News=Nightmares?

News identification jingles have always been an essential part of a radio station's jingle package.

However when it comes to grabbing the listeners attention, I reckon some of them went a bit too far resulting in rather traumatic consequences on a personal level, mainly because of the sudden transition from a light hearted show to a very serious news bulletin as was the case on many a UK station during the 1980s.

I know it has a place in people's hearts but the worst one for me had to be Radio 1's during the 80s.
There were several variants of course to coincide with changes in the melody logo, but this one from 1982 pretty much sums it up.

I don't actually remember hearing this or any of Radio 1's sung news intros on air at the time, having only started listening when the 1990 package was introduced by a weird coincidence, but having heard audio of it from airchecks, it has resulted in rather bad incidents thinking about at night, and it was what partly resulted in me going rather cranky in August 2007.

The jingle has all the elements of how not to do a news jingle, from the timpani at the beginning, the dodgy synth tune, and having a sung vocal.

I know it did it's job on the station for almost 15 years but for me I have to agree with what Rod McKenzie at Newsbeat would say about it now.

That's not to say commercial radio were any better.

During the early to mid 80s, several stations had their own rather creepy news intros that I would not want to hear when least expected in the middle of the night.

Here's just a few of them

ILR News Intros (Early 80s)

For those unfamiliar with the idents, they're for stations such as Radio Hallam in 1982, Radio 210 in 1980, Wiltshire Radio in 1982, Radio Victory in 1980 with the Pompey Chimes melody, and Mercia Sound in 1986.

The infamous Radio City news intro at the end was actually composed in 1974
by Gerry Marsden with the vocal performed by Madaleine Bell and became a familiar sound to Liverpudlians for 15 years despite several different jingle packages.

The main reason I have a rather nervous disposition with the above examples is because of them proceeding a stern voiced IRN newsreader, adding to the sinister nature.

Unless someone else knows otherwise, only one commercial station actually had "IRN" sung in their news intro which was Capital Radio back in 1984.
The only other station overall was Parkside Hospital Radio in London, back in 1989 with a resing of this classic PAMS jingle.

A couple of news intros from the latter half of the decade fall into the category of "authorative but not too sinister" which were Capital Radio in 1987 and Southern Sound in 1989 both featuring the voice of Michael Jayston AKA "The Valeyard" in Doctor Who.

Capital/Southern News Intros - Late 80s

By the early 90s many commercial stations on FM had turned into American influenced pop formats with Dallas sung jingles and the majority of news intros by this time had turned into more lively but positioning top of hour IDs identifying the station with pride and leading nicely into the bulletin.

Examples from many stations both Local and National can be heard below.

90s And Onwards News Intros

Some of my favourites include the Key 103 intro from 1993 voiced by Brian James , the one for Essex FM at the beginning from 1996 and the Eagle from 1999 which goes to show that there's nothing wrong with a sung news jingle, provided that it doesn't have the word "news" sung in it as I find that innapropriate for some reason.

The instrumental ones work well too such as Invicta FM's from 1993, the Buzz FM top of hour also used on Jazz FM for the second jingle package in 1992 which sounds rather like a demo tune on a Casio, and the current one for Jazz FM on DAB which has to be my favourite news intro currently on a UK station.

It makes a change from the rather bland sweepers and drones that dominate several other stations although when it comes to news jingles overall they need to stand out without making the listener stand out of their skin.

Just my own thoughts...

Thanks to David Barras, Aston McNeil, Dave Nightingale, Sean Saunders, Christian Spooner, Stacey Harris, David Furness, and Sean Martin for various audio and background info.

BBC Local's Best

BBC Local Radio jingles aren't normally the first thing that come to mind when it comes to my perspective on radio jingles but this post will hopefully dispose of that idea with a selection of my favourite jingles used on various stations from both the UK and Dallas.

First of all is a package by Alfasound for BBC Radio Lincolnshire produced in the late 80s and based around the folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher.

BBC Radio Lincolnshire 1987 Jingles - Alfasound

A really strong set of IDs making good use of the melody from the original song with clever variations.
The stand out cut has to be the one promoting television viewing at 1.58 which makes use of both the YTV and Thames jingles within the intro.

What many radio pros would consider to be a no go area with regards of using radio to promote it's more superior sister medium.

