  jack fm is a radio station branding licensed by sparknet communications to 44 media markets in canada, the united states, the united kingdom, and russia.http://www.jack.fm/business/jacks-story stations adopting this branding play a mix of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s hits with some current hot adult contemporary singles. jack's slogan "playing what we want" can also be considered as more of a motto or philosophy of their programming. they promote themselves as having a larger and more varied playlist than other commercial radio stations. it is not unusual for a jack fm station to have a playlist of over 1000 songs compared to normal fm stations which sometimes have playlists of fewer than 500 songs. the format has been likened to "...an mp3/ipod set on shuffle.""'imitation ipod' invades radio", wired, july 13, 2006. the stations are officially classified as the variety hits or adult hits format by radio research companies. ==history and timeline== one of the early originators of this format was radio programmer bob perry, on an american internet radio stream in 2000. perry named the station after a fictitious persona, "cadillac jack" garrett, "a hard-living radio cowboy." the back story created by perry for the original web stream was that garrett, a dj who had worked many "big sticks," finally got his own radio station and after years of being told what he was to play on-air was creating a station where the motto was "playing what we want." however, according to rogers communications, the only thing taken, without permission, for the first jack fm radio station, in vancouver, was the name and the tagline. pat cardinal, one of the first jack program directors, says that he was unaware of the type of music on the american website and that "jack" was one of several names that were considered for the format. rogers communications came to an agreement with perry for the use of the jack fm name in canada soon after the launch. the original webstream is still live to this day. jack was also inspired by the success of chum limited's "bob fm" brand on cfwm radio in winnipeg, manitoba. program director howard kroeger was inspired to create bob fm after hearing a mix tape at a friend's 40th birthday party. other canadian broadcasters
Adult_hits_radio_stations_in_the_United_States Franchised_radio_formats Jack_FM_stations Triton_Media_Group