[By Uncle Ricky]

This demo for the TM Productions RKOverture was delivered to me by the United States Postal Service, sometime in 1979. News of the passing of Tom Merriman on November 11, 2009 moved me to give it one more listen, and to share it with you in our Production Room.

Charlie Van Dyke, who narrates this demo, worked briefly for WRKO (Boston) around this time, and the station was apparently launching a new "adult contemporary" image with this fully-orchestrated and undoubtedly expensive jingle package.

This demo is very generous, with every cut, and alternate versions, "in the clear." It's 100% TM with big, powerful instrumentals that would do any voice-over more than proud.

[By Uncle Ricky]

I have noted before that Top 40 master programmer John Rook used "whispering" jingles at KQV in Pittsburgh, and again at KFI in Los Angeles, and here is the demo for Tuesday Productions' WHISPERS and KFI in 1977. John Leader is out front on this demo.

I think these "jingles" would work with today's music radio... There is no vocal group that can connect with modern synthesized ghetto music, but if you can whisper the id.. think of the possibilities! Whispering is still popular, even if melodies are now secondary to the beat.

As demonstrated here, get a strong ID (KFI, three syllables) and put whatever you want in front of it, or drop it over the music you play... it works! And it makes so much more sense than just playing songs back-to-back with no ID. Yeah, whisper it. It's better than sittin' there sayin' nothin'.

Or would you rather be an iPod?

[By Uncle Ricky]

Actual 45RPM Record of "THAT HAUNTING THEME" Program Aids.

This is a very bizarre exhibit, received in throw-away condition from a record-collector friend in 2009. It was obviously intended for radio station use. It's a Promotion Copy, Not For Sale, issued by Decca (RECORD NO. 9-34213), and the vocal side of it is "Not To Be Played After 13 Weeks From March 9, 1964". Whatever, but anyone listening to this exhibit has contributed to the owners of the copyright (administered by BMI) who receive compensation from REELRADIO for each play.

This is loud and VERY scratchy. Yes, click reduction was used, but it's dangerous with a record this badly scarred, because there are so many scratches that pieces of the music disappear.

Now, all of these are THEMATIC, that is to say, the same notes are used over and over, just like a radio station or production logo. If you like, sing along! As a lyric, "That Haunting Theme" works just fine, but so does any other 4-syllable phrase (ie: REEL-RAY-DEE-OH!) Where have we heard this before? Was it used on television in the '50's? It just has that kind of sound, as if someone like George Fenneman should step up to the microphone and do some announcing.

This exhibit features INSTRUMENTAL PROGRAM AIDS first. There are six cuts. These are followed by seven cuts from the VOCAL PROGRAM AIDS. On the Vocal side, the artist is shown as HENRY JEROME HIS CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA. On the Instrumental side, it's just HENRY JEROME AND HIS ORCHESTRA. I suppose some will insist these are "haunting" in the sense of "spooky", but I think not.

But, some of us may have heard or played them on small local radio stations, and that's certainly scary!

[By Uncle Ricky]

It may be that the DEMO for the six-hour TM Productions feature of WOODSTOCK - TEN YEARS LATER is all that remains of the program.

This IS a terrific demo, featuring many of the iconic commercially-recognizable musical references of the Woodstock event. Plus, we have some genuine stereo ping-pong.

As a bonus, the demo ends with a bit of the Bee Gees. I pray this isn't why the original six hours is lost... Happy to have the DEMO.

[By Uncle Ricky]

Where All The Good Songs Have Gone! If memory serves, this is a copy of a demo given to me by the late Fred Hardy sometime around 1972. Fred was selling PAMS jingles and he always left some goodies behind. I was working at WYCL in York, S.C. at the time, and I do remember "borrowing" the Greatest Hits Of All Time - Golden Ninety-Eight jingle. After all, WYCL was The Great 98 on 980Khz.

Of course, the jingles were originally a "custom" package created for WCAU-FM (98.1 Mhz) in Philadelphia, and other CBS owned and operated stations. In 1972, CBS was experimenting with an automated oldies format on FM. The bulk of the jingles used only a few tracks, but mixed them with different vocals and lyrics.

[By Uncle Ricky]

All fans of Big Ten WCFL will recognize this demo for Sound 70, because these jingles got a LOT of play on The Voice Of Labor. The package was obviously written and syndicated in 1969 or 1970 A number of the jingles use arrangements from popular tunes of that period.

The "open" sound of the vocals, with the bass guy up front (ie: the slow "Big Ten Music" acapella) has always been a favorite, along with the lush orchestrations.

And now, maybe someone can tell me what the heck they are singing at 3:40. I have never been able to understand that lyric, though I love the melody.

[By Uncle Ricky]

Fortunately, the jingles were a lot better than the graphics.

This is an EXCELLENT ID package. As a 55+ radio listener, I would so love to hear a radio station that was able to match the quality of these jingles. But don't worry - I understand that people my age are no longer of interest to advertisers, broadcasters, or the people next door who don't speak English.

