92.5 Jack FM Toronto is history…

Yesterday, while cleaning around the house, I was listening to the radio, 92.5 Jack FM as always. It was Jeff and Carly show along with all sorts of great rock tunes, when — as usual — the 3 o’clock news came on, traffic. Then, all of a sudden, as if out of nowhere, this monster comes on: some hip-hop music about ladies and all the rest.

I thought I accidentally switched to a different channel. I was wrong. It was 92.5 exactly.

My next thought was that Jeff and Carly decided to make a cruel joke. But after that song was finally through, another similar piece of overly exaggerated art immediately came on. My ears were bleeding heavily by then.

After a moment of confusion and puzzlement, my next thought was that supporters of Q107 decided to hack Jack FM and pull a trick of inserting noise into the radio band. And when I say `noise’, I really do consider (predominantely most) hip-hop songs simply noise. But after yet another few songs were emitted by my speakers, I figured that, if it was true, someone would already do something by now. [Note: I have nothing to do with hatred among Jack FM and Q107; I personally thing it is quite dumb, the whole thing; moreover, I enjoy both radio stations very much a lot.]

It seamed like a tiny bug slowly crawled through my ears into my brain, bit off a bunch of stuff on its way, laid a whole bunch of dynamite and it let it go off. It is certainly a traumatic experience.

Anyhow, later I have discovered the following note in many places around the net:

At 3pm on June 5, 2009 Rogers Communications announced that effective immediately Jack FM would be re-branded (back) to KISS 92.5. The new format is Top 40, and as a promotion the station will play 10,000 songs uninterrupted by commercials to pique interest and build listenership. The main reason of the change was because of the low ratings JACK-FM was getting in the Greater Toronto Area market.

Source: wikipedia

This is sad. This is more than just sad. This is beyond sad. This is preposterous!

Jack FM Toronto was my favourite radio station. I occasionally listen to Q107 and 102.5 The Edge, but Jack was always there, certainly. I was away in Edmonton until a few days ago, and guess what: I used Jack FM Listen Live every morning and every day. It was something I used to wake up to.

And now it’s gone! Like a doubly nilpotent matrix that was accidentally squared.

I am now looking at various other Jack FM stations, for example that in Vancouver and that in Chicago. I guess my radio is now located far away from where I live.

Sad…
Update [June 9, 2009, 16:00]: In the comments below, Charlene has kindly provided a link to an online petition to bring Jack back:

http://www.petitiononline.com/bbjack92/petition.html

Sign it, maybe it’ll help!