Staying along the same theme and era, a custom package by Alfasound for BBC Radio Sussex consisting of instrumental jingles based on the tune
"Sussex By The Sea".

BBC Radio Sussex 1987 Jingles - Alfasound

The transitional jingles are done really well as are the ones for different musical genres with the standout being the religious one at 4.38 using synth choir voices.

The next one's quite a rarity and comes courtesy of Mark Prosser who originally posted these gems on Jinglemad.

The BBC Radio Merseyside jingles from the early 80s by JAM and William B Tanner probably stood out from the rest at the time and the JAM ones in particular have to be one of the best resings I have heard of the "Special Touch" package.

The cuts were well chosen as well, considering BBC Radio 2 had a few cuts from the same package for the 1982 composite that weren't of course used for Radio Merseyside.

BBC Radio Merseyside 1983 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions/William B Tanner

Another example of a superb US resing has to be the Thames Valley FM package which was a short lived BBC Local station for Berkshire.
The jingles were resung from the TM WBZ custom pacakge and the melody logo was later adapted for BBC Radio Berkshire when the station changed it's name.

BBC Thames Valley FM 1996 Jingles - TM Century

Returning northbound, a short selection of cuts for BBC GMR in Manchester back in 1988 when the station had rebranded from Radio Manchester.
The cuts feature an early sighting of a female vocalist who in less than a year would be taking her voice "all around the world" or so to say.

BBC GMR 1988 Jingles - Alfasound

Moving onwards, the 1990 package for BBC Radio Leeds as produced by JAM consiting mainly of cuts from the "We Talk New York" package but also contains some superb extended cuts from the rare "You'll Like Our Style" package for WABC in 1981, and a few cuts near the end from "Good Time Radio".

BBC Radio Leeds 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Len Groat at GEM AM was inspired by the resing of the cut at to do his own version for the station not long after this package first aired.

I've also heard a story that the other cut from the WABC package with the lyrics "A day for just relaxing" was almost banned as people thought it was blasphemous when played out on a Sunday morning.

Finally, if any BBC Local Station had the best jingles, it was Radio Newcastle in the late 80s into the 90s.

The first set from 1989 consists mainly of cuts from "Non Stop Power" but also contains a superb resing of "Omni-Trax" cut 1 at 1.29 and a few resings for "We Talk New York", as heard above for Radio Leeds.

BBC Radio Newcastle 1989 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

They returned for some additional cuts in 1990 conisting of more cuts from "Omni-Trax" as well as some really nice ones from the "Magic Music 6" package which Radio 2 didn't happen to use at the same time as the other "Magic Music" cuts.

BBC Radio Newcastle 1990 Add Ons - JAM Creative Productions

A year later they went to TM Century for their follow up package which was just as superb although I only have a brief selection that can be heard below.
I especially love the "PLJ 91" top of hour, and the Jonathan Morrell breakfast jingle from the Y98-FM package.

BBC Radio Newcastle 1991 Jingles - TM Century

If anyone has any more, they would be more than welcome.

Overall it more or less goes to show that at one time or other, BBC Local Radio has had plenty of superb packages even if not on a nationwide scale.

Thanks to Dave Nightingale, Neal Bowden, David Hemsley, David Barras, Nicky Schiller, Chris Stevens and Mark Prosser.

Radio Tees/TFM

Still in the North East, I thought it would be more than appropriate to write a Jingle Jaunt on the station for North Yorkshire and the Darlington area.

I'm not too much of an expert on the station itself but this is a jingle site of course so I'll start it off with the station's first jingle package by EMIson, used from it's launch in 1975.

1975 Jingles - EMIson

Personally it's not the most inspiring of packages with all the cuts based around the same theme, the chord structure of which bares quite a resemblance to the tune "Higher And Higher.

The various News and information jingles from the package can be heard here.

A second package from EMIson came in 1977 with a livelier set of cuts but still retaining the lesser polished production values that EMIson were known for.

1977 Jingles - EMIson

The Selby based Cath Baxter Commercials was approached to write the following jingle package way onto the air in the late 70s/early 80s.

I'm not sure if these are from 1979 or 1981 but I'm pretty certain someone from the North East reading this will correct me.