THIS, radio with these jingles, this is the radio you can't hear today. Imagine A Radio Station, just ONE Radio Station, not "clusters", as we have today. This one radio station would have lovable local hosts and imaginative, familiar musical segments. Imagine there were genuine local people on the radio and in the radio station, and there were lots of them, making a decent living. Imagine anyone who wanted to compete with them would actually need to compete! Of course, that was radio before radio became a box of iPods.

[By Uncle Ricky]

At the same time PAMS of Dallas was making legendary jingles for radio stations, they were also making memorable commercial jingles for national, regional, and local clients. This demo of commercial jingles, distributed (on a 5-inch reel in the box illustrated) as New Custom '71 features the familiar PAMS sound for several non-radio clients - though they were obviously created for radio.

The first 4 minutes are, in my opinion, the best of the demo. The jingles for Stuckey's, Weiner King, Eskimo Pie, Oldsmobile Ranger and the Job Corps are very nice. But I am lost at about 4:29, when they start singing about Hoschell Cole (Hoshall Kohl?) or something... Then there's the Lafayette Building Association and finally, Hudson-Belk in Raleigh, something I recognize, being of Tarheelian association.

These are great fun and definitely the genuine PAMS sound of the era.

[By Uncle Ricky]

I suspect that some of the cuts in this demo for Thunder Productions, LTD. ended up in other jingle packages. I'd also bet that some of these cuts were actually used on WDRC, Hartford. And if I was pressed to guess one more time, I'd say this demo is from 1972. Whew, there we go.

Wasn't Thunder a re-birth of Tanner, in Memphis? These vocalists are very good, Dallas-Quality, and the instrumentation is first-class. This could have been a TM or PAMS package, but it wasn't. It was Thunder.

I have presented pictorial proof of this demo issued on 7.5 ips stereo reel tape. For this presentation, I removed the silence (tightened it up!) and as "demos" go - this is more like a reference dub of some of the mixes. Was this package custom for WDRC, and then made into a demo? Who was Thunder Productions, LTD.? I think they did a package called "Shotgun Heaven", I have a demo for that around here somewhere...

[By Uncle Ricky]

In his book, The Hits Between The Hits, Don Worsham explains why Dennis Meeks, the son of PAMS founder Bill Meeks, was selling jingles for competitor TM. It involves money and the law, so it is horridly complex. Let me take a chance on a summary: In 1977, PAMS had been sold to a patchwork company that couldn't fulfill their contract, and by 1979, Dennis was selling jingles for TM.

I guess I got this demo about 1979 when I was working at 96.9 in Sacramento (97 FM). It's a demo for the TM CBS Series Jingles for KCBS-FM in San Francisco, I think it was automated. It was called "97K", and that's all they sing.

And when they give examples of these big-time classy jingles "in use on the air", something is missing. I think it's the Disc Jockeys. The point is, these jingles were designed to be the backbone of an intelligent radio station, not just something that emulated a futuristic iPod.

I do feel better knowing that some CHR stations in the 80's used a handful of jingles. But this demo, where almost the ENTIRE package is pretty much available "in the clear" - says a lot for "what happened to radio." You needed people with these jingles and production stagings. That's what made radio magic. This series is first-class, but not enough to lift this demo to greatness.

[By Uncle Ricky]

YOU can play guitar the correct way - it's the easy way to play! Get ColorWay!

But I do think it likely it was offered to PAMS client stations for barter (jingles for spots), or maybe some broadcasters ran the spots for free but got a percentage of each one sold ("Per Inquiry"). What we also don't have is sample copy of the type the local announcer would read over these jingles. I betcha the typical Top 40 jock of the period would be quite zippy and animated over these babies, unlike the "official" announcer on the tag. He's just not having any fun at all.

Thanks to Media Preservation Foundation.

[By Uncle Ricky]

This logo-only demo for WSAI Cincinnati features a package released as Electronicus II by TM Productions, but you will recognize many tracks from other popular TM releases at the time.

[By Uncle Ricky]

Oh YEAH! Sounds great after 25+ years from the 7.5 ips 2-track reel machine.

It's TM Productions' DBSV demo, from sometime in the early '80's.

Hey, all "AOR-type" stations should have ID jingles! Shouldn't they?

REALLY HOT in broadband stereo. Includes singers that will peel your face back.

[By Uncle Ricky]

Toby Arnold & Associates produced radio and commercial jingles in Dallas for many years.

Toby Arnold passed away on May 14, 2006.

This is a demo of one of his later packages, "Target 25-49", as produced for KS-95 FM, KSTP-FM, Minneapolis.

[By Uncle Ricky]

This demo from Toby Arnold & Associates features tracks for WNIC-FM in Detroit - Rockin' easy in the Motor City.

Produced in 1978, this demo is representative of the top-drawer talent available in Dallas at the time. And the narrator sure sounds like Charlie Van Dyke, though we're not sure...

