Radio Industry Hits Shuffle - Wired News

By Randy Dotinga
02:00 AM Jun. 06, 2005 PT

In the tradition-strangled world of commercial radio, all eyes are on that rarest of breeds: a bold new idea.

From Seattle and San Diego to Baltimore and Buffalo, more than a dozen big-city radio stations have converted to a format known as Jack-FM over the past two months. On Friday, even legendary New York City oldies station WCBS-FM dumped '60s rock and joined the 'Jack' parade.

Boasting they're "like an iPod on shuffle," the new stations typically dump their disc jockeys in favor of huge song playlists that mimic a well-stocked portable music player.

The Jack format, which is already spawning imitators, could be a key to FM's survival as an alternative to satellite radio, internet radio and MP3 players.

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