The Production Room Collection

… 15-11-1997 00:00 …
Here’s “the most dramatically formatted ID series ever conceived” from Tom Merriman and TM Productions , Dallas, Texas, circa 1968. At first, I thought it was maybe 1969, but the majority of opinion says 1968. Seems early for such a great package! 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.
… 21-11-1998 00:00 …
This demo has been in my head for 30 years – now it’s on a web page! While others raved over the Johnny Mann Singers , these were the acapellas that young Uncle Ricky craved – some of the most perfect vocal arrangements you will ever hear. 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.
[ by Uncle Ricky ] 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! ”
Picture of 30 year old 3 inch tape box
Listen, and hear your station give birth to a new middle name! 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.
… 17-06-2001 00:00 …
It’s excitin’ and diffrunt! ” 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?
Try It! The New Nine Twenty… [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.
920 WJAR LOGO
Yesterday Recycled for Today [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.
Fusion-Flow-Fusion-Flow-Fusion-Flow [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.
… 30-12-2001 00:00 …
Isn’t it great to hear a new, distinctive logo… [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.
… 03-03-2002 00:00 …
And now, the same basic cut with orchestra and another key sound… [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 .

Welcome to the new ReelRadio!

This site is now operated by the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. 

We want to thank the board of ReelRadio, Inc. for their stewardship since the passing of the founder Richard Irwin in 2018.  It has not been easy and they have maintained the exhibits for future generations to enjoy.

I met Richard Irwin, aka Uncle Ricky, when we were freshmen at East Carolina University.  We both had worked at local stations in our hometowns.  No one was more passionate about radio, especially Top 40 radio, than my friend Richard. 

Our goals with this site are to preserve the exhibits and make them available free of charge for people to enjoy.  Over time, we hope to add some airchecks to the site.  This will not happen immediately.  Time and resources will determine the future of new exhibits. 

Many thanks to the web folks at the Beasley Media Group for countless hours of work.  Again thanks to the board members of ReelRadio, Inc. for their faith in us. 

Richard Irwin’s hope was that his site would live on long after his passing. He said, “I hope REELRADIO will survive as my contribution to the ‘radio business’. The business is allowed to forget me, but the business should never forget the great era of radio that we celebrate here”.

We remember Richard and we thank him. If you enjoy this new site, we would appreciate a contribution. We hope you enjoy the new ReelRadio!

Carl Davis
Trustee
North Carolina Broadcast History Museum