… 14-05-2006 00:00 …
Image is the name of the game. Radio is a product, too [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.