Early 80s Jingles - Cath Baxter

One such fan of the jingles was then Scarborough resident David Hemsley who actually wrote into one of the presenters requesting three of them to be played in the "My Top 3" feature, including the rather picturesque weather jingle based around the song "Bobby Shaftoe".

It can be heard along with the news themes here.

1983 saw another package which was even better with superb orchestration and delightful arrangements and vocals.

1983 Jingles - Cath Baxter

It's also worth posting this clip of the man who now broadcasts to a national audience at "The Best Time Of The Day", that being Alex Lester from 1984.

Following the station's acquistion by Metro Radio in the mid 80s, the jingles took a different more rapid sound courtesy of Alfasound, in comparison to the rather rural orchestral jingles from Cath Baxter.

The package from 1987 couldn't be more different from the above examples including a few cuts making use of the sound of the contestant's buzzer from Catchphrase.

1987 Jingles - Alfasound

In 1988 along with Metro the station split frequencies although Radio Tees decided to relaunch altogether by rebranding as TFM.

The jingles took on an even more pacier sound with some weird ambient effects thrown in.
I never understood why they referred to the frequency as "96-60" although that's possibly how it read on digital car radios in the days before RDS.

TFM 1988 Jingles - Alfasound

A set of Christmas jingles came at the end of the year in a similar style but this time with US vocals.

TFM 1988 Xmas Jingles - Alfasound

Into the 90s and the station brought it's first JAM package which was a resing of the popular package "Breakthrough" also used by Red Rose Rock FM.

TFM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Accompanying the jingles were a set of sweepers voiced by John Wells.

In 1992 there was another package also containing cuts from Breakthrough but with a different melody logo as well as cuts from "Brite And Sunny" and "Power Up".

TFM 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

A couple of years later TFM brought another JAM package consisting mainly of cuts from the "Energy" package custom produced for NRJ in France.

Again it's pretty rare to get hold of but here's a selection from the studio carts courtesy of David Barras.

TFM 1993/94 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

In 1995 the station went to MPT, a subsidary of TM Century and Tom Merriman for a resing of their KIIS FM package which sounded pretty slick on air.

The selection below was orginally posted by Neal Bowden on Jinglemad.

TFM 1995 Jingles - MPT

The package made a brief apperance in the demo for the station's current set of jingles by the TM Studios and they continue to broadcast under the name TFM Radio.

The demo itself can be heard here via the TM website.

Thanks of course to David Hemsley, David Barras, Neal Bowden, and Simon Hirst for all the usual stuff.

Metro Radio

This has been one I've been looking forward to for a long time, so let's get straight to it and head back 35 years to the Newcastle station's first jingle package as produced by PAMS in Dallas, which was quite a rarity on commercial radio in those days.

1974 Jingles - PAMS Productions

These were commissioned by presenter Len Groat who was a massive fan of jingles from Dallas and brought some of the finest to Metro Radio. I particularly like the cuts at the beginning, and the shouts for the presenters at around 50 seconds in.

And not forgetting the main theme as taken from the Solid Rock 2 package by PAMS, which Alfasound later reworked for Len at GEM AM, 14 years later.

I'd go as far as saying that these were PAMS jingles at their finest and I definitely prefer them to the ones that were dominant on the pirates in the 1960s.

The Musicians Union on the other hand weren't so impressed and Metro's following package in around 1977 came from British companies EMIson and YAMCO, which once again stood for "Yer Actual Music Company".

The jingles themselves, also used on Beacon Radio were definitely inferior to those in Dallas with some of the cuts being rather dodgy doppelgangers of JAM tracks.

1977 Jingles - EMIson/YAMCO

It's also worth mentioning this cut based around the song "Am I The Same Girl" by either Dusty or Swing Out Sister depending on your generation.

Quite a few jingle fans included that in their CD mixes for Jingle Day 4 in 2005, possibly because the tune had recently been resurfaced by Joss Stone.

We'll fast forward just about a decade later to the mid 80s where Metro had already brought a package from Alfasound which is pretty rare and I don't know of anyone who has a polished copy.

In 1986 the station brought another custom from the clocktower which was vibrant fast paced package with a predominantly male vocal group along the theme of "More Music Metro".

1986 Jingles - Alfasound

A really strong package and there was to be more of the same throughout the rest of the decade.

