut from classic rock to dance music music to hard rock. Currently, the station has no air staff, as many other stations of this format.
Although Jack proclaims that the station is run "in a dumpy little building in beautiful downtown Culver City", KCBS-FM was actually at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, about half a mile north of Culver City. 1
In 2006, the broadcasting facilities were moved to Miracle Mile.
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[edit] History
KCBS-FM signed on in 1948 as KNX-FM. KNX-FM was a simulcast of sister station KNX (AM) until the mid 1960s. The radio station, along with other CBS owned FM radio stations aired a beautiful music format branded as "The Young Sound".
In 1971, KNX-FM aired a mellow rock music format, featuring rock artists deemed too "soft" for album rock rivals KLOS and KMET.
In 1983, long after other CBS Radio owned radio stations moved on to other formats, KNX-FM adopted a Top 40 music format - again similar to the other CBS Radio owned radio stations branded as "93.1 KKHR". A change of the heritage KNX-FM call letters followed to KKHR. KKHR was not a traditional Top 40 music format of the time as the playlist was more stringent limited to 30 songs.
In 1986, the Top 40 format ran its course likely due to its lackluster ratings. The mellow rock music format and heritage KNX-FM call letters were returned under the new branding "Quality Rock".
In 1989, an oldies music format was introduced and the heritage KNX-FM call letters were dropped yet again in favor of KODJ to complement the change in branding to "Oldies 93.1". KODJ competed with crosstown rival KRTH, which is ironically now a CBS Radio owned station. KODJ focused more on the 1950s and the early 1960s era of oldies music than rival KRTH. In response, KRTH gradually reduced the amount of newer songs from the playlist and received higher ratings. Later on, KODJ dropped the KODJ call letters in favor of its present call letters, KCBS-FM.
In 1993, KCBS-FM dumped the oldies music format in favor of classic hits music, focusing primarily on the 1970s; branded as "Arrow 93" using the slogan, "All Rock and Roll Oldies".
Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS Radio) won the licensing rights to brand their adult hits music formatted radio stations as "Jack FM". Many CBS Radio owned radio stations adopted the adult hits format and "Jack-FM" branding which leads to yet another format change for KCBS-FM.
In March 2005, the classic hits music format was dropped in favor of its present music format of adult hits branded as "Jack-FM".
In January 2007, KCBS-FM began broadcasting in High Definition Radio for a higher quality broadcast.
[edit] Publicity and criticisms
Their current advertising campaign is designed to be irreverent: Soon after the station switched over to become Jack FM, they put out a call for people to call in and "tell us what you think". Shortly afterwards, they began replaying all sorts of responses, not just those that were overly positive to the station. Examples of call-ins that were replayed were "I love you guys. My friend hates you, though." and "Hey, Jack...I just wanted to tell you guys...since I been [sic] listening to your station...I quit my job and left my family."
Other promos and station IDs included the famous "We play what we want. If you don't like it, shut up," and other slogans typical of modern "bastard culture" themes, suggesting that listeners who prefer a more personal format, with announcers, traffic and weather updates, concert information, and particularly listener request lines, are people who lack character or cannot think for themselves. More upsetting to KCBS' usual listening audience may have been the fact that the format was changed unexpectedly, with no warning either to listeners or to staff members who were fired on the spot. As KCBS' staff included some highly respected names such as Joe Benson,Tommy Edwards and Jeff Serr, this move appeared to many fans as personally insulting.
[edit] Also worth noting
Unlike most other stations in this format, the call sign does not include any form of the word "Jack," opting instead to hold over calls from a previous format.
[edit] See also
| FM radio stations in the Los Angeles market (Arbitron #2) | |
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(Arbitron #2) |
94.3 | 94.7 | 95.5 | 96.3 | 97.1 | 97.9 | 98.3 | 98.7 | 99.5 | 100.3 | 101.1 | 101.9 | 102.3 | 102.7 | 103.1 | 103.5 | 103.9 | 104.3 | 105.1 | 105.5 | 105.9 106.3 (Lancaster) | 106.7 | 107.1 | 107.5 |
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KJLL-FM | KKGO-FM | KKJZ | KKLA-FM | KLAX-FM | KLOS | KLSX | KLVE | KMVN-FM | KOST | KPCC | KPFK | KPWR | KRBV | KRCD-FM | KRCV KROQ-FM | KRTH-FM | KSAK-FM | KSBR | KSCA | KSPC | KSSE | KTLW | KTWV | KUCI | KUSC | KWIZ | KWVE | KXLU | KXOL-FM | KYSR Satellite Radio Local Traffic/Weather: XM Channel 222 | Sirius Channel 150 |
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KODJ | KPPC | KQLZ | KSKQ | KUTE | KWST | KXEZ | KFSG | KZAB/KZBA | KZLA |
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Bakersfield AM/FM · Chico AM/FM · Eureka · Fresno AM/FM · Imperial Valley AM/FM · Los Angeles AM/FM Merced · Modesto Orange County AM/FM · Oxnard-Ventura AM/FM · Palm Springs AM/FM · Redding AM/FM · Riverside-San Bernardino AM/FM · Sacramento AM/FM · San Diego AM/FM · San Francisco AM/FM · San Jose AM/FM · San Luis Obispo AM/FM · Santa Barbara AM/FM · Santa Cruz AM/FM · Santa Maria-Lompoc · Santa Rosa AM/FM · Stockton AM/FM Victor Valley · Visalia-Tulare AM/FM |
[edit] External links
- The Big Jackoff Writer Jon Dunmore expresses his frustration with the JackFM format as applied to KCBS, and points out that its claim to "play what we want" and to be bold and innovative is a lie.
- You Don't Know Jack Blogger David Lidsky summarizes the impact JackFM's format has had on KCBS.