[By Uncle Ricky]

Norman Rose narrates this exceptional TM Productions demo distributed on vinyl in 1978. Some of the best jingles of the '70's are included on this demo, along with the spoken words of Jerry Atchley, Dick Hamilton, TM founder Tom Merriman, Bob Piper (who actually acknowledges PAMS) and Jim Kirk. A most impressive list, don't you think?

Back then, they claimed that stations that used musical IDs got 25% higher ratings than those who didn't. The demo opens with jingles for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, so they were obviously hoping to sign more TV clients. If you examine the graph at the right (included on the inside of the LP jacket), you'll see that it was all so very scientific.

Also: WMAQ goes country and TM did it all. And WBZ and KFRC and KFMB and ... so much more.

So Tom Merriman invented commercial and radio station ID jingles in 1953? Whew. This demo might even be controversial. It's certainly entertaining. Transferred from very clean vinyl LP, the fidelity is outstanding (at 44Kbps). I'll leave it to our qualified visitors to fill in the blanks.

[By Uncle Ricky]

This PAMS Demo for the jingles called Clyde from 1971 is featured here from my 7.5 ips reel copy in all its Orban Optimod processed glory. WKNR is the featured station, but I can't tell you which of these jingles were actually used on "KEENER 13" in Detroit. I do remember hearing some of these on WFIL in Philadelphia, and WJAR in Providence - and WYCL in York, South Carolina - where I bought a few from this very demo.

This is not only an exceptionally generous demo (all the cuts are "in the clear"), it is, in my opinion, one of the best PAMS packages of all time.

And we are treated to the original PAMS Copyright Jingle at the close. What more could you want? This was a *fabulous* set of jingles.

[By Uncle Ricky]

For now and as long as the Repository exists, this exhibit will serve to demonstrate some of the late '70's Disco Madness. The entire 26 minutes was distributed, as you can hear it here, by Toby Arnold and Associates, (Copyright 1978) on a very nice NAB hub 7-inch reel, in STEREO. And most of it is music, including a KC and The Sunshine Band double-play. The right channel tape track dropped out in a couple places, but I didn't have the inclination to start over. I don't think I had ever played this tape. Otherwise, the fidelity is really quite good.

Apparently, this program (automated?) was running on KPAM-FM (?) in Portland Oregon... Well, we'll wait for confirmation on that.

Notice how the program content shifts from thumpa-thumpa disco music to thumpa-thumpa promotional and commercial announcements - and THE BEAT NEVER CHANGES! Oh wow. Is this awesome, or what?

[By Uncle Ricky]

And so it was. The more I listened to this 1980 TM Productions "Rock" demo, the more I want to be in 1980 again. Or maybe I just want to be 29 again. The "station image songs" really "grow on you" (or me, in this case), but I realize that contemporary hip-hop slopheads won't get it. Who needs them, anyway? They'll be in jail soon enough when they trip over their pants.

But, there are some nice things here for those of us who remember a time when radio stations were "Places To Be", and not just "Brands". (Thanks to John Long.) I took this right off a 7.5 ips TM-issued tape, Orbanized it a bit, but there is one place where the tape drags for a fraction of a second, sorry! Such things make our exhibits even more exclusive.

It would be nice to know more about this one - how many stations used it? Did KRBE (FM-104 in Houston, TX) actually use it? Who's the narrator? He's GREAT for this demo.

"tell me that we're more than friends, tell me that the music will never end.."

[By Uncle Ricky]

While at East Carolina University (1969-1970), I worked weekends at WOOW (Big Wow!). I was very excited to get a copy of the station's PAMS master, but the jingles really weren't in use at all by the time I got there.

This class IV station (1KW day, 250w night) was owned by Danny Jacobson, who was also resident General Manager. I'll welcome any corrections to the story, but I think that Danny had been associated with WMEX in Boston in some way. He knew Stan Kaplan (WAYS in Charlotte) and I suspect he got a "good buddy" deal on these, possibly the two most popular series of PAMS jingles.

The jingles feature the original all-male group and are familiar not only to those who remember the tracks from WABC (and hundreds of other Top 40 stations) but also to those who remember the WKBW signature.

[By Uncle Ricky]

I've always loved these jingles! Here's a short composite, pieced together from a PAMS reference dub made in the early '70's. In addition to jingles for ZNS1 (Nassau), there are also a couple of tracks for Radio New Providence. These stations apparently operated (or at least, they do now) on 810, 1240 and 1540 Khz.

The bongo-driven beat is infectious and the All Male PAMS vocals are outstanding. For me, these clever jings are evocative of an island paradise. All I need to complete the fantasy is a rum drink in a coconut (with a little umbrella, of course...)

[By Uncle Ricky]

Wow. If you didn't know better and believed the Demo, this package was used by WLS, KFRC, WABC, WQXI, and other hot radio stations of Top 40 legend. But it is a very good demo, great vocals, exceptional tracks - first class jings all the way. And once again, we have no idea who narrates this demo. And in many ways, the tracks are so short and generic that few who heard them will remember them. But this exhibit is in broadband STEREO!

In fact, for 1981, this was probably as far as radio jingles would go. It would be difficult to sound more polished and "traditional" than these beauties.

