tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158559085170535422024-03-13T11:27:17.279+00:00Jingle JauntsA trawl through many classic UK radio station jingles from Robin BlamiresUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-86113248400450973072009-07-13T14:49:00.000+01:002009-07-13T14:50:11.771+01:00The Heart Attack Blogs<span style="font-family:verdana;">For any new readers, here's a selection to the various Heart Attack posts on my normal blog which inspired this spin off, following the various Global rebrands over the last 6 months.<br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/01/east-anglias-heart-attack-part-1-radio.html"><br /></a></span><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/01/east-anglias-heart-attack-part-1-radio.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Radio Orwell</strong></a><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/01/east-anglias-heart-attack-part-1-radio.html">/Saxon Radio/SGR</a><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/01/east-anglias-heart-attack-part-2-radio.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Radio Broadland</strong></a><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/01/east-anglias-heart-attack-part-3.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Hereward Radio/CNFM</strong></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span> <a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/01/east-anglias-heart-attack-part-4.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Chiltern Radio</strong></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br /></span><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/03/west-countrys-heart-attack-radio-west.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Radio West/GWR<br /></strong></a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/03/south-wests-heart-attack.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Devonair/Gemini/Orchard<br /></strong></a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/03/gloucestershires-heart-attack-severn.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Severn Sound</strong></a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/03/oxfordshires-heart-attack-fox-fm.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold"><br />Fox FM</strong></a><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/03/berkshires-heart-attach-radio-210-210.html" rel="external"><strong class="bbcode bold">Radio 210/210-FM</strong></a><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/chester-and-north-wales-heart-attack.html" rel="external">Marcher Sound</a><br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/bournemouth-and-dorsets-heart-attack.html" rel="external">2CR</a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-coasts-heart-attack.html" rel="external"><br />South Coast Stations</a><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-coasts-heart-attack.html"> (Radio Victory, Ocean Sound, </a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-coasts-heart-attack.html">Power FM)</a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/essexs-heart-attack.html" rel="external"><br />Essex Radio</a><br /><a style="font-weight: bold; font-family: verdana;" class="bbcode" href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/sussexs-heart-attack-southern-sound.html" rel="external"><br />Southern Sound</a><br /><a href="http://blammy.blogspot.com/2009/06/south-east-englands-heart-attack.html"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Invicta Radio/Invicta FM</span></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-48265618882307321342009-07-12T21:47:00.000+01:002009-07-13T14:52:21.726+01:00Viking At 25<span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Originally posted on my normal blog back in April, here's my look back on Viking's jingles over the last 25 years.</span><br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Morning.<br /><br />Or maybe <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?hmnvjimykeg">this</a> would be a better way of putting it.<br /><br />Yes, 25 years ago on the 17th of April 1984, Viking Radio launched onto the airwaves of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire as the area's first commercial radio station.<br /><br />The first record played after that absolutely stunning station theme was "Celebration" by Kool and The Gang and the line up at the launch included Dave Fewster, Les Smith, and Steve King who went onto become one of the senior people at the Metro Radio group who would go on to own the station.<br /><br />I haven't actually been able to hear what they've been doing up in Hull this morning, but I thought it would be ideal to post a selection of their jingles from over the last quarter of a century (if that's a good way to put it).<br /><br />The first jingle package was produced by Selby based company Cath Baxter Commercials and featured the familiar voices of Steve Butler and Sheila Gott who had sung on the Alfasound jingle packages, but in terms of musical clarity, these had a more fuller sound as proved by that fantastic opening theme which must have inspired Chris Moyles in some way or other.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gj2dzagilim"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1984 Jingles - Cath Baxter Commercials</span><br /></a><br />It's quite lengthy but there are some stunners on there such as the news and sport themes, the latter being a slightly faster version of the main theme. There's also the jingle used for snow reports about 7 minutes in which in spite of being rather repetetive is actually rather comforting to listen to.<br /><br />And near the end there's a slower version of the theme played at closedown.<br /><br />With the station's popularity increasing, Carl Kingston decided to expand on the station sound by ordering a set of liners from US voiceover artist John Quincy.<br />The session can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tnigmtmcgen">here</a> and it gives an idea to the non-radio people that it can be quite a long wounded job, although John's more or less a pro knowing how to read the lines in different manners.<br /><br />1986 saw the station move from 102.7 on FM to 96.9 where it has stayed ever since. This meant a new jingle package but Cath Baxter Commercials had folded by this time although her "Christmas Line" jingle could still be heard on<br />Yorkshire Television well into the 90s.<br /><br />The station went to Manchester based company LBS for their second jingle package which was more contemporary (for the time) and uptempo if a bit synthy.<br />Steve Butler was once again helping out on vocals and it wasn't too bad a package.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mczd4q22yvz"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1986 Jingles - LBS</span></a><br /><br />Notice a few dual cuts for Pennine within the selection as by this time the IBA had started to allow mergers between radio stations in order to gain more money. Viking had started to share overnight programmes with Pennine Radio in Bradford and a year later they acquired Radio Hallam in Sheffield to form the Yorkshire Radio Network.<br /><br />This lead to another jingle package, this time by Alfasound that was syndicated on all three stations with versions done individually and for shared programmes.<br />Viking's on air melody logo changed to the same as Pennine's which they'd used since 1979 and this continued for a few years.<br /><br />In 1988 they brought another jingle package following on from the same theme which had a larger and stronger selection of cuts that can be heard below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vmdntmwy2lz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1988 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Later in the year the station split frequencies with Viking Radio becoming Viking FM on 96.9. This meant a resing of the previous package as well as some new cuts that can be heard around 56 seconds in with some stunning jock IDs at about 1:30.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?w2ni3m1dzqm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1988 Jingles-Viking FM - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />On 1161 (that's 'Double One Six One) AM it became Viking Gold broadcasting continuous oldies and the station brought a selection of classic PAMS jingles previously used on Radio London back in the 1960s, in the line of many local AM stations wanting to recapture the magic of the pirate stations.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ezmyrvoozkj"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1988 Jingles-Viking Gold - PAMS</span></a><br /><br />May 1989 saw Radio Hallam and Pennine Radio split their frequencies and all three stations brought their first JAM package with Alfasound vocals as the Sale based company had just become the UK license for JAM Creative Productions.<br /><br />The JAM jingles were from a package called "Non Stop Power" as done for WPLJ-Power 95 in New York and along with the JAM jingles were new custom cuts from Alfasound as well as resung versions of the previous package which the other stations had started using.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m2ynadljfjm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Listen out for the jock IDs at 0.51 with the first one being Adrian Green now known as Sandy Beech who runs top imaging company Music 4 producing the current jingles for Chris Moyles.<br />The other's for some fella called Jon Culshaw.<br /><br />On AM they started sharing programmes with the other stations in the network under the name "Classic Gold" with further resings of PAMS jingles but I'll save them for another post about the Yorkshire stations overall.<br /><br />In the early 90s the network was abandoned and Viking brought their first fully fledged JAM package which was a resing of the "KIIS 90" package as used by<br />Aire FM in Leeds.<br /><br />There's also a couple of cuts from "Xyrock" including the news ID near the end.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?d1i2myiwdrj"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Two years later the station returned to JAM in time for their 10th anniversary which was a fresher slightly urban sounding package containing cuts from the impressive "Northwave" package and "The Beat 92". There's also the top of the hour from "Quick Qs" as used on Key 103 in Manchester around the same time.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmk2fnob0kw"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1994 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Two years later they went back again this time for a package consisting of the </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">"Master Mix"</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> and "Uni-Que" packages. The former included a few rather fun soundalikes such as Ace of Base and Whitney Houston.