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106.5 Jack FM

Discussion pertaining to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, and Michiana
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MWmetalhead
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106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:52 am

Audio processing sounds like trash. Higher end treble is crushed, dynamic range is lacking, and the volume is insufficiently loud.

Hope this gets fixed soon. An otherwise good station is a fatiguing listen.



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by Realist » Sun Oct 03, 2021 6:00 pm

Found this station when I was last in GR for the day, as LAV and GRD were playing 💩💩💩 songs at the time. I’ll admit that I really like this station! I realize it’s out of K-zoo but I’m wondering if they should target GR more…



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:27 am

There aren't too many G.R. area businesses who would be willing to purchase advertising on a station where 80%+ of the audience at any given time resides from Allegan County & Barry County southward.

The signal is more difficult to pick up indoors in the heart of the city than WSNX.

To realistically make a "play" at G.R. money, the station would have to invest heavily in local advertising to raise awareness of its existence, and they would also probably (a) need a translator or (b) move their main tower closer to G.R., which would require a COL change.

The second of those items definitely ain't happening.

Coincidentally, I don't know if the original WZUU tower near Hopkins is still standing, but that thing is definitely capable of pumping a Class B-equivalent signal across most of Kent & Ottawa Counties reliably. Tiny WZUU at 860 watts was very listenable on a good car radio as far away as southern Ionia County. Many years ago in my old Saturn, whose OEM receiver was great at rejecting adjacent channel interference, I was picking up that station easily near GVSU's main campus. On US 131, I didn't lose WZUU completely until I got near the M-57 exit (about 14 miles north of downtown).

There's no question in my mind a full Class B from that spot would be capable of delivering a very reliable signal to most of the Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Holland areas, with reception as good or better than WSNX and WHTS across most of the G.R. urbanized area.



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by thatonedude » Mon Oct 04, 2021 11:39 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:52 am
Audio processing sounds like trash. Higher end treble is crushed, dynamic range is lacking, and the volume is insufficiently loud.

Hope this gets fixed soon. An otherwise good station is a fatiguing listen.
Sounds just like a really low bitrate MP3. It stinks because Jack is a good station.

Whoever set the processing has no ears it seems. How hard is it to give a station decent audio?


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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by format this » Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:54 pm

Realist wrote:I realize it’s out of K-zoo but I’m wondering if they should target GR more…
The legal ID they’re using is WVFM Kalamazoo Battle Creek Grand Rapids.


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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by Colonel Flagg » Thu Oct 07, 2021 11:11 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:27 am
There aren't too many G.R. area businesses who would be willing to purchase advertising on a station where 80%+ of the audience at any given time resides from Allegan County & Barry County southward.

The signal is more difficult to pick up indoors in the heart of the city than WSNX.

To realistically make a "play" at G.R. money, the station would have to invest heavily in local advertising to raise awareness of its existence, and they would also probably (a) need a translator or (b) move their main tower closer to G.R., which would require a COL change.

The second of those items definitely ain't happening.

Coincidentally, I don't know if the original WZUU tower near Hopkins is still standing, but that thing is definitely capable of pumping a Class B-equivalent signal across most of Kent & Ottawa Counties reliably. Tiny WZUU at 860 watts was very listenable on a good car radio as far away as southern Ionia County. Many years ago in my old Saturn, whose OEM receiver was great at rejecting adjacent channel interference, I was picking up that station easily near GVSU's main campus. On US 131, I didn't lose WZUU completely until I got near the M-57 exit (about 14 miles north of downtown).

There's no question in my mind a full Class B from that spot would be capable of delivering a very reliable signal to most of the Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Holland areas, with reception as good or better than WSNX and WHTS across most of the G.R. urbanized area.
If you are referring to the tower on 122nd Ave, yes, it's still there.


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MWmetalhead
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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Thu Oct 07, 2021 12:21 pm

That's the one! Thanks for the info.



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by Radio Chili » Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:19 pm

I had that tower erected in December, 1990 when i got the permit to build WKGH-FM/Country 92. Had it for 4 years and used to get car radio reports of reception from some far-flung places. The HAAT was 600'. Frequently heard past it's 'fringe' limits in many weird places like Bridgeman, Lakeview, Morley, Williamston. Even Ligonier, IN. My Brother-In-Law even picked it up very near Tawas City when he was still driving a Coke truck before the band got completely swamped a little later on! Oh, and Kalkaska too.