[By Uncle Ricky]

Here's a fairly hi-fi STEREO demo of "The Music Force" Demo, distributed by Toby Arnold And Associates in 1978.

Even though few of our visitors actually heard this package on their local radio station, these were good jingles for the time, featuring top-drawer Dallas musicians and vocalists. And who did the v/o for this demo?

[By Uncle Ricky]

Jack Alix (d. November, 2006) was the host and creator of Rock and Roll Roots, (Copyright 1978, Rock and Roll Roots Associates.) This STEREO unscoped program demo features segments 1-A and 2-B of Program 17 from vinyl distributed in 1979. It's a representative hour of the three delivered to affiliates each week.

At amandfmmorningside.com, (a REELRADIO hosted site), Jack Alix wrote: "(I) Developed a nationally syndicated radio show called "Rock and Roll Roots" in Richmond from Q94 with great support from John Valentine and the late Norman Freedlander ("Bob-a-loo") who helped sell the show to over 140 stations worldwide including Australia and Japan. The show aired at Q105/Tampa, WKTI/Milwaukee, and many others. It aired from 1977-1982."

Jack Alix had a long and outstanding broadcast resume, including hosting the Beatles' historic public concert in Washington, D.C., in 1964. Alix enjoyed great success on WPGC, WEAM and WEEL, WDCA-TV, WLEE and WRVQ.

Rock and Roll Roots was built around themed segments. On this demo, you'll hear segments featuring The Great Male Stars, The Royalty Songs, The People Songs, The Car Songs, and Same Title, Different Song. Obviously, this "theme" concept allowed more creative music presentation than the typical weekly countdown or daily oldies format.

[Description by Jonathan Wolfert, President, JAM Creative Productions and PAMS Productions, Inc.]

During the late 1960s, PAMS made a concerted effort to recruit fresh, young talent into the radio jingle industry. It was the vision of PAMS founder Bill Meeks to be able to serve the younger end of the top-40 market with jingles that had more of a youthful rock sound, while maintaining the classic PAMS sound for the more traditional top-40 and easy listening clients. Jim Kirk (not the captain of the Starship Enterprise) was one of this new generation of singer/writer/musicians. Between the years of 1968 and 1972 he wrote and was heard on many PAMS jingles, including portions of Series 38, 39, 40 and 41.

Fred Hardy, who had a radio background but always loved jingles, joined the staff at PAMS in 1970. He handled sales for the Southeast US. In 1974 Fred left PAMS and started his own company to work with stations and ad agencies. He knew he could handle the sales, but was looking for someone to take care of the creative end. By this time, Jim Kirk had gone to Seattle, where he was doing commercial jingle work for Kaye-Smith. But he wanted to come home to Dallas. So the partnership of Hardy-Kirk was born.

The new firm needed to have a demo reel to send out, just to prove to stations that it could do IDs. So Fred contacted people he knew who might buy something from him on faith. One of these clients ran KJIM (AM 870), a 250 watt daytimer in Fort Worth. They didn't really know what kind of jingles they wanted, so Hardy-Kirk decided to make them a jingle all about the different kinds of jingles there were to choose from. The idea was that it would be novel, and of course there would be short mixouts to use as basic cuts. The piece was called "The MOR Overture".

The music for "The MOR Overture" was written by the late Wayne Harrison. I don't know whether Wayne or Jim came up with the lyrics. The result was certainly interesting, but no station (including KJIM) knew what to do with it, and most of it was never used anywhere.

The Hardy-Kirk Demo Includes: The MOR Overture The cuts "in the clear" Mixouts Vocal styles: Mixed Duet, Stacked Male Duet Four Males Five Voice Mixed Seven Voice Mixed

For a variety of reasons the partnership of Hardy and Kirk didn't last more than a couple of years. Jim returned to freelance status, and contributed to several early JAM packages. In 1978, Jim Kirk joined the staff at TM Productions. In 1982 he co-headed a new "communications division" to design and create shows for corporate meetings and presentations. In 1986 Jim and Buddy Scott purchased the division from TM and began operating under the name Corporate Magic. Jim has been there ever since as "chief creative officer".

Fred Hardy came to work at JAM early in 1976 and was part of our sales team until he passed away in January 2002. JAM did buy some of the Hardy-Kirk tracks, including the Overture. In 1978, when we were creating the original "I'd Rather Be In Denver" campaign for KIMN, I decided to use the individual sections of the MOR Overture as part of the package. I wrote completely new lyrics and vocal arrangements, and remixed all the cuts. We had to create :29 versions too, so that they'd be usable under TV spots. The JAM "I'd Rather Be In Denver" series was very successful and was used worldwide.

Our thanks to Jon Wolfert of PAMS Productions, Inc. and JAM Creative Productions, Inc. for the story behind this Hardy-Kirk Demo!