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?czr43zmcmow"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />With regards to "Uni-Que" neighbouring station Lincs FM had cuts from the same package at the same time albeit with UK vocals.<br />Coincidentally their breakfast presenter Steve Jordan went on to join Viking around this time.<br /><br />The late 90s into the early 00s saw an absence of sung jingles on Viking's airwaves, save for the ones commisioned by Breakfast presenter Simon Hirst, who being one of the biggest jingle anoraks commisioned a a couple of UK sung jingles from "The Best Show" previously used by Radio 1.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?u3jyyowzzzy"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hirsty's Morning Glory 2001</span></a><br /><br />To be fair I doubt the Dallas singers would be able to give conviction to lyrics about showing your backside in a well known supermarket.<br /><br />Jingles eventually returned to Viking on a fully fledged basis in 2004 with a custom package by Reelworld, which isn't reccomended for those who dislike jingles with what they percieve to be "screeching solos" and "too much echo".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ey2zqyyol02"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2004 Jingles - Reelworld Productions</span></a><br /><br />Two years later they went back to Dallas for a more tuneful custom package by TM Century with quite a few nice cuts, especially the breakfast one towards the end.<br />And it should be pointed out that it's a completely different Sam And Mark who presented breakfast back then as opposed to the failed pop duo/double act of two straight men.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmzw5ixozez"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2006 Jingles - TM Century</span></a><br /><br />The jingles are currently being used nearer my neck of the woods on KMFM including that rather dodgy traffic jingle near the end.<br />My personal opinion is that any jingle of that type with the stations logo played on car horns is tired and tacky, with the possible exception of the one from Radio 1's 1990 custom package.<br /><br />However when hearing it at 5 years old I didn't realise that it was done to the tune of the Radio 1 musical logo.<br /><br />Anyway, the station had a few additional cuts in 2007 including a contest bed towards the end where you can tell whoever produced it has spent a night on Garage Band.<br /><br />And that pretty much brings us up to date where in 2008 the station went to home soils for the next package as produced by Wise Buddah in London.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?unxt2mzjirc"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2008 Jingles - Wise Buddah</span></a><br /><br />That more or less covers the majority of Viking's history through jingles although I'm certain that a lot of residents from the Hull area will have even stronger memories of the station.<br /><br />Credit to David Hemsley, Dan James, Mark Hodgkinson, David Barras,<br />Dave Nightingale, and Simon Hirst.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-41933063237828303242009-06-12T12:18:00.006+01:002009-06-29T19:55:35.208+01:00News=Nightmares?<span style="font-family:verdana;">News identification jingles have always been an essential part of a radio station's jingle package.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />There were several variants of course to coincide with changes in the melody logo, but <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nhouj5zzenm">this one from 1982</a> pretty much sums it up.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />That's not to say commercial radio were any better.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Here's just a few of them<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mnnndyyddjg"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ILR News Intros (Early 80s)</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />The infamous Radio City news intro at the end was actually composed in 1974<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Unless someone else knows otherwise, only one commercial station actually had "IRN" sung in their news intro which was <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dlmneoylnm0">Capital Radio back in 1984</a>.<br />The only other station overall was Parkside Hospital Radio in London, back in 1989 with a resing of <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?znkktamlwtj">this classic PAMS jingle</a>.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nkb5xdwzzyi">Capital/Southern News Intros - Late 80s</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />Examples from many stations both Local and National can be heard below.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vmm23kwmkmj">90s And Onwards News Intros<br /></a><br /></span>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Just my own thoughts...<br /><br />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.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-8578255451909689902009-06-10T18:29:00.002+01:002009-06-10T18:49:42.645+01:00BBC Local's Best<span style="font-family:verdana;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?imocmyemzyz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC Radio Lincolnshire 1987 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />A really strong set of IDs making good use of the melody from the original song with clever variations.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Staying along the same theme and era, a custom package by Alfasound for BBC Radio Sussex consisting of instrumental jingles based on the tune<br />"Sussex By The Sea".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?idymkyymymm"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?idymkyymymm">BBC Radio Sussex 1987 Jingles - Alfasound<br /></a><br /></span>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.<br /><br />The next one's quite a rarity and comes courtesy of Mark Prosser who originally posted these gems on Jinglemad.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nymm5fnqmkz">BBC Radio Merseyside 1983 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions/William B Tanner<br /></a><br /></span>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.<br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4yiioyhtzhg"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC Thames Valley FM 1996 Jingles - TM Century</span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br />Returning northbound, a short selection of cuts for BBC GMR in Manchester back in 1988 when the station had rebranded from Radio Manchester.<br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vtnmwudynet">BBC GMR 1988 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>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".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?iu1yjjtmzqz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC Radio Leeds 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />I've also heard a story that the other cut from the WABC package with the lyrics <span style="font-style: italic;">"A day for just relaxing"</span> was almost banned as people thought it was blasphemous when played out on a Sunday morning.<br /><br />Finally, if any BBC Local Station had the best jingles, it was Radio Newcastle in the late 80s into the 90s.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jmm2m5ydiwm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC Radio Newcastle 1989 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span><br /></a><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ioz5zm0zyn1"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC Radio Newcastle 1990 Add Ons - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br />I especially love the "PLJ 91" top of hour, and the Jonathan Morrell breakfast jingle from the Y98-FM package.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wq3zv5mtjjo"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BBC Radio Newcastle 1991 Jingles - TM Century</span><br /></a><br />If anyone has any more, they would be more than welcome.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Thanks to Dave Nightingale, Neal Bowden, David Hemsley, David Barras, Nicky Schiller, Chris Stevens and Mark Prosser.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-19258995725884026822009-06-07T19:53:00.003+01:002009-07-02T10:41:47.887+01:00Radio Tees/TFM<span style="font-family:verdana;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1ulymvz23hn"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1975 Jingles - EMIson</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />The various News and information jingles from the package can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?j3ynztmdeyj">here</a>.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xmrnhmylq4m"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1977 Jingles - EMIson</span></a><br /><br />The Selby based Cath Baxter Commercials was approached to write the following jingle package way onto the air in the late 70s/early 80s.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zznbqifkjmy">Early 80s Jingles - Cath Baxter</a><br /><br /></span>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 <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jgm3d2i3ilq">"My Top 3"</a> feature, including the rather picturesque weather jingle based around the song "Bobby Shaftoe".<br /><br />It can be heard along with the news themes <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ddtzmzmevyd">here</a>.<br /><br />1983 saw another package which was even better with superb orchestration and delightful arrangements and vocals.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kd3xkmjzokw"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1983 Jingles - Cath Baxter</span></a><br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wmgyinnmoly">Alex Lester from 1984</a>.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gn5g1geohuv">1987 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>In 1988 along with Metro the station split frequencies although Radio Tees decided to relaunch altogether by rebranding as TFM.<br /><br />The jingles took on an even more pacier sound with some weird ambient effects thrown in.<br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?g4kyydwjygm">TFM 1988 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>A set of Christmas jingles came at the end of the year in a similar style but this time with US vocals.