With the IBA relaxing rules on ownership and sponsorship, Metro was allowed to acquire neighbouring station Radio Tees in Stockton and Darlington, and they comissioned a joint package featuring dual cuts for both stations and individual jingles.

Metro And Tees 1987 Jingles - Alfasound

Further additions came in the same year including presenter cuts for Mark Goodier shortly before he joined Radio 1, and Clive Warren who shortly transferred to television, who's cut can be heard at the end in a more than phonetic manner.

1987 Add Ons - Alfasound

In 1988 the station split frequencies with more cuts introduced on FM based around then current chart soundalikes such as The Pet Shop Boys and Michael Jackson.
There's even a vintage PAMS cut in there from the "Fun Vibrations" series.

1988 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS

Over on AM, Metro and Tees merged to form a new oldies station by the name of Great North Radio which was also abbreviated as GNR. This resulted in a custom package from Alfasound containing Dallas vocals with some stunning female solos adding to the sugary style.

Some of the beds sound very similar to what you would find on an album by The RAH Band.

GNR 1988 Jingles - Alfasound

The package was later resung for the Yorkshire Radio Network's "Classic Gold" that can be heard on the YRN blog post.

In 1990 the main station had fully become Metro FM and brought it's first fully fledged US sung package after over 15 years when Alfasound brought the rights to JAM jingles for the UK.

This set was rather big containing resings of not just the ever popular "Turbo Z" but also cuts from "Hot KIIS", "Laser Image" and "Warp Factor" including cuts that had been used on Radio 1 earlier in the 80s.

Metro FM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

More of the same followed in 1991 when an additional set of jingles containing cuts from "New York Fan", "KIIS 90" and "Z Force" amongst other packages were brought in.

Metro FM 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

GNR also brought a new set of JAM jingles containing cuts from the also heavily resung "2 Kool" package and a cut from the otherwise underused "Rock Connection" package as well as a few Christmas cuts from the KVIL "A Touch Of Christmas" set.

GNR 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

1994 saw Metro FM go even further when they brought their own custom JAM package in time for their 20th birthday.

This was a very polished and brilliantly sung package with some superb music tracks giving a very strong and recognisable melody logo.

You could say it gave me a few ideas.

Here it is and it's quite a big one.

Metro FM 1994 Custom "Metroline" - JAM Creative Productions

Some of the stand out cuts include the superb beds for concert promotions and the roadshow but my overall highlight has to be what I'd consider to be the best presenter ID jingles I have heard from a JAM package that can be heard at 3.35.

So how about a few more? Including some shotgun versions.

In 1997 the station decided to take things to the next level by commisioning a custom package by ALFA with vocals recorded in Los Angeles. It wasn't as bold as the previous package but nontheless a sign of continuing progression.

1997 Demo - "LA Connection"

Sadly it was to be one of ALFA's final custom packages before they went into liquidation.

At the turn of the millennium Metro reverted it's name back to Metro Radio but followed in the lines of many stations by resorting to sweepers, although jingles returned around 2003 in the form of a package from Reelworld.

Some of the sweepers were amusing, such as these examples for The Brian Moore Breakfast Show in 2001.

GNR in 1998 relaunched as Magic on 1170 and 1152 AM where the first record was "We Built This City" by Starship. They also had a jingle package consisting of JAM's "Master Mix" and "Evolver" packages.

Magic 1152/1170 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

The station later went on to using the Steve England custom package for the network in 2003.

Overall with 35 years to it's bow, Metro has definitely had a strong history of radio IDs out of any UK commercial radio station.

Thanks of course to David Barras, Neal Bowden, David Furness, Dave Nightingale, Graham Collins, Aston McNeil, Simon Hirst, and Len Groat for various audio and extra info.

The Stateside Jaunt

A slightly different sort of blog post as this one's simply a selection of my favourite US station packages and resings, as it would be more than appropriate to make a visit to the country where the best jingles were made.

First of all, a package for America's first ever all-80s station WXXY with a wide and unpredictable selection of classic JAM cuts as chosen by the stations then programme director and self confessed jingle freak Jeffrey T Mason.

WXXY-1998-1999 - JAM Creative Productions

I really love the KDWB cuts at 2.25 and unsurprisingly I brought my own version of the first cut as heard here. Not as good as the above I reckon.

