98.5 JACK FM?

OMW didn't hear it early Monday morning, but various radio trade sites repeated Howard Stern's contention from earlier in the day...that he was about to lose at least two affiliates of his show to a "JACK FM" format flip. Later, it was considered that the stations may do the format flip the rest of the day, after Stern's show (like WBUF/Buffalo did a while back)...and would continue to run the Stern show until his departure from over-air radio in just under two months.

We quickly considered the possibility...could this mean a "JACK FM" flip for WNCX/98.5? Considering that a Cleveland flip to Infinity's current Format of the Month (give or take a "Free FM") has been rumored for some time...we admit we've at least thought about it.

Now, a Radio-Info Cleveland board regular ("Johnny Morgan") alerts us to this blurb on the industry site FMQB.

To quote:

"Where might The King Of All Media feel Jack-FM's boot? Looking down the list of his remaining Infinity affiliates, there are a few markets that lack a Jack-FM style station and are potential targets, but don't necessarily fit the "small market" criteria that Stern suggested. Among the stations are WMFS/Memphis, WNCX/Cleveland, WRKZ/Pittsburgh, WPBZ/West Palm Beach, and WOCL/Orlando."

But...please, read the whole article. It doesn't appear to have anything resembling solid information...and the writer is basically throwing Stern affiliates against the wall and seeing what sticks. And though we would not entirely rule out such a move on 98.5 (which would, presumably, keep Rover on the newly-rechristened "92-3X", aka alt-rocker WXTM/92.3), we're not at all sure that we'll wake up hearing "Playing What We Want" on 98.5 tomorrow...or rather, later today, since it's past midnight as we write this.

We'll see... but we remind everyone that the folks at Radio Business Report felt confident that either 104.1 or 102.1 would flip to JACK FM "soon"...weeks ago.