[By Uncle Ricky]
Sure sounds like Charlie Van Dyke voicing this demo for TM Productions's 1977 Evolution Of Rock. Featured program segments were narrated by Chuck Riley. The show won a "Syndicated Special Of The Year" Award and was produced by CHUM, Toronto before being syndicated as a 64-hour program by TM. This demo also boasts endorsements from some genuine radio heavyweights of the time, like John Gehron (WLS) and Ted Atkins (WTAE), plus a generous sample of show clips featuring Ed Sullivan, Dick Clark, and others.

The demo cassette also included a 52 minute "condensed" version of a "chapter" of the show, which we'll feature at some future date in The Production Room at REELRADIO.

[By Uncle Ricky]
This exhibit was created from a PAMS reference dub that I acquired in the early '70's. It's always been a favorite. I remember listening to WEEI-FM in Boston when I worked in Providence and these jingles were an important part of their groundbreaking "Soft Rock" format. This was stylish radio for quality young adults with good aural hygiene.

The Sunshine's Smilin' On You, You And Your Man And Your Music Keep The Clouds Away jingle features the unmistakable voice of Trella Hart, but this package includes even more classic one-liners set to music: Put A Little Love In Your Music, We've Got Something You Can Stay With, They're Playin' Music For The Two Of Us, When You're Alone, We're Together, and other touchy-feely melodies and lyrics (including MusicRadio) are all built around an unforgettable musical signature.

[By Uncle Ricky]
This is a "reference dub" tape distributed by PAMS (Copyright, 1972) for their Philadelphia Story jingle series. REELRADIO contributor Tom Corbett says that Tom Merriman of TM originally created the theme and that PAMS "borrowed" the idea note for note! Hear the evidence in Tom's Vibra-Sampler One exhibit.

Nevertheless, this series was heard on WFIL for a long time and remains one of the most memorable named PAMS series. And it concludes with "a comment from the engineer" after a portion of our favorite copyright jing.

[By Uncle Ricky]
This was created from Yet Another Tape I dubbed in Brother Dave's Production Room at WIXE (Monroe, N.C.) in 1968. Like many (unofficial?) demos that PAMS distributed in those days, this was not narrated, nor tightly edited as you will hear it here. It was just a 5-inch reel with representative cuts, presumably off the PAMS reference copy.

I've only heard airchecks of KYA as a result of the Repository, and I suppose it's possible that these jingles were never used on the air, (or at least, not as heard here.) This was a PAMS "GRID" package - a new twist - the performers did "parts", and then you mixed the parts to make bunches of jingles.

They had a ten-track recorder in Dallas, and they could jam-up a bushel of jings from minimal sings with lots of things. You could sit there with the friendly engineer and he'd roll the same piece of tape, over and over, but each time, do something different. I watched Bruce Collier do that for a WECU session in 1970. You could walk out of a single session with many dozens of "different" cuts by interchanging and mixing vocal and instrumental parts.

I really don't care for the "buzzsaw" moog sig here, but otherwise, I have always been fond of this KYA Grid Demo. KYA was blessed with a three syllable call. A 3-note ID. And this particular PAMS "mixed group" with this particular logo has always been a personal favorite.

For KYA, the lyrical content seems SO classic, particularly from 3000 miles and 30+ years away: In Beautiful San Francisco. And the sleek Avco Broadcasting of California always sounded so warm and wonderful and respectable - and so very far away. Now, I've been there and was lucky to afford the parking.

[By Uncle Ricky]
Best I can figure, these are jingles of the Drake-Chenault variety purchased by KAFY in Bakersfield California, probably no later than 1971. Some (but only some) of these are on the site for WOR-FM as the Double A Image Pack, but I don't think the majority of this composite is from that series. I didn't work at KAFY until late 1976 and these jingles were long gone when I arrived. I can't remember how I got these. They are here via Reel2Reel technology, and the tape was made at KAFY, but I don't remember finding these in my office when I checked in for PD duties.

Years before I arrived, KAFY was a Big Boss thing north of 93KHJ. Even with a directional kilowatt on 550Khz, I got a call from San Francisco when KSFO (560) was off the air. At times, KAFY had a listenable signal "over the grapevine" in Los Angeles. Genuinely Famous People who made a Good Living in Broadcasting worked at KAFY in Bakersfield. Again, I wasn't there during the Bakersfield Boss Era, but these are (some of) the famous formula jingles. Of course, some of these were also heard for dozens of stations all over America (even ones that were not owned by RKO.)

An interesting sidebar from Tracy Carman of Media Preservation Foundation: Though this package was produced and sold by Drake-Chenault, and though the Johnny Mann Singers may have recorded the first versions of the vocal tracks for some RKO stations, it was suggested that these were not the Mann Singers. COMMENTS (below) have challenged that. The tracks from this package made the rounds, apparently, and many jingle houses (including PAMS and Otis Connor) sang vocals on these original Drake-Chenault tracks.

[By Uncle Ricky]
KCBQ, KRLA, and WCFL are featured in this TM package called Shockwave, from a demo distributed in 1972.

Most of the copy and concepts in this demo seem born from the KCBQ Last Contest era. It's not clear if the narrator is supposed to be Jack McCoy or Rod Serling.