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nnzo1zm5dim"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nnzo1zm5dim">TFM 1988 Xmas Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ywdjjjtyywz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TFM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Accompanying the jingles were <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?iok12jmmyod">a set of sweepers</a> voiced by John Wells.<br /><br />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".<a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gbmyhjug2ji"><br /><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gbmyhjug2ji">TFM 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>A couple of years later TFM brought another JAM package consisting mainly of cuts from the "Energy" package custom produced for NRJ in France.<br /><br />Again it's pretty rare to get hold of but here's a selection from the studio carts courtesy of David Barras.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uhmynbmuznz"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TFM 1993/94 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span><br /></a><br />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.<br /><br />The selection below was orginally posted by Neal Bowden on Jinglemad.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?em5mhmjjy1m"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TFM 1995 Jingles - MPT</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />The demo itself can be heard <a href="http://www.tmstudios.com/jingles.asp">here</a> via the TM website.<br /><br />Thanks of course to David Hemsley, David Barras, Neal Bowden, and Simon Hirst for all the usual stuff.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-65737682101641294362009-06-07T16:59:00.002+01:002009-06-07T19:28:40.887+01:00Metro Radio<span style="font-family: verdana;">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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zihyihrcjnl"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1974 Jingles - PAMS Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />And not forgetting <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2dl2yjimzxy">the main theme</a> as taken from the Solid Rock 2 package by PAMS, which Alfasound later reworked for Len at GEM AM, 14 years later.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cyjyjzzewtv"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1977 Jingles - EMIson/YAMCO</span></a><br /><br />It's also worth mentioning <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ch5on1xwzqj">this cut</a> based around the song "Am I The Same Girl" by either Dusty or Swing Out Sister depending on your generation.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cztixjhjyyj">1986 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>A really strong package and there was to be more of the same throughout the rest of the decade.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ymiznmneyuh"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Metro And Tees 1987 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5mz2myim244"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1987 Add Ons - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />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.<br />There's even a vintage PAMS cut in there from the "Fun Vibrations" series.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?iyyglwyydnz">1988 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />Some of the beds sound very similar to what you would find on an album by The RAH Band.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dm2timv2mzt">GNR 1988 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>The package was later resung for the Yorkshire Radio Network's "Classic Gold" that can be heard on the YRN blog post.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nctywyowyov"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Metro FM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gi24jmwnfm0"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Metro FM 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zgyumnkyihm">GNR 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>1994 saw Metro FM go even further when they brought their own custom JAM package in time for their 20th birthday.<br /><br />This was a very polished and brilliantly sung package with some superb music tracks giving a very strong and recognisable melody logo.<br /><br />You could say it gave me a few ideas.<br /><br />Here it is and it's quite a big one.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?etzyzmtwz4i"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?etzyzmtwz4i">Metro FM 1994 Custom "Metroline" - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />So how about <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5oezmyiik4m">a few more</a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5oezmyiik4m">?</a> Including some shotgun versions.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yzgoywuz0wm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1997 Demo - "LA Connection"</span></a><br /><br />Sadly it was to be one of ALFA's final custom packages before they went into liquidation.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Some of the sweepers were amusing, such as <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?00oumgzzzmy">these examples for The Brian Moore Breakfast Show</a> in 2001.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yjz3mmzzamq"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Magic 1152/1170 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />The station later went on to using the Steve England custom package for the network in 2003.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-83940166317097868402009-06-06T14:04:00.004+01:002009-06-07T11:57:31.835+01:00The Stateside Jaunt<span style="font-family:verdana;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5yzogzzkjnj"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5yzogzzkjnj">WXXY-1998-1999 - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /></span><br />I really love the KDWB cuts at 2.25 and unsurprisingly I brought my own version of the first cut as heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nnjgyzrg2ym">here</a>. Not as good as the above I reckon.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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".<br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?biox5moteo1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kool FM Composite Package - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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<br />Kool FM package.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yomnidytxzy"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yomnidytxzy">WRZE-The Rose - TM Century</a><br /><br /></span>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. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />It may have even been the same vocalist from the golden era.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>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.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nyinzwm1yzd"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Super Radio Custom Package - JAM Creative Prodcutions</span><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Here it is.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?grm22mmwmqz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Drake 89 - Otis Connor</span></a><br /><br />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<br />WPLJ in New York, and Radio 1.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3yzwqddtmnm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">KRBE-"Into The Music" - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />All the same it's a superb package.<br /><br />I'm certain I'll post a few more US packages on a later post.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />And if anyone wants to hear anything from most of the montages on the site<br />as a single cut, drop me a line in your preferred method.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-35045409187751250752009-06-05T14:46:00.002+01:002009-06-05T16:13:35.709+01:00Swansea Sound<span style="font-family: verdana;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ygcwkoz1kdw">The main theme</a> can be heard here, and the jingles themselves can be heard below.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mod1kojmkji"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1981 Jingles - Sue Manning Music</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />There's also some nice instrumental cuts, especially the extended version of the news theme at 4.42.<br />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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />Then again, that was very much common place in local radio in the "dark ages".<br /><br />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".<br /><br />The proof can be heard in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5dnlyayfgj2">this short extract</a> starting off with the said<br />Swansea Sound jingle.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmooeixonnv"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1987 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nkndzdmmjno">Soundwave 1995 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /></span><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4zgzwieydod"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Swansea Sound 1995 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />And both stations are still going with Swansea Sound turning 35 this year.<br /><br />Thanks to Andrew Rogers, Geoff Barton, and Ian Johnson for various audio and info.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-32673987365019079882009-06-04T16:46:00.007+01:002009-06-29T17:45:24.554+01:00Lincs FM<span style="font-family:verdana;">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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Nick was also the station's first Breakfast presenter who stayed for a year before moving to SGR Colchester.<br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qz2mojjonn1">The launch can be heard here</a> making use of that bloody song by John Miles which normally makes an appearance in the network's Top 200 every year.<br />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.<br /><br />And thankfully the station played an awful lot more than </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Simply Red</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> and Phil Collins, who's version of "You Can't Hurry Love" was the first record played.