Our station originally was launched in 1969 when Chief Jack (then going by the name "Jack on the Radio") became tired of the rigid format that dominated music stations at the time.  "Top 40" was the format du jour, but it mostly favored the top 5 songs, which were sometimes played as often as four times an hour, leaving little room for variety.

The Chief believed there was a market for variety and, after saving enough money for an FM transmitting device from Radio Shack, began transmitting for the residents of his apartment complex.  The mix of rock, pop, country, and even classical music brought a welcome change to a wide age range of audience members. The buzz grew as neighbors began talking about the new local station with the unusual format, but some people close by were out of range of his transmitter.  A friend who was familiar with the electronics of the transmitter increased its range to about one mile, a large increase, yet small enough not to get noticed by the FCC, which even back then was on the lookout for "pirate stations" which affected the regular stations' broadcasts.  It further helped The Chief that he was on a little-used frequency.  He took on the tag "Jack on the Radio Means Variety", a tag that was corrupted by another entity some 30 years later which "came up" with the idea of calling their "variety" format "Jack FM".  When asked if he would sue, The Chief pointed out that the "major radio networks" were out to irritate him since he refused to go away and built an audience over the years. and he didn't have the finances to start legal proceedings.

Eventually, Chief Jack began to be in demand as a DJ for weddings and other functions, and he came to the attention of a number of "low power" stations who were in need of a voice popular with local listeners.  Over the years, The Chief worked for a number of low power legal outlets as well as more powerful pirate stations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New York, California, Mexico, and Canada.  In those days (up to 1998), pirates enjoyed cult status, and there was an undeniable "rush" in knowing that you were working just a bit outside the law.  One setup which used Chief Jack in the mid-90s was based in a large truck that changed its location several times a day to avoid detection. In the late 1990s, a friend financed a nationwide tour for Chief Jack, with stops including Phoenix, AZ; Evansville, IN; Gallup, NM; and New York City.

Some of these stations gave their DJs free rein in the music they played, and The Chief took advantage of that, often spinning Billy Idol, Weird Al Yankovic, Perry Como, and Mozart in the same set.  One station made a complete change one day, from rock to country, and most of its on-air personalities left, but to Chief Jack, the broadcasting was important, not necessarily the content, so he made a quick study of the genre and even got to interview Shania Twain.  It's often been said that he has radio waves instead of blood in his veins.

In 1999, 30 years after his career began, he started to have doubts about his future.  He had done it all in radio, with the exception of being employed by a big-time station, although he'd done promos and song intros for several major terrestrial outlets, and his band's musical parodies were featured on many radio shows nationwide.  After pondering retirement, he saw an ad for the American Radio Network and checked it out.  ARN turned out to be an early pioneer in the field of Internet broadcasting, and in a complete remake of his show, Jack turned to his Native American roots and renamed it the Mohawk Radio Show, heard via Tustin, California's KTST-FM live on the net at 3 PM Saturday afternoons while being simulcast over that station's low power transmitter.  KTST management took several other quirky on-air personalities and put together a block of shows on Saturday which became known as the KTST Asylum.  It became so popular that worldwide audiences began tuning in and other show hosts at KTST asked to appear on the Asylum to build up their own show's numbers by tapping in on the Asylum audience.

Financial problems led The Chief to leave KTST for the less expensive venue of Live365 Internet radio in the mid-2000s, and he's been there ever since.  The fact that Chief Jack was willing to play untested music from Indie artists while at KTST brought him to the attention of a wide range of such musicians who found mainstream radio unreceptive to them.  Artists such as Sebastian Sidi, Corrinne May, Japan's Bite Your Tongue, and Russia's Antimateria expanded their audience thanks to the Mohawk Radio Show and Chief Jack Radio.  He continues to feature Indie and "boutique" labels on his station.

In August 2011, Chief Jack began his 43rd year on the air, but in October 2011, a financial war by his lifelong enemy and his employer, who agreed to cut his hours for a large commercial endorsement on WWE shows, led to the demise of Chief Jack Radio, but the Chief still hopes to make a return to the air in the future.  The problem still hasn't been resolved by October 2013, but we thank you for your continued support.

Chief Jack as the voice of God during a KTST production of the DangerZone show for Asylum Radio. 

 

Make a free website with Yola