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.