[By Uncle Ricky]
Featuring samples for WYOO/Minneapolis-St. Paul and WFIL/Philadelphia, this PAMS Regalogos (Regal Logos) demo was billed as the bright new success you need, and indeed, it was customized for a number of stations, including Mike Joseph-consulted WEAN-FM in Providence, RI in 1973. Great use of sonovox and top-flight production techniques are featured along with a super PAMS vocal group.

[By Uncle Ricky]
One thing I always appreciated about a good jingle demo is that it could demonstrate more than jingles — like the excellent production technique heard on this demo. Oooh, this one is nice. It *sparkles* w/broadband. This is a very nice demo tape for a fabulously popular jingle package produced and Copyright 1977 by TM Productions.

The vocal group(s) all sound like they've pitched themselves in their highest range. The very deliberate mid-range ring on the 'verb, and everything about this demo, like the jingle package, was freshly stylized and first-class. (And yes, the demo uses records with percussion on the front, but we are matching tempo *and* "feeling" now!)

There are two narrators: One BIGV/O and one v/o. There may also be another fellow cast as deejay (for KILT, Houston). We will be looking to our comments for answers and, of course, comments.

[By Uncle Ricky]
When PD Dave Hedrick and Tom McMurray returned to WJAR/Providence after spending several days at PAMS in 1973, they had four 7-inch, 15IPS master jingle reels. We really liked jingles and had a huge jingle budget. These are classic PAMS for Oldies-formatted WJAR, using the WABC signature. Here are the first two reels.

First, we hear male group jings, including cuts from Series 27 and 29. Then, at 7:42, the ladies join in for a few custom weather acapellas, followed by cuts from Series 42 (The Igniters), Series 43 (The Textures) and Series 44 (The Music's On Us). The reel ends with cuts from Series 26 (Let's Go America) and Series 33 (Fun Vibrations).

Broadband visitors will note the exceptional fidelity of this exhibit. It's one generation off the master, and I personally made the dub with perfectly tweaked Scully 280 machines on cherry Scotch reel tape . . . 28 years ago.

[By Uncle Ricky]
Here is a composite of Reels Three and Four of the four 7-inch, 15IPS master jingle reels that PD Dave Hedrick and Tom McMurray delivered to WJAR/Providence after spending several days at PAMS in 1973. These are classic PAMS for Oldies-formatted WJAR, using the WABC signature.

This composite begins with a blend of instrumental logos from an early PAMS series and some custom chants for the "Try It" campaign that WJAR introduced to Providence in 1973, when the station changed from an old-line news/talk format to a Glitter Oldies format. The billboard text was white on black, and mysterious messages appeared on hundreds (maybe thousands?) of billboards in the metro area: Try It For Breakfast, Try It At Work, Try It In Bed, Try It In Your Car and finally, Try It NOW!, with a big orange logo finally revealing the "It" as 920 WJAR.

Give Me That Old Time Music was a custom jingle that ran on both WJAR and WBT at the time. Jingles for Morning guy Charlie Jefferds, Sales Manager Howie Holland and Sunday Night Hall of Fame host Mike Ivers are all featured in this breathless quarter-hour of classic PAMS jings. It's capped off with a Golden Hours montage, in tribute to the ancient SMC automation that played carts all night. A cost-cutting thing, remember those?

Once again, Broadband Visitors (the People With Bandwidth) will note the exceptional fidelity of this exhibit! It's one generation off the master, and I personally made the dub with perfectly tweaked Scully 280 machines on cherry Scotch reel tape . . . 29 years ago.

"The idea here is to destroy the previous key sense, and move atonally to the next record." Actually, the idea was to sell some jingles, and this 1974 PAMS demo tries to give shotgun jingles a good kick in the butt. Putting the (very few) jingles themselves aside for now, I remember this demo as way off-target.

I also doubt that the simulated station on this demo (KHJ) actually used these jingles. "The Power Pack is the revolutionary evolution from the Shotgun Kick to the Sparkling New Idea." Ouch! Hey, it was never easy to sell jingles. The final disappointment is the copyright notice on the end; instead of re-recording "Copyright, 1974", they re-recorded just "1974". And gee, it sounds as good as the original. Doesn't it?

One of my favorites from the Bill Meeks PAMS era, this HOT demo (complete with genuine and original pauses between cuts) includes acapellas for KLIF and sizzling fully-orchestrated classics for KONO.

You can now own this and ALL of the great numbered PAMS demos, on CD, in outstanding quality. The Magic of PAMS is now available.

I found this tape over Christmas, 1997, while looking through some boxes in my parents' garage. One of the boxes was full of unlabeled reel tapes - I had hoped these might be forgotten airchecks from my adolescence, but no such luck. However, one notable tape and a 3 inch box DID survive.

It's "LOVE IN THE PLAYPEN", a perfectly awful radio spot for an even worse (I gather) "B" grade "adult" film of the time. I probably scored it from WEGO in Concord, N.C., sometime between 1965 and 1968, and played it on the air on a rack-mounted Ampex 600. (We had carts, but we still played some spots from tape on 3 inch reels.) And I bet the movie was showing at the Willis Drive-In Theatre.