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Packages resung included "Sunlight", "Brite And Sunny", "Hyperlink", "Digital Mix" (including the weather jingle), and even "The Beat".<br />There were also custom tracks by Alfasound including beds for news and traffic reports.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ig5rznzyj02">1992 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Especially on the jingles resung from the CBS-FM and KOST packages as the harmonies are rather dreadful compared the Dallas vocals.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nzojwnynlyr">1993 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>One of the more interesting yet bizarre choices was a resing of <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?0ntmkn2vczk">cut 2 from "Best Country"</a> which was one of JAM's earliest jingle packages from 1975.<br /><br />It can be heard above with a witty introduction from Jon Wolfert himself.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The station also held a competition for listeners to create their own jingles and one of the efforts can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?41lyri5mmzh">here</a>.<br /><br />More of the same was to come in 1995 when the station brought it's third jingle package and one of my favourites.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />I also really love Steve Butler's solo on the KVIL cut at 1.12.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?diwjwjtzvmb"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1995 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span><br /></a><br />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.<br /><br />Overall though, many jingle fans will remember this package for the infamous blooper from this rendition of <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?1uy2jrynjee">Cut 10 from "The Beat 92"</a> with the first example being what the jingle was mean to have sounded like.<br /><br />No wonder the vocals overall sounded inferior to those in Dallas.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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<br />"Into The Music".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jalunm1oona"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1997 Jingles - ALFA/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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<br />Top 30 bed taken from the rare Scott Shannon "Rockin' America" package from his syndicated show in the mid 80s.<br /><br />That's actually one of my favourite JAM packages and also a favourite of JAM fan <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1zz0whzfzcy">Sean Martin</a> who had this cut resung, only for someone to think it sang <span style="font-style: italic;">"#Europeans, In Drag!"</span><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />In the Bassetlaw area was Trax FM who's package was predominantly a resing of the "Celebrate" package for KVIL.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ljozmzttykx"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ljozmzttykx">Trax FM 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>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".<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmzn4t2e2wh"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmzn4t2e2wh">Fosseway Radio 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /></span><br />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<br />by Invicta Supergold.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kbzzwnuywjt"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kbzzwnuywjt">Rutland Radio 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmvn2zywyio"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1999 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qdtkzkmzojm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lincs FM Various On-Air Jingles</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Once again if anyone has the main cuts, it would be a welcome addition.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />This was acheived by providing a lighter sounding station and with jingles to match from JAM from a selection of their KOST packages.<br /><br />The launch can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wtojzyamhwj">here</a> and the jingles can be heard below.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?j3mwyznkmjw"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?j3mwyznkmjw">Compass FM 2001 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />One of them being a rather strung out sweeper where over the cut from "Evolver"<br />in the 1999 package it would have a voice going <span style="font-style: italic;">"Newark's Hits and Memories, Scunthorpe's Hits and Memories, Grimsby's Hits and Memories" </span>before hitting the vocal tag.<br /><br />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.<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.steveengland.com/ids/Lincs%20FM%20Group%20imaging%20package%20demo%20%28November%202006%29.mp3"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2001 Demo - "Link Up" - Steve England</span></a><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />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.<br /><br />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<br />"Happy Up Here" by Royksopp.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />As expected they also had a resing of the "Link Up" package which can be heard below.<br /><a href="http://www.s2blue.com/audio/2006/MP3/Lincs%20FM%20Group%20imaging%20package%20demo%20%28November%202006%29.mp3"><br /></a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?btd0mjnwdo2"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dearne FM 2003 Jingles - Steve England</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.s2blue.com/audio/2006/MP3/Lincs%20FM%20Group%20imaging%20package%20demo%20%28November%202006%29.mp3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2006 Demo - Steve England</span></a><br /><br />Compass FM however kept JAM jingles on air, albeit with UK vocals from various KOST packages as heard in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jimylewetln">this off-air montage</a> as recorded by Paul McGrath for the Jingle Network podcast a couple of years ago.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Thanks of course to David Nightingale, Mark Hodgkinson, Christian Spooner, Len Groat, David Barras, Sean Martin, Paul McGrath, and Duncan Newmarch.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-12176815178642661502009-05-26T08:07:00.005+01:002009-06-07T11:49:00.389+01:00BBC Radio York<span style="font-family:verdana;">A slightly different post this time round as it's not often that there's a blog post based around a BBC Local Radio station.<br /><br />However Radio York has to be one of the standouts who since their launch in July 1983 have relied on some of the finest heard on all the BBC Local stations in 40 years.<br /><br />And I'm not just saying that because a fellow radio student on my University course worked there as a BA before going onto bigger things.<br /><br />The station launched on the 4th of July 1983 to much publicity, where the first jingle package was by Memphis based company William B. Tanner which had <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?filhkwfgntm">a really delightful main theme</a>.<br />The rest of the jingles can be heard below.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?izhmqzju4wd"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1983 Jingles - William B. Tanner</span></a><br /><br />Two years later the station went to Dallas and brought a JAM package consisting mainly of the WNBC packages, as well as that delightful cut from "Special Touch" that can be heard at the beginning as well as ones from "I'd Rather Be In Denver" and "We'll Make Your Day".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qtjoqmnravv"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qtjoqmnravv">1985 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /></span><br />I could be wrong in suggesting this but I'm certain one of their presenters Victor Lewis-Smith had a hand in the above jingle package as he was a huge JAM fan and especially of the WNBC packages as one of them ended up being used in his TV Offal series on Channel 4 in the late 90s.<br /><br />In 1989 David Arnold was approached to produce the next package with vocals by JAM as they came close to being represented by David Arnold before Jon decided to go with Alfasound as the UK reps due to their greater enthusiasm for jingles as opposed to just music.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ozzkxhymi20"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 Jingles - David Arnold Music</span></a><br /><br />Chris Choi, now at ITV News was one of those at the station who helped to realise the package and for me it has to be their liveliest and most energetic used in the last 25 years.<br /><br />In fact I'll say it's the best custom package I've ever heard on a BBC Local Radio Station even if some of the cuts bare resemblance to existing packages such as the Century 21 "Proton" package and even a few vintage PAMS jingles such as the "Smooth Sailing" one at 2.29.<br /><br />The package also contained these <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jywzwwmytwn">hard to find News and Traffic beds</a> that can be heard here.<br />Apparently Radio 1 wanted the traffic jingle for themselves but Radio York wouldn't let them. Although their own one from the 1990 package was a lot better and comforting than Radio York's partly because Radio 1's only had horns at the beginning.<br /><br />Into the 90s and 1991 saw a return to David Arnold who by this time was the UK rep for TM Century and BBC Radio York brought some of their finest with resings from "Proton", "WNSR '91", "Y98-FM" and a stunning solo cut from the K-Lite package at the end which a few jingle collectors have had done for themselves.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zketkjrtzwn"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1991 Jingles - TM Century</span></a><br /><br />By the end of the decade the station was using a JAM package with UK vocals consisting of jingles from the "American Mix" package for WBLI in Long Island, and sports station WFAN in New York.<br /><br />Not as exciting as the last set but still pretty good.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zznyyw4iyut"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1997 Jingles - ALFA/JAM Creative Productions</span><br /></a><br />During the early half of the current decade the station even rebranded itself as "BBC North Yorkshire" but it didn't last too long.