According to Jeffrey himself, Jon Wolfert had to re-digitise the KDWB masters as they apparently hadn't been used for well over 10 years, although Star FM in Slough used a couple of cuts for their launch package in 1993.

With many more stations following in the footsteps of WXXY, JAM released a demo CD by the name of "Authentic 80s JAM" which included even rarer packages such as "Future Flow" and "Omni-Trax".

It's also worth mentioning the newer custom cuts including the TOH ID near the end which ended up being demoed for 93-DRQ on the JAM pacakge "Hot Wired".

Moving onto the next selection, and any jingle fan known to grace my drunken presence will know I'm a big fan of JAM's KIIS packages especially "Fresh KIIS".
That and the earlier packages "Outstanding" and "Hot KIIS" can be heard in this composite package for KUUL-Kool FM, where the final two cuts happen to be the ones I had resung back in 2005.

Kool FM Composite Package - JAM Creative Productions

Staying on the theme of KIIS comes this resing of my favourite TM Century custom for the station "Southern California's KIIS" resung for WRZE-The Rose.
Whilst the vocals are superb, the PD made a mistake not going for my favourite cuts from the package such as the slow to fast transition and the Rick Dees cut.

It does contain the top of the hour which composer Bruce Upchurch wrote as a nod to his similar sounding one from Hot KIIS as featured at the end of the
Kool FM package.

WRZE-The Rose - TM Century

The next offering is a rather rare custom package by JAM done back around 1982 for the syndicated station "Super Radio" taken by various stations across the US and featuring established DJs such as Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy, and Dick Purdon amongst others.

This was a superb set of jingles in terms of music arrangement, and featured a female falsetto scatting in a style very similar to the classic PAMS jingles.

It may have even been the same vocalist from the golden era.

If you're wondering why some of the jingles have endings which fade, it was designed for each individual station to add their own ending.

The package itself later went onto be demoed for WGBB as "Good Time Radio" and the cuts that did fade into an orchestral drone were resolved with proper endings.

Super Radio Custom Package - JAM Creative Prodcutions

The following item is quite a rarity, originally posted on Jinglemad from the archives of Jeffrey T. Mason. That being a demo by Otis Connor Productions called "Drake 89" designed for stations broadcasting under an oldies format.

The cuts themselves contain superb orchestration and key changes, especially on the first one and I'd say they're more fuller and uplifting than any of JAM's Oldies, or Soft AC packages which many will agree is a bold statement to make.

Here it is.

Drake 89 - Otis Connor

Last of all is another JAM package from the 80s for KRBE-Power 104 in Houston, resung from the package "Into The Music", written originally for both
WPLJ in New York, and Radio 1.

KRBE-"Into The Music" - JAM Creative Productions

I love how the Power 104 melody logo has been inserted into the cuts and it works really well making them sound stronger than on the original demo for WPLJ.

Although around this time, the New York station had adapted the "Power 95" brand on-air and resung the jingles with the same melody logo as used in the KRBE package so I'm guessing that someone at the station heard the Power 95 version before adpating it for Power 104.

All the same it's a superb package.

I'm certain I'll post a few more US packages on a later post.

In the meantime thanks to Jeffrey T Mason, Ian Arnold, and David Barras for various audio and info, and most importantly sharing the packages from their collection.

And if anyone wants to hear anything from most of the montages on the site
as a single cut, drop me a line in your preferred method.

Swansea Sound

Quite a brief jaunt in this case as I don't know an awful lot about the station itself but throughout the 80s in to the 90s they had some superb jingle packages.

Swansea Sound was one of the earliest ILR stations to launch in the UK, taking to air in 1974 with a jingle package by EMIson.

However it's the early 80s where we begin and the 1981 package as produced by British company Sue Manning Music. Definitely one of my favourites from the producers, this package features a rather cool sounding melody as the main theme with female vocals from a woman who sounds very similar to Sheena Easton.

The main theme can be heard here, and the jingles themselves can be heard below.

1981 Jingles - Sue Manning Music

My only main problem is that all the jingles like many of Sue Manning's packages were all based on the same them and key, apart from the closedown jingle at the end which is on the key of C-Major instead of E.

