Don't Know Jack? Meet Howard Cogan!

Chances are, if you live within radio frequency range of most any major city in the U.S. or Canada, you DO know Jack. But you probably don't know much about the man behind the voice of Jack... FM. His name is Howard Cogan and he's that guy -- y'know -- the one who says things like "Playing what we want" or "Jack FM: like apple bobbing in a piranha pool - you'll never know what's coming up next." He doesn't choose the playlist, read the news or chat with listeners, but Cogan is one of the best known voices on air.

Like the company he works for (the original Jack FM launched in Vancouver in 2002), Cogan was born in Canada. In his own words, he "worked as an unsuccessful broadcaster for over 20 years. After being fired from low paying disc jockey jobs all across his native Canada, he eventually ran out of options. After watching many late night infomercials he had an epiphany ("hey who does all the voiceovers on these infomercials")..." Since then, he's not only been the voice of Jack, but has also provided VO for well-known movie trailers and TV spots. (You can listen/watch a bunch of them on his Web site here.)

While many of the snarky lines he records for Jack FM get used in all markets, each city has a few that are unique to that market. For instance, here in LA, Jack FM broadcasts from Culver City, which is where the Sony lot is. Our unique snark goes like this: "Broadcasting from a dumpy little building in beautiful, downtown Culver City." I think it would be fun to get a list of these going in the comments below. Let us know what you think might be unique to your city and we'll compare notes. Also, after the jump, I've embedded a fun video of Cogan on-air, but BEFORE he was Jack -- back when he was, as he put it, an "unsuccessful broadcaster" working as "Howie The Hitman" on CKLG Vancouver. Good times.