The Bob Green Collection

The Repository is honored to feature this aircheck from Bob Green on “One of the Great Storz Stations”: WQAM, Miami, 1963. It’s STUFFED with hot production. You’ll note the station was using a wide variety of jingles, and mixing logos. (I get misty when I hear the PAMS “Wonderful WQAM” logo.) But why did Miami stations WFUN and WQAM both have “accent” reverb? (The jock pushed a button to kick it into LOUD – Was this a Miami Vice?)

Also, interesting that both Miami stations had that SPECIAL reverb – It must have been a combination of tape loop and chamber (chamber chamber). [Update, 2003: Since writing this description in 1996, I have learned that the Storz stations used an oil-dampened reverb designed for a Hammond Organ – it created a delay with a tape-type “slapback” effect.]

You’ll actually hear a jingle for the real time – 12:23 in Miami. (How many of these did they have, I wonder?) Zing! What a feeling with a Coke! Settle back with a Del Monte Fruit Juice Drink or a Libby’s Tomato juice, and a snack from the convenience food company formerly known as Prince. What were the real odds of winning with a Money Matchbook, anyway? Won-der-full..W-Q-A-M! This is top-down sound, for sure!

This exhibit was originally presented in low-fidelity Real Audio 2.0 on May 12, 1996! On June 29, 2008, it’s been polished from the original reel contribution and processed with our OPTIMOD-PC, and re-encoded in 44 kbps Real Media v8. It sounds MUCH better! But don’t listen to this if your only interest in jingles is the Drake jingle series – there’s one reference to Drake in the entire 15 minutes. Otherwise, this is interesting research. If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of the classic PAMS sound of the 60’s, you’ll find this piece fascinating. It includes Bill Meeks himself (the founder of PAMS), performing in a 50’s jingle for KDNT, Denton, Texas.

This retrospective focuses on the late 50’s and early 60’s classics from WNEW, New York, and KFWB, Los Angeles (Channel 98! Color Radio!). There are many others, as well, including WABC before the familiar “Manhattan” logo was finalized, and even a few early TM jings – a remarkable collection, and strong evidence that much of the history of the radio jingle business was already written in 1970.

A few promos that really define the 24 hour cartoon that was “Keener”. From unique promos, to cartoony ones – there are thousands of these, all produced on a full track Ampex.

[From Uncle Ricky: We originally believed this one to be from 1963, but a COMMENT (from a dedicated baseball fan) presents a serious case for August 23, 1962.]

[Description by Bob Green]

A discussion on where TV news is headed had me think of this KXOK newscast from 1963. You have to have at least a smile on your face listening to this. The carefree abundance of the use of banks of Mackenzies and the overall approach has many people in stitches. This is how it was done at many of the Storz stations in the early sixties.

But, hey – wait a minute! Is this really so different than some local TV news in 1997? Instead of electronic and musical separators and purely showbizzy copy lines for each item covered – now it’s wild GRAPHICS – along with electronic and musical separators along with questionable showbizzy copy. We have it here with the NBC affiliate. BIG BOLD GRAPHIC for the BIG STORY: FIRE ANTS ATTACK DEFROCKED NUN!

It gives creedence to the old .. “What goes around, comes around.”

From Bob Green Productions, some promos for the 1998 Detroit Radio Reunion produced for Oldies 104.3.