Jack 2 (referred to on air as ''Jack 2 Hits'') is an

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station broadcasting in Oxfordshire,

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on the Oxfordshire DAB multiplex and previously in Surrey and

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on DAB and online. Until April 2020, it also broadcast on FM in Oxfordshire on 107.9FM. It is a music-heavy station with only limited speech, instead allowing listeners to control the music and submit recordings of themselves to be played (through WhatsApp or the Jack 2 Hits app). The station is aimed at an young adult-contemporary audience and plays seven hours per week of specialist music as required by Ofcom. Jack 2 competes with

Heart South Heart South is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the south and south east of England from studios in Fareham, Hampshire. The station launched on 3 June 2019 as a result of a me ...

BBC Radio Oxford BBC Radio Oxford is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Oxfordshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Summertown area of Oxford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audienc ...

, First FM and sister station

Jack FM Jack FM is a radio network brand, licensed by Sparknet Communications, with the exception of the European Union where it is licensed by Oxis Media. It plays an adult hits format, in most cases not using DJs. Format characteristics Stations ...

, as well as some online

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and DAB stations in Oxfordshire. Previously known under a variety of names and formats since its inception in 1997 (see history), most recently Glide FM, the station launched in its current incarnation on 20 August 2013. Before moving to Eynsham, Oxfordshire in March 2019, the station was based at 270 Woodstock Road in north

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

- formerly the site of

Six TV Six TV was the sixth free to air terrestrial television channel in the United Kingdom, broadcast in Oxford and Southampton. It was the final analogue network to have been launched after BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. It ope ...

- The Oxford Channel. As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 15,000, according to RAJAR.

History

The origins of the station lie in a student radio station, Oxygen 107.9 which was trialled in November 1995 and launched at 1.07pm on Valentine's Day 1997. It was acquired in late 2000 by Fusion Radio Holdings, which rebranded the station as Fusion 107.9. Fusion merged with the

Milestone Group Catenae Innovation (formerly Milestone Group) is a British Digital Media and Technology company. Originally a cross media proprietor with holdings in radio, publishing and television, the company now focuses on the digital media and technology se ...

in 2003 and the station was relaunched again as Passion 107.9, but was sold to ARI Consultancy (previously known as Absolute Radio International) in 2006, leading to another rebrand as Oxford's FM 107.9. In February 2010, the station's owners lodged a request with Ofcom to change the station's format to one that would target listeners over 45 years old. The station argued the "transient" nature of students makes it commercially difficult to market a radio station to an audience that leaves the city each year. Several fans of late night "specialist" shows responded to Ofcom's public consultation as well as local business owners. Ofcom considered this, but the Radio Licensing Committee rejected this proposal. The station responded by saying that changes it had made meant the format change had become less necessary. On 18 August 2010, after a

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where it briefly branded as ''Glee FM'' (airing only

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

from the American musical comedy-drama series '' Glee'')'','' the station relaunched as Glide FM. The new format would be positioned towards women.''{{Cite web, date=2010-08-18, title=Glee FM becomes Glide FM, url=https://radiotoday.co.uk/2010/08/glee-fm-becomes-glide-fm/, access-date=2020-05-20, website=RadioToday, language=en-GB'' The station relaunched again as Jack 2 on 20 August 2013. The station has a wide playlist (about 350 songs) which can be influenced by visitors to the website who can request and vote for tracks to be played, then be texted, e-mailed or tweeted on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

when they are going to broadcast.

References

External links

Jack FM 2Media UK articleOxford's FM 107.9
on MySpace
OfCom coverage map
Companies based in Oxford Radio stations in Oxfordshire Mass media in Oxford Radio stations established in 2006