The Production Room Collection
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Call Collect for Dennis Meeks [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.
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Big D The Way It Should Be [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…
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Take A Stuckey’s Stop [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.
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comes from TM Productions of Dallas, of course [By Uncle Ricky] Fortunately, the jingles were a lot better than the graphics. This TM demo is for Westinghouse and WIND , Chicago,
but I know that the Christmas jingle was also on WNBC in New York. Still, you gotta love that Gone With the WIND signature! 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.
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Solid Gold Radio [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.
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gives great radio [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.
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3 days, man, 3 days [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.
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That Haunting Theme [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!
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and when you call, try not to talk too loud [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?
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a year-round overture was just what I was looking for [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.