TORONTO – Rogers Media’s Jack FM Toronto dropped its entire roster of on-air talent in a purge last week that does not indicate the station is moving towards a format flip.
That’s according to 92.5 program director Pat Cardinal, who chatted with www.cartt.ca last week. He insisted the station is not flipping and will not revert to all-Christmas music, as some stations in the market have done for the past few years.
The hosts let go “are all fine broadcasters,” said Cardinal, who added the station is just going in a new direction. Many of the Jack formats in the U.S. have also been jock-free – many with the same Toronto-based voice artist, Howard Cogan, who is Jack’s voice in Canada, too.
Cardinal said the savings from having no on-air people, save Cogan and listener calls, will go towards the hiring of new producers and writers who will keep Cogan busy with daily new spots for the station.
A new billboard campaign is also in the works, said Cardinal, who is under pressure to bring up the station’s ratings. While the Jack/Bob format has generally worked well in many markets (as profiled recently in www.cartt.ca) Toronto’s Jack has yet to capture the imagination of Torontonians, languishing in the ratings at around a 3.0 share.
– Greg O’Brien