I remember keeping this for the wonderful "grittiness" and obvious lack of production budget. It's now personally nostalgic. It may even be bad enough to be nearly good. It makes me laugh, anyway. As a teen, I worked only in small southern markets, so I tagged a lot of these kinds of spots, almost always "live".

"LOVE IN THE PLAYPEN IN SHOCKING COLOR SHOWS TONIGHT, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY AT 7PM AT THE WILLIS DRIVE IN THEATRE ON HIGHWAY 29! REMEMBER, FREE BALLOONS FOR THE KIDDIES AT THE WILLIS DRIVE IN THEATRE!"

My copy of this demo is as old as the memories, and it contains a few unfortunate dropouts. Still, it's a great introduction to the different groups used for the majority of classic PAMS jingles.

This presentation for WCFL is a good example of TM at its best. The Beat Goes On was featured on many stations, some of which are named at the end of the demo.

For those young broadcasters (like Uncle Ricky) who weren't privileged to hear an actual "Boss" station in 1970, this was likely their first introduction to Boss Radio, The Johnny Mann Singers and, of course, the 21 Top-Flight Hollywood Musicians who made radio history with what is one of the most sought-after radio ID packages ever created.

The original demo, distributed by American Independent Radio included a 25hz tone throughout. This primitive form of copyright protection made it impossible to play the tape on automation-ready reel decks, and it slightly degraded the audio quality as well. Nevertheless, it probably didn't deter some smaller market stations from ripping off the instrumental tracks.

Here, the demo has been edited to remove lots of "dead air" between the jingles and the simulated airchecks, which include Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Humble Harv, J. Paul Huddleston and those memorable "And now, Ladies and Gentlemen" introductions by none other than Bill Drake himself.

Consultant Bill Drake had been experimenting with automated formats on RKO's fledgling FM radio stations for a couple of years by the time Drake-Chenault and American Independent Radio released this tape. The Solid Gold Rock & Roll demo is introduced by Mark Elliot and includes Drake (as the "imaging" voice), newsman Ken Marvin, The Real Don Steele and Humble Harve. We thought Robert W. Morgan was featured with a cameo weather report, but not so. Our visitors helped identify all the voices. (see COMMENT).

A small piece of paper included in the tape box reads:

The enclosed demo of Solid Gold Rock & Roll is an actual air-check taken at KHJ-FM, Los Angeles, October 27, 1970. Music and commercials have been edited for your listening convenience.

We have since determined that the tape and paper don't agree; This is KHJ-FM, but some of the songs used didn't chart until the Spring of 1971.

Hey, if your station's really worth savin' - PAMS changes the time and temperature syndrome with a fresh, modern mover that sounds like a sunburst! It's the perfect pick-up for ending a stopset! You can bridge two records with perfect pacing - Slow to Fast! Fast to Slow! A subtle slide catches your ear and sets you up for an up-tempo cooker! Clashing Contrasts are eliminated, and your call-letters are played electronically, under the vocal, for extra-easy remembering!

Featuring cuts for WABC, KYA and WFAA, this is a masterfully produced demo that helped PAMS sell many "jings" in the early seventies.

In listening to this today, I wonder: Were radio stations programming PAMS, or was PAMS programming radio stations?

In December of 1996, Geoff Fox wrote:

The neatest jingle I ever played was from the very early seventies when I did 8-midnight on WBT. The jingle went, "From Canada to Florida, Carolina and the USA - 11-10 Double-U-Bee-Tee!" I believe the original lyrics were for AM drive on WABC... BTW, we really covered Canada to Florida back then!

Geoff went visual 16 years ago. He's now the popular weather reporter for the ABC-TV affiliate in CT, hosts Inside Space for the Sci-Fi Channel, fills in on Good Morning America and has received 5 Emmy awards from the Boston/New England chapter of NATAS. He's another honored visitor to the Repository.

In April of 1997, Geoff Fox writes:

As you know, I was thrilled you found my favorite jingle and placed it on your site. In fact, I was so thrilled about it that when I saw Jon Wolfert a few weeks ago ... I told him too.

Little did I know that I had planted a seed .. The result is the attached. It came on a CD marked "Your New Favorite Jingle". He's right!

WOW! What a great NEW favorite jingle! (Jon Wolfert is President and founder of Jam Creative Productions). Jon says the original PAMS jingles are now available with Dallas vocals from JAM, and this cut is outstanding!

The Geoff Fox Favorite Jingle Adventure is not one we'll soon forget. Jon and JAM have made it magic.

PAMS started adding this jingle to their jingle demos in the early 70's, as I remember. This one is from the tail of "SIG ALERT", a series originally developed for WKNR, Detroit.

I always liked this demo. I suppose it's terribly dated now. Contemporary music seldom has a melody anymore and singing Carry Me Back to Ole Virginny is probably illegal.

