Top 40 radio in Las Vegas has usually revolved around CBS Radio’s 98.5 KLUC. There had been a few challengers to its throne, most recently Clear Channel’s 101.9 Kiss-FM and Wild 102 in the early 21st century. Beasley Broadcasting’s “Fresh 102.7″ had been mired at the bottom of the market since its changeover from All 80′s “Star 102.7″ in 2007. By flipping to CHR, the new “102.7 Now” is taking a bit out of CBS’ own playbook in Los Angeles and New York by going after the the CHR powerhouse as well as Urban KVEG “Hot 97.5″ in an attempt to allow sister KKLZ to move closer to the top of the ratings in Las Vegas.

Throughout the spring and early summer of 2005, Infinity spread the highly publicized “Jack FM” brand to many of the company’s less successful FM outlets, citing early success at KJKK “100.3 Jack FM” in Dallas.

Las Vegas was just one of many markets targetted by Infinity for “Jack FM”. One of Infinity’s stations in Las Vegas was KMZQ, which began as soft AC “Klassy 100″ in 1989 before evolving into “Lite 100″ a few years later. However, despite additions such as the John Tesh Radio Show and consulting by industry expert Gary Berkowitz, KMZQ was unable to beat Clear Channel’s market leader, KSNE “Sunny 106.5″. These factors and others led KMZQ to become Infinity’s weakest Las Vegas outlet, making it victim to Jack FM.

And so, on June 24, 2005 at 2:00PM, KMZQ flipped to a stunt of Christmas music. At 2:45PM, the station switched over to a stunt of movie theme songs, with the announcement that KMZQ had been gambled from “a guy named Joel” (possibly a play on Infinity’s CEO Joel Hollander) to “a guy named Jack” during a poker game at the MGM Grand. This announcement led to the launch of KKJJ, “100.5 Jack FM”.

Summary contributed by Justin Tardiff.