There's also some nice instrumental cuts, especially the extended version of the news theme at 4.42.
It's just a shame can't really be said about the cuts for Weather, Sport and Traffic as I've never really been a fan of single tracks for such items when they don't have beds.

And I bet those of a certain generation will think the sports jingle bares a shocking resemblance to an annoying song for their youth later half-inched by the Rezillos on the song "Top Of The Pops".

Then again, that was very much common place in local radio in the "dark ages".

With regards to the news theme, I've only recently found out that the particular cut (and possibly the whole package) stole the melody from the Spyro Gyra track "Lovin' You" as included on their 1980 album "Catchin' The Sun".

The proof can be heard in this short extract starting off with the said
Swansea Sound jingle.

1987 saw a new jingle package introduced to the station from the then masters of the game Alfasound, giving a more vibrant and brighter uptempo sound to the station.

1987 Jingles - Alfasound

Rather bizarrely the station managed to escape the IBA's "Use It Or Lose It" policy beyond the late 80s and continued to broadcast on AM and FM without any major changes.

The split finally came in 1995 when changes were made on 96.4 FM where the station became known as "Soundwave" and is now known simply as "The Wave".

New jingles were introduced on both stations in the form of custom packages from Alfasound with JAM vocals. The Soundwave ones can be heard below.

Soundwave 1995 Jingles - Alfasound

Swansea Sound continued to broadcast on AM and introudced another package with the tagline "The Original Swansea Sound" and it was a superbly orchestrated package with Dallas vocals to match.

Swansea Sound 1995 Jingles - Alfasound

By the late 90s both stations were now owned by the Wireless Group and the Wave on FM were using a resing of Vibe's generic package for the Wireless Group if I remember correctly, and Swansea Sound used a resing of a package for another similarly named station, Wave 105 in Hampshire.

And both stations are still going with Swansea Sound turning 35 this year.

Thanks to Andrew Rogers, Geoff Barton, and Ian Johnson for various audio and info.

Lincs FM

This blog post is about a station I've heard on and off over the years but bizarrely enough, I've never actually been staying in Lincolnshire whenever I've had the chance to hear it.

Normally it's just outside of the county either when spending Christmas in North Derbyshire, or being the ideal accompaniment on a weekend away on the North Norfolk coast, alongside Vibe FM when it played disco tunes as well as just R&B.

That's not to say I have anything against Lincolnshire or the area itself, especially as quite a lot of people I've known at University come from the area, and the station was and probably still is a bloody great change from the repetitive monotonous stuff heard elsewhere and it has really came across on air.

Having a really good selection of jingles over the years has added to the warmness and comforting style of the station although it has to be said that I preferred the JAM packages to the rather bog standard custom packages that have been dominant on the station and the network over the last 8 or so years.

It's therefore the aim of this blog to remember even more of the finest JAM jingles heard on radio in the UK from Lincs FM and it's various sister stations.

The station was set up by David Lloyd formerly of Leicester Sound alongside several other station staff including launch presenter Nick Jackson who rather ironically was brought into replace David in his mid-morning slot at Leicester Sound before being asked to join him at his new radio station.

Nick was also the station's first Breakfast presenter who stayed for a year before moving to SGR Colchester.
Other presenters from the launch included former Grimsby Hospital Radio presenter Andy Marsh, and Eddie Shaw who had joined from 210 FM and in good timing considering their takeover by GWR at the time.

The launch can be heard here making use of that bloody song by John Miles which normally makes an appearance in the network's Top 200 every year.
Then head of station David Lloyd in all fairness did mention that he was short of time when putting the sequence together and technically it worked brilliantly.

And thankfully the station played an awful lot more than Simply Red and Phil Collins, who's version of "You Can't Hurry Love" was the first record played.

The original jingles used by the station from it's launch and 8 years onwards were from JAM with Alfasound vocals at the preference of the station's then managing director Michael Betton who didn't want anything in their presentation that sounded American.

Packages resung included "Sunlight", "Brite And Sunny", "Hyperlink", "Digital Mix" (including the weather jingle), and even "The Beat".
There were also custom tracks by Alfasound including beds for news and traffic reports.

1992 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions

The station became instantly succesfull which wasn't surprising considering the only competition were the national stations and BBC Radio Lincolnshire, although Lincs FM made sure that it stood out.

