The Production Room Collection
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Greenville North Carolina, Home of E. C. U. [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.
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.
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Camera-ready mechanicals Youngster: Uncle Ricky, what’s a “camera-ready mechanical”? Uncle Ricky : Well, little Youngster, back in those pre-Desktop-Publishing days, it was like – a photograph – a glossy hi-res paper picture that we sent to the printer guy. It was made with a big machine and noxious chemicals by sweaty publications geeks who did that kind of stuff. That’s why we called them “mechanicals”. [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..”
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It’s Saturday night, 8 o’clock, and Studio 97 Disco is on the air [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?
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Motor City Memory [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.
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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.
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Rockin’ Easy in the Motor City [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…
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Target 25, 49. Listen… [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.
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If Done Properly [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.
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1360 WSAI [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. Ah, but THESE have funky moog sounders, because it was trendy, of course. Not particularly great quality, but right off another 7-inch reel of acetate tape, (in an Allied Electronics box!) undoubtedly the original TM demo dubbed from and to Ampex 440 full-track machines in the WIXE /Monroe (NC) production room, circa 1969.
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A PAMS Publication [By Uncle Ricky] YOU can play guitar the correct way – it’s the easy way to play! Get ColorWay! What the heck was it? My requests for more information on this apparently orphaned PAMS retail
product generated nothing, so let’s guess. It involved sticking “things of color” on your guitar, and it included sheet music that used color, instead of standard music notation. So, you could play new songs on your guitar, even if you couldn’t read music. That’s a guess. 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. There are five near-60-second tracks in all, plus a 20-second quickie. These are a lot of fun to hear because they represent the best of classic PAMS! Here is the arrangement style, musicians, vocalists AND sonovox heard in those mid-60’s PAMS jingles. The fidelity is delightful, particulary if you can pull the full 96kbps stream. Thanks to Media Preservation Foundation .