I first encountered Jack rather haphazardly several months ago when I turned my radio dial to the local hip-hop channel. Rather than hearing the expected Ludacris and Nelly, I heard instead Billy Joel followed by Alien Ant Farm followed by Johnny Cash. Intrigued, I listened for nearly 20 minutes before a pre-recorded promo voice came on saying, "Welcome to The Bus. We're kind of like an iPod on shuffle, playing what we want," or something to that effect.
Fast forward to last Friday when I receive the newest issue of Rolling Stone (the one with Jimi Hendrix on the cover) and lo and behold there is an article on the very radio format I speak of. Known as 'Jack,' this new radio format is known for its eclectic playlists and absense of any sort of DJ. Only a few years old, the format has been implemented by a significant number of stations across the country. You can learn all about Jack-FM here.
So, for those of you who are clueless as to why your former favorite radio station is now all of a sudden playing random tracks from no particular genre or era, it is probably because the station has switched to Jack, the radio version of an iPod shuffle.
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