One year later they brought another jingle package to complement those already used on air, again with UK vocalists which regarding the choice of cuts was rather questionable.

Especially on the jingles resung from the CBS-FM and KOST packages as the harmonies are rather dreadful compared the Dallas vocals.

The one at 49 seconds in does bring back a few memories of hearing it at 5am on a rather bright Sunday on spending a weekend in Wells in West Norfolk.

1993 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions

One of the more interesting yet bizarre choices was a resing of cut 2 from "Best Country" which was one of JAM's earliest jingle packages from 1975.

It can be heard above with a witty introduction from Jon Wolfert himself.

I'm guessing that Len Groat was an influence as by this time Alfasound had hired him and his encylcopaedic jingle knowledge as a consultant, and I know he was a big fan of the Best Country package.

The station also held a competition for listeners to create their own jingles and one of the efforts can be heard here.

More of the same was to come in 1995 when the station brought it's third jingle package and one of my favourites.

I like how they made the sensible option of using solos on some of the cuts, especially the one from "Special Touch" at 2.27 as to have the whole group singing that line together would be a crime against nature.

I also really love Steve Butler's solo on the KVIL cut at 1.12.

1995 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions

More classic JAM cuts were included including another one from "Best Country", and that ever iconic piano jingle from "Backseat Music" as previously used on Radio 1 in the 70s.

Overall though, many jingle fans will remember this package for the infamous blooper from this rendition of Cut 10 from "The Beat 92" with the first example being what the jingle was mean to have sounded like.

No wonder the vocals overall sounded inferior to those in Dallas.

A year later, neighbouring station Viking FM which broadcast to Northerly parts of the Lincs FM area brought a selection of cuts from the "Uni-Que" package that were used by Lincs FM.

With the station unhappy about the situation, Alfasound agreed to compensate by providing them with some additional cuts for free including a selection of jingles previously used by Radio 1 such as cut 4 from "The Best Show", and the station song from the 1987 package which was adapted as Lincs FM's weather bed throughout the late 90s.

There was also a superb resing of cut 20 from the "Non Stop Power" package and if anyone has the main cuts or a montage that they'd be happy to donate to the site, then you're more than welcome.

More classic Radio 1 jingles were dominant in the station's next package in 1997 mainly from the KZZP package but there were also a few such from "Hitradio", "Meltdown" and even Radio 1's custom package from 1984 which became
"Into The Music".

1997 Jingles - ALFA/JAM Creative Productions

There's a few more country cuts including one from "Country Class" which was part of Radio 2's enourmous package from 1986, but best of all has to be the
Top 30 bed taken from the rare Scott Shannon "Rockin' America" package from his syndicated show in the mid 80s.

That's actually one of my favourite JAM packages and also a favourite of JAM fan Sean Martin who had this cut resung, only for someone to think it sang "#Europeans, In Drag!"

By the late 90s, Lincs FM was starting to stem further into UK radio by launching a set of stations around Yorkshire and the Midlands.

This meant more JAM jingles and with Steve England now running things on his own, the stations decided to go all out and use JAM vocals as well.

In the Bassetlaw area was Trax FM who's package was predominantly a resing of the "Celebrate" package for KVIL.

Trax FM 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

The station was returning to the airwaves after a successful RSL in 1996, so the first record appropriately enough was Take That and "Back For Good".

Trax FM also launched in Doncaster a year later with the same package as well as further cuts from the Radio 2 1992 custom "It's All For You" and the "Totally Kool" package from Kool 105.

Around the same time as the Bassetlaw station, launched Fosseway Radio broadcasting to the Hinckley area of Leicestershire. The programme controller was Paul Robey who had joined from GEM-AM and the jingles were from the ever superb "Special Touch" package, regarded well by many JAM fans.

Fosseway Radio 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Another station also launched in the Stamford area by the name of Rutland Radio and this was probably my favourite package from the sister stations, consisting of cuts from the classic "Magic Music" series as well as the news intro from WMAL's "Number 1 Voice" package also used a few years earlier
by Invicta Supergold.

Rutland Radio 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

It's difficult not to think of Victor Lewis-Smith's "Weirdo Bags" whenever I hear the jingle at 0.47. Possibly because it was just that tiny bit better than the version done for Rutland.

