Beacon Radio

Quite a lot's been written about this station on various websites, and rightly so as the West Midlands based radio station really gave Independent Local Radio a kick up the backside during it's first 20 years on air.

I'll do my best to make this post pretty jingle-centric although I may slip in some random nonsense as always.

Beacon began broadcasting in April 1976 and was the last ILR station to launch in the decade.
Rather than provide a bog-standard "full service" station to the West Midlands, they decided to adapt a format more along the lines of American broadcasters.

They originally wanted to name themselves "WABC" (standing for "Wolverhampton And Black Country") but the IBA refused saying it was too American and very much so, considering that the original WABC in New York was one of the most well known radio stations around the world.

The first set of jingles weren't American but leaned towards those produced in Dallas sounding very similar to some of JAM's WABC jingles made around the time.

There's also that rather cool news intro towards the end possibly based around "Shaft".

1976 Jingles - EMIson

The station did go to Dallas for their next package two years later which involved a rather nice resing of TM's "You" package orginally written for 93 KHJ.
Personally I think "Beacon 303" fitted in better.

1978 Jingles - TM Productions

The station's American influenced output didn't go down well with the IBA and by the end of the 70s a new programme director was brought in, in the form of Peter Tomlinson who's better known to viewers outside the broadcast area as the voiceover on Blockbusters.

Peter reformatted the station to sound more in line with the other ILRs but it didn't mean that the quality decreased heavilly as the American hits and album tracks remained as part of the station's music output.

We'll move onwards to the mid 80s and the first of Beacon's many custom packages by Alfasound.

1985 Jingles - Alfasound

This set the standard for what was to come although the singers couldn't always get it right as heard here.

In July 1987 the station launched a new transmitter in Telford and Shropshire on 103.1 FM and broadcast seperate programming throughout the day before joining with Wolverhampton in the evening.

By this time presenters included Will Tudor, Dale Winton, and Stephen Rhodes who later became Richard Madeley's stand in on This Morning and the announcer on Les Dennis's Family Fortunes for 12 years.

The management were made up of MD Alan Mullett and programme controller Pete Wagstaff who would work for the next 10 years to provide a top quality station with jingles to match.

New jingles were introduced based around the previous package but with a stronger theme and melody logo and some absolutely stunning beds for different features.

The original demo can be heard here;

1986 Jingles - Alfasound

Whilst the more polished package used on air can be heard below.

1987 Jingles - Alfasound

Whilst it's a solid package, I've never understood why the first oldies cut done in the style of the Beatles goes "The latest hits of the 60s".

1988 saw the third custom package from Alfasound focused more towards the current hits that were played on the station as well as new beds for Weather and Traffic.

1988 Jingles - Alfasound

In 1989 Beacon followed in the footsteps of many other ILR stations by splitting their frequencies on AM and FM.

Beacon Radio continued on FM with a new set of jingles featuring Dallas vocals and I love how they pronounce the station name as "#Beeee-Kun Rayy-Dee-Oohhh"

The selection below also includes a few acapellas including one for Rory Morrison who's now one of Radio 4's newsreaders and announcers.

1989 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS International

There were also a few resings from the 87 package with US vocals and just for a bit of fun, here's the Shrewsbury versions of those superb phone number and address jingles. There's also a really noisy synthy jingle for the sports and the rare news intro.

Listen out in the first selection for the half-inched laser FX from the Century 21 "Proton" demo.

On 990 AM a new station launched under the name that the IBA initially rejected 13 years earlier; WABC.
As Beacon included 60s music within their wide format, WABC was more of a light standards based station with jingles to match taken from some of the later PAMS packages in the early 1970s.

WABC 1989 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS Productions

With the 90s approaching, Beacon needed a stronger on air sound for their jingles and with Alfasound now selling JAM jingles, they brought what has to be the best resing of the Turbo Z package with the station name fitting in perfectly with great vocals.

Beacon Radio 1989 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Many jingle fans regard this to be one of JAM's finest packages and it worked brilliantly on air for the station.