<br /><br />And that more or less brings us up to date with the current jingle package as of 2007 which pretty much epitomises the current trend of a station's melody logo going down instead of up, musically.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nmqnimd3imj">2006 Jingles - Maximum Production</a><br /><br /></span>And to finish with, <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mxei4mmy1lx">a special feature about the station's jingles</a> for the 20th anniversary introduced by York resident and jingle enthusiast David Hemsley.<br /><br />Usual thanks of course to Mark Hodgkinson, Dave Nightingale, David Hemsley, Stuart Barrett for the 1989 News and Travel cuts, and Aston McNeil.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-51682938942467320042009-05-25T13:04:00.006+01:002009-06-24T11:49:10.319+01:00Beacon Radio<span style="font-family:verdana;">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.<br /><br />I'll do my best to make this post pretty jingle-centric although I may slip in some random nonsense as always.<br /><br />Beacon began broadcasting in April 1976 and was the last ILR station to launch in the decade.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />There's also that rather cool news intro towards the end possibly based around "Shaft".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mww0namhdek"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1976 Jingles - EMIson</span></a><br /><br />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.<br />Personally I think "Beacon 303" fitted in better.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?w0zaj4zlwdz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1978 Jingles - TM Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />We'll move onwards to the mid 80s and the first of Beacon's many custom packages by Alfasound.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mothqmclzlz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1985 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />This set the standard for what was to come although the singers couldn't always get it right as heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xy3gi302wwg">here</a>.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />The original demo can be heard here;<br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ezxumntmztd"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1986 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Whilst the more polished package used on air can be heard below.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qmfy2ozmk4m"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1987 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Whilst it's a solid package, I've never understood why the first oldies cut done in the style of the Beatles goes <span style="font-style: italic;">"The latest hits of the 60s"</span>.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2zxtcmtmtmm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1988 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />In 1989 Beacon followed in the footsteps of many other ILR stations by splitting their frequencies on AM and FM.<br /><br />Beacon Radio continued on FM with a new set of jingles featuring Dallas vocals and I love how they pronounce the station name as <span style="font-style: italic;">"#Beeee-Kun Rayy-Dee-Oohhh" </span><span><br /><br />Th</span>e selection below also includes a few acapellas including one for Rory Morrison who's now one of Radio 4's newsreaders and announcers.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xgjmmmjm5mn"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xgjmmmjm5mn">1989 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS International</a><br /><br /></span>There were also <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ydtznvigzny">a few resings from the 87 package</a> with US vocals and just for a bit of fun, here's <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wmkklm5oj45">the Shrewsbury versions</a> of those superb phone number and address jingles. There's also a really noisy synthy jingle for the sports and the rare news intro.<br /><br />Listen out in the first selection for the half-inched laser FX from the Century 21 "Proton" demo.<br /><br />On 990 AM a new station launched under the name that the IBA initially rejected 13 years earlier; WABC.<br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5hy25jjxvem"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5hy25jjxvem">WABC 1989 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS Productions<br /></a><br /></span>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?24umumvjjfo"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beacon Radio 1989 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Many jingle fans regard this to be one of JAM's finest packages and it worked brilliantly on air for the station.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mymymyuzmw3"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mymymyuzmw3">Beacon Radio 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /></span><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zudmye0onzj"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WABC 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Throughout the 90s, Beacon would use a library track by KPM called "Express" to lead them into the news from their TOH ident.<br /><br />Courtesy of Michael Bolton (not that one) here's <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?n013zmmmmnz">a short selection</a> from over the years.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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".<br /><br />The "Do It Again" resings can be heard below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lomktm2tymg"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beacon Radio 1993 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />WABC also had tracks from the same package and their variant can be heard as well.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mwm52nmxyyz"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WABC 1993 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nmyddwz5jmn">Beacon Radio 1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>Another example which I put together years ago comparing the demo with the Beacon cuts can also be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zw2ojzyztmt">here</a> and more or less proves the above point.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mdoigbwgmug">WABC 1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>Beacon also had a couple of cuts from the same package used for simultaneous overnight programme, as heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zxfewlyjzmo">here</a>.<br /><br />In 1996, GWR's curfew was up and both Pete Wagstaff and Alan Mullett left the station before the damage was made.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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<br />(or at least it sounded like that) was not the right move to make.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?y2njnrnzxtm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">WABC Classic Gold 1997 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?bzdmynjikyz"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?bzdmynjikyz">Beacon Radio 2007 Jingles - Kissville</a><br /><br /></span>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.<br /><br />Although if that's the case, the majority of those above will hard to beat.<br /><br />Thanks to Geoff Barton, Andy Walters, Alan Nicklin, Aston McNeil, Neal Bowden Stacey Harris, Paul McGrath,<br />and Michael Bolton.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-62227234833035619552009-05-12T14:59:00.005+01:002009-06-29T19:44:26.388+01:00The Yorkshire Radio Network<span style="font-family:verdana;">I've made several posts about the individual stations around the Yorkshire area, so I thought it would be good to post a selection of those done for YRN overall and the various jingle packages done for the AM stations.<br /><br />The Yorkshire Radio Network began in 1987 when after a brief dalliance between Pennine Radio in Bradford, and Viking Radio in Hull, both stations and Radio Hallam began broadcasting overnight and introduced a syndicated jingle package across all three stations.<br /><br />The melody logo for the network blended in those from Pennine Radio and Radio Hallam, with Viking Radio adapting their's to fit in with Pennine's as an individual station.<br /><br />The first jingle package was rather brief but featured the stunning vocals of Jimmy Helmes who had previously sung on an earlier Radio Hallam package and would find later success as part of Londonbeat shortly after.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wl33zqyj3z5"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1987 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />A few examples of how the jingles were adapted individually can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zjzm3qnmtyh">here</a>, with a few individual jock IDs for Pennine, as well as their earlier traffic intro leading into the YRN bed to ease the changes.<br /><br />There was confusion however as to whether the stations would be referred to as Viking, Hallam and Pennine, Pennine, Hallam and Viking, etc so Alfasound produced a few examples as heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dmzuzjjrzm2">here</a>.<br /><br />It's worth posting a selection of jingles proposed for the network by Manchester company LBS who had previously done a package for Viking Radio.<br /><br />Personally I think they sound more contemporary with the music that was in the charts that the time compared to the Alfasound jingles and sound rather good.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vdvcokzzwwm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">YRN - LBS Jingles (Unused)</span></a><br /><br />Although with the Alfasound packages, a more coherent and concise melody logo had been established and it managed to work across the network.<br /><br />In 1988 a second package arrived with new news and traffic beds and a bigger selection of cuts with the majority of them being based around the name "Viking, Pennine and Hallam" which worked out well as the last notes ended on the Radio Hallam melody logo.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2htn5lmfdmj"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1988 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Viking was the first station to split it's frequencies with the new Viking FM buying a further set of jingles with new custom cuts.