Following in their footsteps, Lincs FM's next package in 1999 also contained JAM vocals and featured some stunning cuts from "Hit Power", "Hot Buttons", "Soft Sensation" and even the top of hour from "Turbo Z".

There were also jingles from the "Heartbeat" package originally done for Heart 106.2 in London, as by this time they had dropped the package in favour of a custom from Vibe Music, and other stations in the UK were allowed to start using the package.

1999 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

Presenter, and station producer Duncan Newmarch was obviously quite a fan of the wailing noise from the Turbo Z and Metroline cuts in the above package, that he adapted within remixes of some of the older cuts as can be heard in this selection below.

Lincs FM Various On-Air Jingles

The selection also includes the original "phone tones" jingle used at random to ask people to start phoning in to win a CD during the Winning Weekends.

Another station launched, broadcasting to the Wakefield area under the name "Ridings FM" but this time round they went to TM Century and brought a resing of "Big Time Radio" which was rather superb.

Once again if anyone has the main cuts, it would be a welcome addition.

2001 saw the launch of another station following a successful RSL. That being Compass FM who would broadcast to the Grimsby area which was already served by Lincs FM but the group made sure that it's content would be different.

This was acheived by providing a lighter sounding station and with jingles to match from JAM from a selection of their KOST packages.

The launch can be heard here and the jingles can be heard below.

Compass FM 2001 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions

The latter half of 2001 also saw major changes for the group as it was announced during the summer that all stations apart from Compass FM would introduce a new custom package across the network and would drop all of their existing jingles.

In preparation, Lincs FM made less use of their "Playing Hits and Making Memories" strapline, in favour of simply "Hits And Memories" where some of the jingles with liners were altered.

One of them being a rather strung out sweeper where over the cut from "Evolver"
in the 1999 package it would have a voice going "Newark's Hits and Memories, Scunthorpe's Hits and Memories, Grimsby's Hits and Memories" before hitting the vocal tag.

The package itself was called "Link Up" and the demo can be heard below via Steve England's website containing a mixture of UK and Dallas vocals.

2001 Demo - "Link Up" - Steve England

When hearing the jingles on Lincs FM in October 2001 it was more than evident that they had taken a much needed contemporary direction and along with liners recorded by Rik Scott, it gave it a fresher sound whilst not making major changes to the programme content and each station remaining local.

The "FM" named stations would share the same melody logo as Lincs FM, whilst those ending in "Radio" would have a slightly different melody logo, although the news intro had four notes which sounded very similar to the tune
"Happy Up Here" by Royksopp.

My favourite cut was the weather bed done in the style of many a UK garage track around the time but judging by it's 4 year span on air, it managed to date pretty quickly.

The station overall didn't really feel the same as it did with the JAM jingles and I found myself turning away from the station and my visits up North becoming fewer.

More licenses continued to be won by the station including one for the Barnsley and Dearne Valley area which went under the name of Dearne FM.

As expected they also had a resing of the "Link Up" package which can be heard below.

Dearne FM 2003 Jingles - Steve England

At the end of 2005, a new package was introduced also by Steve England but it sounded as if it hadn't moved on or developed from the last package and was just as unmemorable.

2006 Demo - Steve England

Compass FM however kept JAM jingles on air, albeit with UK vocals from various KOST packages as heard in this off-air montage as recorded by Paul McGrath for the Jingle Network podcast a couple of years ago.

Lincs FM had also managed to acquire Oak FM in Leicesteshire amongst it's station but in 2006 they failed to win the license for Hull and East Yorkshire with their station "White Rose Radio".

In the end the winning bid went to KCFM which for me personally provides a more superior station than Lincs FM does now. Possibly because they've got some of Lincs FM's old presenters such as Steve Jordan, and Rob Langley. As well as some rather nifty and superior jingles from the TM Studios.

However in spite of the station's more uniformed formats, Lincs FM did provide us with some of the most interesting (and sometimes hilarious) resings of the finest JAM jingles.

Thanks of course to David Nightingale, Mark Hodgkinson, Christian Spooner, Len Groat, David Barras, Sean Martin, Paul McGrath, and Duncan Newmarch.