Always wished my grant could have been a 'B'. That would have been a real DX generator!



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Fri Oct 08, 2021 7:10 am

Cool story!

I very faintly remember WKGH as a Country station. What I do remember is all positive; that station sounded GOOD.

Lack of adjacent channels certainly helped the cause in terms of areal coverage. WGHN's signal - given its short tower and location near the beach - has very limited range under normal conditions.

In the Grand Rapids area, the 92 MHz section of the FM dial, especially back then, was pretty dead. That allowed WKGH/WNTX/WZUU and 92.7 WEVS/WYVN to be heard indoors in some places where that ordinarily would be unlikely.

Despite lack of on channel or adjacent channel interference most of the time, the flimsy wattage was noticeable. In the Wyoming & Kentwood areas on some car radios, the audio would frequently switch between stereo and mono. Even a B1 equivalent from that site likely would've produced impressive coverage.



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by Greg Buben » Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:09 am

Although I would rather have live announcers on the radio JACK-FM plays the best variety of hits from the 1970's forward.
This "Adult Hits" format short of no live announcers has a musical sound that isn't as stale and tiresome like the commer-
cial FM stations formats in Grand Rapids. Although JACK-FM (WVFM - FM 106.5) has a listenable signal in the GR area
I think the Adult Hits format should be tried on one of GR's FM stations. That would be a good format for "Thunder Country"
or as some say "Blunder Country" to flip to. I still can't believe the Cumulus of G.R. people keep that station with the same
major label country hits of the 2000's that can be heard on B-93 the most powerful FM around. Adult Hits is a good format
for Cumulus of GR to consider instead of trying to be the number two B-93.



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by thatonedude » Fri Oct 15, 2021 8:21 pm

Jack's whole shtick is no DJs. Howard Cogan's smart ass liners and sweepers fill that void (pretty well, I think). I prefer that over a chatty morning show and getting barely any music during the commute. I wish we had Jack in Detroit, instead of the poor imitation we had with Doug.

Honestly, I don't think Cumulus would launch a variety hits station in GR; looks like for some godforsaken reason they're content with the programming on all of their stations. IMO, except for 94.5, not a single one of their stations in GR is appealing.


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MWmetalhead
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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:49 am

In fact, Cumulus has very few - if any - Adult Hits stations across the entire company. They seemingly dislike the format for some unknown reason.

Whenever they've acquired other companies (Susquehanna, Citadel to name a couple), they've generally evolved or outright flipped the Variety Hits stations they've inherited. One example is 104.5 WJJK in Indianapolis, which since falling into Cumulus' hands, moved to Classic Hits and abandoned the "Jack" branding. That property has actually been extremely successful as a Classic Hits station, so it was the right move in that instance.

And as well all know, in the case of Detroit, Doug FM lasted only two or three years or so following Cumulus' acquisition of Citadel before flipping to Country. Doug's ratings were sagging, but that is partially because Cumulus was very lazy in programming the music. It was one of the more boring and predictable Variety Hits stations I've heard.



thatonedude
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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by thatonedude » Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:09 am

Cumulus has launched some Jacks in recent years; their one in KC (not sure how long they've had it) was moved to a translator, but I guess it does well enough for them to justify keeping it. Most, if not all, are satellite-fed from my understanding, so if they really wanted to they could cheaply launch Jack in G.R in that manner. I also think they still have "Ed" in ABQ and apparently they have an "Alice" in OKC.

Agreed on Doug-FM toward the end; I could damn near predict what song they would play next. Not a good way to program a format like that. iHeart's attempt with The D 2.0 was much better.


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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Nov 27, 2022 10:19 am

WVFM's audio processing still sounds like complete trash when listening 30 to 40 miles from the TX site. Treble response and frequency separation are both bad.

The station has been operating under an STA at just 25 percent of licensed ERP for a number of months due to main transmitter failure. Per FCC filings, it appears a new transmitter might not arrive and be installed until spring 2023.



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Re: 106.5 Jack FM

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun May 14, 2023 1:21 pm

I'll start with the good news - 106.5's audio processing sounded quite good (to my ears anyway) when I listened this weekend while driving thru the region.

Now the bad news - they still seem to be broadcasting at greatly reduced power. Heard scratchiness around the I-96 / M-66 interchange, and a lot of scratchiness a bit farther down the freeway near Portland. 103.3 WKFR was noticeably stronger than WVFM along this stretch.



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