<br /><br />They were later adapted for the network in 1989 when Pennine and Hallam began broadcasting on FM only as well as the stations first set of JAM jingles with UK vocals.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?q2jozhe4ugo">1989 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span><span>A promo marking the launch of the Classic Gold service and Hallam FM can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?iydmqaweayt">here</a>.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>On AM, all three stations re-branded to "Classic Gold" with Alfasound providing some rather impressive news, sport and travel<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>IDs based around a few familiar sounding tunes.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ntzwghgtdzz"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ntzwghgtdzz">Classic Gold 1989 Alfasound Jingles</a><br /><br /></span>The rest of the jingles followed along the lines of Viking Gold in 1988, by making use of classic PAMS jingles that can be heard below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dmznuovr5ny"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Classic Gold 1989 PAMS Jingles</span></a><br /><br />In 1991 the station was brought by the Metro Radio group and the jingles on AM were changed to a resing of a package originally produced by Alfasound for Great North Radio in the North East.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tjvj2qgyyjg"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Classic Gold 1991 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Although it was a resing of what I'd consider to be one of Alfasound's best packages, the staff at the station decided to produce a rather witty piss-take although rather than witty, it's more a case of being crude for the sake of it.<br /><br />(Ignore the Bastard Brothers tag on the file itself, I wasn't sure about who produced at first)<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3namhf5xz4k"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3namhf5xz4k">Classic Gold Pisstake 1991</a><br /><br /></span>In 1992, following in the footsteps of Great North Radio, the AM stations changed their name to "Great Yorkshire Radio" with a rather nice set of JAM jingles from packages such as "Do It Again", "Digital Mix" and "Continuous Coast".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?njhnyzjykoj"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Great Yorkshire Radio 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />A few liners voiced for the station by Doc Morgan can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nmryvumnwdy">here</a>.<br /><br />Shortly after they changed their name to Great Yorkshire Gold and the 1994 demo from the Alfasound tapes can be heard below.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xtxynmnrdnn"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Great Yorkshire Gold 1994 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions<br /></span></a><br />There were also a few <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmej1kmjayr">additional cuts for presenters</a>, including a superb version of one of the jingles from "The Beat 92" with a 7 voice group. That manages to wipe the floor with my version.<br /><br />In 1996 the station brought a selection of JAM jingles as used on Radio 1 and adapted the melody logo as their own. They even brought the classic travel jingle.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?22f2ly0cmym"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Great Yorkshire Gold 1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Quite a lot of jingle collectors reckon that these were better than they were on Radio 1 although I personally think <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ztzzm5mny4l">the ones with sonovox</a> sounded better on Radio 1.<br /><br />The station also made use of some of the original jingles used by Radio 1 that didn't mention the station name such as <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dyiznigaymg">"Britain's Number 1"</a> and <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?modmcon31my">"Be A Safe Driver"</a>.<br /><br />In 1998 the AM stations rebranded to Magic, joining Leeds who had used the name since 1990 as by this time the station's had been taken over by EMAP.<br /><br />They ended up selling the Pulse but had acquired Aire FM but despite the large amounts of networking over the years, they have managed to retain their individual names.<br /><br />Thanks to Simon Hirst, Ian Arnold, Dave Nightingale, Mark Hodgkinson, David Barras, Aston McNeil, Christian Spooner and Rob Thornton.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-10251914704897520442009-05-12T14:08:00.003+01:002009-05-13T08:28:28.870+01:00Pennine Radio/The Pulse<span style="font-family:verdana;">My Dad's hometown calls on our next visit with a look back at the jingles from Pennine Radio and The Pulse Of West Yorkshire, broadcasting to the Bradford area.<br /><br />It all began in 1975 when Pennine Radio launched with a presenter line up including Steve Merike, Peter Levy, and the late Roger Kirk.<br /><br />The jingles were by EMIson who around the time were the closest thing the UK had to a jingle company.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ifnght0zytg"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1975 Jingles - EMIson</span></a><br /><br />Just before launching Jon Wolfert at JAM had sent over a tape containing <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4qubdy2zje1">ideas for a potential jingle package</a> from Dallas with various melody logos including one based around the "95-PEN" logo from the recently produced "Backseat Music" package.<br /><br />The concept didn't make it to air and around a year later, a few of the WPEN jingles were airing on Radio 1.<br /><br />In 1979 the station became one of the first clients outside of Manchester for Alfasound Tapetrix resulting in this package giving an indication of what was to come from the UK's top jingle company throughout the 80s and 90s.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zznmztzjm1y"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1979 Jingles - Alfasound Tapetrix</span></a><br /><br />Five years later in 1984 the station returned for another package expanding on the earlier Alfasound package with cuts based around different musical decades as well as some rather bizarre instrumental cuts for the specialist shows such as the classical one, the folk one, and the Asian one.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tqzten2tw2i"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1984 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Towards the end there's a slower version of the station's signature tune from the 1979 package which I presume was played in the darker hours of the day.<br /><br />Around 1986 Pennine began sharing it's nighttime programmes with the newly established Viking Radio in Hull and shortly after they acquired Radio Hallam to form the Yorkshire Radio Network.<br /><br />They initially launched with a generic package featuring the vocals of Jimmy Helmes that can be found in the YRN post above and in 1988 they brought another custom package with a bigger selection of cuts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3m20tywmyya">1988 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>An aircheck of a station promo and an intro to the news magazine from this era can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4imozjttxdz">here</a>.<br /><br />In 1989 the station split their frequencies and became Pennine FM with the AM frequencies becoming Classic Gold.<br />The jingles on FM were resings of JAM's "Nonstop Power" and "Laser Image" packages with Alfasound vocals as well as new custom Alfasound tracks.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qzt5ozov2mj"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />In August 1991 with ratings on the slide, a relaunch was due and so the station transformed itself into "The Pulse" or Pulse FM to give it it's on air name at the time.<br /><br />This saw the station's first fully fledged JAM package with JAM vocals and I like how they use the seven voice group on jingles originally done with 5 voices for the American stations.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wnjrguwn2om"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Pulse 1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />The bods inside the station also produced a demo for the presenters explaining the jingles and I like how they give certain cuts specific names such as the "Melons" one at 3.30 and if you don't get the gag, then I'm not going to tell you.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?b5inmfngvnz"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1991 In-House Demo</span></a><br /><br />There's also the "Cleo" one at 1.14 so called because the sax riff apparently sounds like something Johnny Dankworth would have done.<br /><br />Hallam FM also used the same cut but had the sax riff removed, possibly because the melody sounded exactly the same as the one used by Radio 1 at the time, which was a sensible idea.<br /><br />In 1994 a custom package was made for the station by JAM with a lot of the cuts based on a synthesized pulse.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gjw5tdzj5rh"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1994 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />There was also another in-house demo produced featuring the voice of John Wells and showing a really good perspective of how the jingles were used.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yzzm3zgymj2"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yzzm3zgymj2">1994 In-House Demo</a><br /></span><br />More jingles followed in 1995 to complement the exisiting package with cuts taken from JAM's "Energy" package originally done for NRJ in France, and also from ALFA's custom package for Galaxy 101 in Bristol.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tlikznz5zej"><br /></a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dntnhmmkecw"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1995 Jingles - ALFA/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dntnhmmkecw"><br /></a><br />There's also a rather superb custom news intro near the end although the version that didn't make it to air was even better.<br /><br />It can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tlikznz5zej">here</a> with the traffic jingle.<br /><br />In 1998 and into 2000 the station started using jingles or should that be<br />"music imaging" by the newly set up Vibe Music And Audio Imaging ran by fomer YRN presenter Sandy Beech.