But the idea could be adapted, maybe. Instead of finding an odd-looking fellow tangled in the ivy, it would be a "Hip-Hop Artist" who passed out on public property, but it wasn't his fault! "Decipher the Rapper's Mumbled Money Message and Receive Righteous Reparation!" Or something.

This demo supposedly features Dick Starr (PD) and Chris Edwards of KYA, San Francisco. First-class production, as usual — respectable PAMS magic. We even get another sing of the Copyright Jingle at the end. (Remember: All PAMS stuff is the copyrighted property of PAMS of Dallas.)

Hi-fidelity, long-play airchecks of KJR (Seattle) are elusive treasures for this Repository, so this PAMS demo, titled Revolution '72, is as close to verbose hi-fi KJR as we can get. Always loved the KJR Seattle Channel 95 logo, and it is performed at the top of the profession here.

A few years ago, Uncle Ricky believed that the practice of placing "imagers" in front of commercial sets was mostly recent gangster-inspired madness. This demo reminded me that such wacky, unconventional and flawed formatics were not only promoted, but merchandised, nearly 30 years ago.

Of course, it's business as usual now - but when one company owns all the stations, and if all the stations make the same mistakes, who'll know the difference? (Talk about a revolution!)

Rock guitarist John Nitzinger (Bloodrock) is featured in this short demo of jingles recorded for KFJZ (Fort Worth) in 1972.

This is a composite of several short goodies I found in the last shipment from Dick Stoddard. It consists of three elements:

• Bill Drake from a Hit Parade '68 demo
• A major ooops! from the Johnny Mann Singers for WPOP, Hartford. Parental Discretion advised!
• A National Association of Broadcasters jingle from the mid-60's: Who Listens to Radio?

This is one of my favorite tapes in the whole world. I made this when I was working at 920 WJAR in Providence, about 1973. Dave Hedrick and Tom McMurray had returned from a 'JAR jingle session at PAMS with reference tapes from the many WAYS sessions recorded for Charlotte, N.C. BIG WAYS, during the sixties.

I remember staying late one night, and fortified with stale sugar-coated snacks from the Outlet Company "Cafeteria", I used the Scully 4-track to run off a mixed composite of some of my favorite WAYS jingles - the ones I had listened to as a teenager in Concord, North Carolina.

I don't know what happened to all those wonderful reference dubs, but this "composite" of the PAMS WAYS jingles demonstrates the power of a memorable logo combined with the genius of a decade of PAMS imagineering. It also survives as a tribute to a great and grand 5KW AM radio station that claimed to dominate "35 North and South Carolina Counties" in the late 60's. Something (not all) from many PAMS series, 15 through 29, is represented here. (See COMMENTS).

Bobby Ocean narrates this jingle demo for Tuesday Productions of San Diego, circa 1983. I guess that Tuesday had acquired the rights to the original KHJ instrumental tracks, which apparently belonged to American Independent Radio in the late 60's. These Original Drake Jingles don't include the original Johnny Mann Singers.

This material was ©1980-something by Tuesday Productions of San Diego. The comment button below includes an update on Tuesday. All I knew about them when this first went online is that whenever they sent me a letter, it always had the San Diego temperature and sky conditions below the date (76 and Sunny). It was a class act and they made some pretty good jings.

I am not sure when I first got this, but I do recognize one quick jingle on this demo that I purchased for WFEC in Harrisburg. That would have been 1975. The package might have been around for several years before that. I have a few of these authentic GWINSOUND demos from that era, all on 4-inch, small-hub reels in a green and blue-gray box. You will notice I wrote my name on the box of this particular demo.

We haven't featured much about GWINSOUND on this site. Let me tell you what I remember, and our honored guests can correct my faulty memory, fill in the blanks and expand on the history. Tommy Gwin was somehow involved with PAMS for a few years, but he went off on his own. Based in Dallas, he had access to many vocalists and musicians in the area. His jingles were good and, best of all, they were affordable. I did business with Gwinsound at WYCL and WFEC, and even though I only bought a few jingles each time, I was always pleased with the results.

This demo, for WTRY in Albany, is a nice reminder of the quality available from Gwinsound in those days. Tommy Gwin passed away on June 30, 2006. He was 78.

Here's a goodie from my deep and dangerous stash of stuff I know nothing about. Thankfully, visitors to this site know more about most things than I do. Not to mention that Repository contributor Bobby Rich is featured on this demo, so maybe he'll 'splain it.

Great fidelity on this one, but in all fairness, it is mono, and most of the far-out synthesizer effects on this one need stereo (Ah, broadband, where are you?) Previous stereo material on the site has met with very litle interest (most of our visitors simply don't have the bandwidth) - so you will just have to imagine the SFX are bouncing around.

Year? Gosh, I dunno. It came on stereo reel at 7.5 IPS, and prolific Peters Productions in San Diego sent me more than one demo, whenever it was. Lots more stuff to learn about this one - Narrator? The story behind Peters Productions? Was this package used on the air at B-100? This is why we have a COMMENT button for this and every exhibit.