In 1991 they took it to the next level with a resing of KIIS 90 and a melody logo which is still remembered by listeners today.

Beacon Radio 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Presenter Dave Myatt attended the sessions in Dallas and added extra lyrics to the tracks which was a very creative touch proving that they could be sung better than the original American demos.

Meanwhile WABC having been the last ILR station under the IBA to launch a new AM transmitter in Shropshire relaunched around the same time to become more of an uptempo oldies station with a package consisting of "2 Kool" orginally done for Kool 105 in Denver.

WABC 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Throughout the 90s, Beacon would use a library track by KPM called "Express" to lead them into the news from their TOH ident.

Courtesy of Michael Bolton (not that one) here's a short selection from over the years.

In 1993 the stations were taken over by the GWR group, but due to their immense success and strong format, the Radio Authority forbid GWR to take overall control for 3 years. Programming ideas were experimented for a short while on air and slipped in subtlely, but disapeared gradually and things more or less stayed the same with more new jingles continuing to arrive.

This next set had to be one of the most memorable and well written packages consisting of tracks mainly from the stunning "Do It Again" package for CBS-FM, but also from "Z-World" and "Hi-Qume".

The "Do It Again" resings can be heard below.

Beacon Radio 1993 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

WABC also had tracks from the same package and their variant can be heard as well.

WABC 1993 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

In 1996 the station brought what for me had to be their best resing of a JAM package mainly consisting of a resing of "Hit Power" written for Dutch station Veronica and demoed for Power 92 in Arizona.

Beacon's version turned out to be a lot better in terms of vocals and positioning and the proof can more or less be heard below.

Beacon Radio 1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Another example which I put together years ago comparing the demo with the Beacon cuts can also be heard here and more or less proves the above point.

In addition to "Hit Power" there were also a few new cuts for the Breakfast Crew made up of jingles from classic Z100 packages such as "Warp Factor" and "Skywave" including a couple used on Radio 1 in the late 80s.

WABC at the same time brought a set of jingles mostly taken from those for the New York WABC and I'd go as far as saying that they're also better than the originals.

Apparently JAM fan Len Groat is a big fan of the first cut in the montage below which I've included two versions of for 990 AM and 1017 AM.

WABC 1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Beacon also had a couple of cuts from the same package used for simultaneous overnight programme, as heard here.

In 1996, GWR's curfew was up and both Pete Wagstaff and Alan Mullett left the station before the damage was made.

The station relaunched in Feburary 1997 as "Beacon FM" and the sudden change in format did not go down well with the listeners who protested, vandalised the studios and both the BBC and Central Television got involved for their regional news programmes respectively.

I seem to remember reading that the new managing director was seen banging his fist on the table over the bad publicity that the station was recieving.

Then again it's understandable why the listeners were really pissed off as the "Midnight Line" programme had been very popular for the best part of a decade and to have that dumped in favour of a pervert asking about people's sex life
(or at least it sounded like that) was not the right move to make.

WABC on the other hand slowly progressed (or de-gressed) when it was relaunched at the same time as WABC Classic Gold implenting the infamous "Good Times And Great Oldies" strapline.

A new JAM package arrived and in terms of the jingles themselves it was a good selection containing cuts from "The Best Show", "Special Touch" and the "Double Plus" packages.

WABC Classic Gold 1997 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

However as the cuts at the end suggest, a full rebrand wasn't far away and in April 1998 the Classic Gold regime became permanent reducing local programming to four hours a day Monday to Friday at Drivetime.

In the latter half of the current decade Beacon changed it's name back to Beacon Radio and even had a new jingle package from Kissville pretty much picking up where the last package left off in terms of it's melody logo.

Beacon Radio 2007 Jingles - Kissville

The station continues with it's new owners Bauer and here's hoping they'll bring some more jingles to the station in the next few years.

Although if that's the case, the majority of those above will hard to beat.

Thanks to Geoff Barton, Andy Walters, Alan Nicklin, Aston McNeil, Neal Bowden Stacey Harris, Paul McGrath,
and Michael Bolton.