<br /><br />The jingles themselves can be heard <a href="http://www.music4.com/musicservices/catalogue/85/the-pulse/the-pulse.html">here</a> via the Music 4 website.<br /><br />We'll end our journey here although in 2008 the Pennine FM name returned to the area on the station formerly known as "Home FM" for the Huddersfield area.<br />Sadly it wasn't to last as the station shut down in April this year when a buyer for the station could not be found.<br /><br />And that's more or less a colourful insight into the on air sound of independent radio in West Yorkshire.<br /><br />Thanks to David Barras, Simon Hirst, Dave Nightingale, Mark Hodgkinson,<br />David Hemsley, Dan James, Aston McNeil, </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">Christian Spooner, </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">and Rob Thornton.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-66260366164249337732009-05-11T20:29:00.003+01:002009-05-11T20:46:27.460+01:00Now Hear All The Cuts!<span style="font-family:verdana;">A very warm welcome to my new blog designed solely for my trawls through countless chronologies of radio stations in the UK with their jingles being the key illustrations.<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />As the downloads from the posts on my original blog were so popular,<br />I've decided to give them their own home and there will be plenty more to come over the next month or so containing audio from many stations over t</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">he years. </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />This isn't the first post of course, because of the way blogs work, but there's plenty of audio including including two new posts on Trent FM and GEM AM, as I've just returned from a rather nice weekend in the Nottingham area.<br /><br />The Heart Attack posts will continue to be published on my normal blog as they're topical and relevant to how things are changing but this site will be a place for my ramblings about jingles and stations in general.<br /><br />Your contributions are more or less welcome so feel free to leave comments or send me an e-mail via RobinBlamires@Easy.com or through Facebook, Twitter, whatever floats your boat.<br /><br />Remember, these aren't fully accurate historical accounts as such and are based around my take on the jingles themselves and my own thoughts on them.<br /><br />And I'd best point out that all the audio featured is designed purely for educational use and I believe constitutes section 30 of the Copyright Designs and Patents act of 1988.<br /><br />Overall enjoy reading, and most importantly listening.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-18889028677723729812009-05-11T20:25:00.004+01:002009-06-29T17:44:31.083+01:00Radio Trent/Leicester Sound/Trent FM<span style="font-family:verdana;">As I've spent the last weekend in Nottingham I thought it would be more than appropriate to post a look back over the many jingle packages (and superb ones at that) used by Radio Trent and Trent FM over their first 20 years on air.<br /><br />I've been a bit weary about posting this as the man behind many of the packages Len Groat is a regular poster on Jinglemad with tons of stories about the station and it's jingles so if you're reading this, you're more than welcome to make any corrections and extra info.<br /><br />Here goes.<br /><br />Radio Trent began broadcasting in the Nottingham area in July 1975 where the first presenter on air was John Peters.<br /><br />The jingles were produced by Johnny Arthey with the tagline<br />"Sounds Like You Want To Hear".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tvtzjnijmgl"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1975 Jingles - Johnny Arthey</span></a><br /><br />The jingles and a few additional packages continued throughout the remainder of the decade and presenters included Kenny Hague, Dale Winton, David 'Kid' Jensen and a certain Len Groat who would go on to make the overall sound of the station one of it's main priorities.<br /><br />An early example included these special cuts by JAM for various presenters from packages such as "Best Country", and "Logoset".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?j29dcjnrzw8"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1978 JAM Presenter Jingles</span></a><br /><br />The early 80s saw the arrival of what was to become the UK's most established radio jingle producers Alfasound Tapetrix, and Len having known Steve England for a long time went to the company and ended up becoming essentially their number 1 client.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mjtrh0akgyj"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1980 Jingles - Alfasound Tapetrix</span></a><br /><br />The first of these packages in 1980 took influence from the Pepper Tanner "Simple And Free" package which many believe lead to the WNIC JAM packages in the late 90s. <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzywlhzlmnx">Here are a few examples</a> with the Trent jingles preceeding the originals.<br /><br />It also established the tagline <span style="font-style: italic;">"Your 24 Hour Friend"</span><br />which would be used throughout the decade.<br /><br />1981 saw a package containing more of the same with a rather superb station song at made specially for "The Summer of 81".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1yzozjqooiw"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1981 Jingles - Alfasound Tapetrix</span></a><br /><br />Two packages came in 1982 again along the same sort of lines and continuing to use Alfasound's vocal and musician talents to their highest.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmjyzdzet1i"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1982 Jingles Part 1 - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?imiv3yuz35m"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1982 Jingles Part 2 - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Another package came in 1983 with a rather good set of presenter IDs.<br />The melody logo used before the presenters name was also used in the news intro which can be heard in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rmhhnezyjwd">this aircheck</a> with Danny Cox,<br />although it just misses out the end.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nylyzmm4mzw"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1983 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Due to the Musician's Union ban on overseas jingles on commercial radio, it was the British companies who had to up their game and during the 80s they were on top form.<br /><br />It was evident that Len, and Alfasound were trying as much as they could to replicate the Dallas sound in their jingles even to the point of ones that sounded almost very similar to the real thing in the case of <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wvzwqjjjcmm">this selection</a> of cuts from those above that were very similar to JAM jingles.<br /><br />Especially as some of them had been used on both Radio 1 and Radio 2.<br /><br />Jon Wolfert at JAM wasn't impressed, and understandably so as Steve actually brought a resing of the first cut when he was at Picadilly Radio.<br />However around a decade later, some of the Alfasound cuts would end up on GEM AM with Dallas vocals in a bizarre twist of fate.<br /><br />However as if that wasn't bad enough two Chiltern presenters AKA <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?jjwt92sfnl9">"The Bastard Brothers"</a> decided to send up the company with several spoof Trent jingles, although personally I find the above example hilarious.<br /><br />In 1984 following the bankruptcy and closure of Leicestershire's Centre Radio lead to the eventual purchase of the license for the area resulting in Leicester Sound which began broadcasting in September of that year.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nxddtjelj4n"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1984 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />The station would share evening and overnight output from Radio Trent, and brought several cuts from the previous pacakges as well as new custom cuts for both stations.<br />I like the contemporary "younger" sounding cuts from 2.36 onwards and the cracking travel bed based around the theme to "Cagney and Lacey" at 5.11.<br /><br />And not forgetting that superb jingle sung by Clifford T. Ward near the end.<br /><br />Oh, and there's also another rather impressive <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tyd2yjey2yz">theme song</a> as well.<br /><br />What you could call passionate presentation.<br /><br />Synthesizers and electronic effects seemed to have made an effect by the mid 80s and Trent's next package helped to prove this but keeping the real instruments in as well in places.<br />There's a rather good one at 2.07 which sounds as if it was influenced from the great song by Debarge "The Rhythm Of The Night".<br /><br />And of course there's what has to be possibly my favourite news intro used by Radio Trent which lasted up to the end of the 80s at 3.32.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uz2jzncmzd4"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1986 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />The following year saw possibly the strongest most energetic package custom produced for Trent and Leicester Sound to coincide with the launch of Radio Trent in Derbyshire on 102.8 FM and 945 AM, which even Len Groat himself has said was his favourite jingle package out of the lot that were done.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?idwm03n52km"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1987 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />The stand out cuts include the jingles for different dayparts, and yet another energetic traffic jingle at 3.02.<br /><br />In October 1988 Trent followed in the footsteps of many commercial stations by splitting their frequencies on AM and FM. Trent and Leicester Sound continued as usual on FM whilst AM saw the launch of what many will consider to be one of the UK's best oldies stations GEM-AM, GEM standing for Great East Midlands.<br /><br />The jingles from the station can be found on the post below.<br /><br />On the 1st of January 1989 a brand new jingle package was introduced on FM and the first fully fledged jingle package to include cuts recorded in Dallas.<br />This was a mixture of custom Alfasound tracks with US vocals and resings of two top Century 21 packages that brought an even more energetic and lively sound to what became permanatley known as Trent FM.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fd1znjwten0"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 Jingles Alfasound/Century 21</span></a><br /><br />On purchasing a new jingle package, the station would normally produce an In-House demo explaining how they would be used with the 1989 package being no exception, introduced as always by presenter and production enthusiast Danny Cox introducing the package for Trent FM and the questionably named "Sound FM" for Leicester.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ngdmfj2gmem"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 In House Demo</span><br /></a><br />The Century 21 jingles, especially those from the Proton package didn't really have enough room for lyrics and were very fast but midway through 1989 Alfasound brought the rights to selling JAM jingles in the UK and Steve had reconciled the earlier problems with Jon evident on the earlier Trent packages.<br /><br />Len was quick to act and brought a brand new package of JAM jingles mainly consisting of cuts from "The Best Show 2" amongst other cuts from various JAM packages and more custom cuts from Alfasound including a new news intro.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zvm5y3mjtjm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1990 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Personally I thought this package was a bit of a comedown from the previous package in terms of moving forward into the 90s, but I like some of the shorter shotgun cuts from "The Best Show 2" at 1.14.<br /><br />The following year saw a return to form with quite possibly the best JAM package made up of a wide range of JAM packages such as "Breakthrough", "Q-Cuts", "Power Station", and "Omni-Trax".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zjjdbkd4nj1"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1991 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Not forgetting the superb station songs as produced by Alfasound with some stunning vocal solos that for me anyway, have managed to tug at the heart.<br />I love how the last cut changes tempo and key at 5.20.<br /><br />The demo for presenters below includes extra cuts from the "Sunset Blvd" package designed for shared programming overnight with GEM-AM.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zggly2mqfzn"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1991 In House Demo</span></a><br /><br />In 1992 Trent and Leicester Sound were acquired by Midlands Radio who owned BRMB in Birmingham and Mercia FM.<br /><br />Leicester Sound's jingles were now made by Muff Murfin done in the same style as Mercia's, whilst Trent continued into 1992 with another package where the stand out cuts were the ones from "CoolJam" including the rather impressive "Catwalk" cut near the end.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?aoemk4gjyv1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1992 In House Demo</span></a><br /><br />1993 saw another JAM package but the demo for presenters this time round featured the voice of John Wells adding extra impact accompanying a stunning package including cuts from "Hyperlink", "Turbo Z", and "KIIS 90".<br /><br />The KIIS 90 jingles are particualrly effective, especially the new news intro based around cut 18 from the original package.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?qxq10tjozjq"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1993 In House Demo</span><br /></a><br />Ironically, the demo pays attention to the addition of a cut for<br />"The Summer Of 94" which in the end was never used at all.<br /><br />By the end of 1993 the Midlands Radio group had been brought by GWR who held meetings "to decide what people wanted from their stations".<br /><br />In March 1994 Trent FM relaunched as "The New 96 Trent FM" whilst 102.8 changed it's name to "Ram FM" designed specially for Derbyshire.<br /><br />Len Groat had departed from the station around this time and a great history of radio jingles had more or less been tarnished by the heavilly formatted and uninspring regime of GWR who induced their "Better Music Mix" policy over the East Midlands.<br /><br />The one thing GWR and Global to this day will never be able to do is to remove the memories of the jingles from listeners past and present, and many jingle fans around the world.<br /><br />Thanks to Dave Nightingale, David Barras, Aston McNeil, Rob Thornton,<br />Mark Hodgkinson and of course Len Groat for various audio and information.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-59780155647591810922009-05-11T19:12:00.004+01:002012-02-04T16:53:50.093+00:00GEM-AM<span style="font-family:verdana;">Following from the Trent FM post I thought it would be more than appropriate to look back at the many equally superb jingles from the AM station GEM-AM launched in 1988 when Radio Trent and Leicester Sound split frequencies.<br /><br />October the 4th 1988 was the launch date where all three existing stations decided to mark the launch in style with the launch of a firework from Duncan Goodhew, who along with a group of athletes had ran from the early hours from Leicestershire, through Derbyshire and finishing in Nottingham.<br /><br />The first presenter on air was John Peters who had switched from Radio Trent<br />to host breakfast on GEM and the classic PAMS jingles were on air, more or less from the beginning.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzwmomcgog5"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Station Launch - 04.10.1988 (Thanks to Simon Parry)</span></a><br /><br />The package consisted of several classic PAMS cuts from the pirates as well as some custom cuts by Alfasound done in a similar style.<br /><br />Alfasound also produced some really good news and information beds, particularly the sports theme based around the theme to "The Rockford Files".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?weldzqnjmtj">1988 Jingles - PAMS/Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>Best of all was <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jjjj2oydzgd">the station theme</a>, based around an old PAMS jingle from the "Solid Rock 2" package that was also resung Metro Radio in 1974 also under the eye of Len Groat.<br /><br />However they were unable to locate the original so with the permission of PAMS, Alfasound produced their own version which proved just as well, later being used on 2FM in Ireland.<br /><br />They came back for more a year later consisting of several more PAMS jingles and some pretty superb Alfasound custom tracks, save for the dodgy Matt Bianco soundalike near the end.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zxidjmzzjzm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 Jingles - PAMS/Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Presenters included Tony Lyman, Andy Marriot with his "Television Show" with classic theme tunes, Paul Robey, and Anne-Marie Minhall.<br />Rather bizzarely the station also took the Network Chart on Sundays<br />in it's early years.<br /><br />In Leicestershire on 1260khz the station split from the rest of the frequencies to provide it's own Sabras service. The team at Sabras brought a few of the exisiting GEM jingles and more or less ruined them with dodgy UK/Asian vocals.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?x0nmymz4jqg">1988 Sabras Jingles - PAMS/Alfasound</a><br /><br /></span>By 1992 1260AM was taking Sabras 24 hours with GEM AM now broadcasting solely to Nottingham and Derbyshire.<br /><br />Towards 1991 the station was continuing to evolve and Len Groat went to JAM to produce what for me has to be the best jingle package GEM AM have used consisting of cuts from "Special Touch", "The Best Show", "You'll Like Our Style", "Meltdown" and "Follow The Leader".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mummjmzjnax"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1991 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />The latter package featured superb vocals from Jackie Dixon who reached the highest of high notes on the cut at 0.47.<br /><br />Alfasound also produced some more superb custom cuts including a new news intro at 4.47 which was a lot less manic than the old one.<br />As well as another really good sports bed at 5.32 based around<br />"Garden Party" by Mezzoforte.<br /><br />And not forgetting <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kydz2x0i2wn">the station song</a> inspired by the Four Seasons tune "Candy Girl".<br /><br />Len can be heard showing the package to it's advantage in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ngyhm0xzy2v">this extract</a> from a 1991 documentary.<br />And for all the true radio and jingle fans, an interview also by Len<br /><a href="http://www.4shared.com/file/75357140/bf0ace9f/GEM_AM_Jon_Wolfert_Interview_1991.html">featuring Jon Wolfert himself</a> where you can probably tell that an hour was certainly not enough for the two of them.<br /><br />1992 saw another package which included a few jingles from the "Bright Light" package as demonstrated in the earlier interview (if you listened for that long).<br />There's also a really good cut for the love song show from the WSM package, also used by Radio 2 in the late 70s.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wyky2t2mj2x">1992 In House Demo</a><br /><br /></span>With the station's 5th anniversary approaching, GEM brought possibly it's most enthusiastic and colourful package for 1993. I haven't got the demo or all of the main cuts at hand but here's a selection courtesy of Len himself and the late Rob Thornton which includes several "gems" or so to say.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jndet2jddem"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1993 Jingles - PAMS/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Some of the cuts included come from the "Do It Again" package fro WCBS-FM in New York which Len only just heard when arriving in America. Being quick to act he purchased what I imagine were the first UK resings for the package including the weather bed and the rather impressive presenter IDs when the man himself considers to be the best done by JAM.<br /><br />I'd say they're second best to those in the Metro FM 1994 custom package as the harmonies in them are unbeatable. But I'll save them for the post on the station itself.<br /><br />I happened to have a resing of the 5th birthday cut myself from the Z World package although the lyrics on <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?miznw2ymyeg">my version</a> are slightly more irreverent.<br /><br />However the cut towards the end from the "First Of All" package came about when collector and JAM fan Colin Ridley brought the cut to Len's attention as that particular package wasn't available in full due to a lot of the cuts being resung for BBC Radio 2 in the mid 80s.<br /><br />However the extended song wasn't one of them, so Len got the green light to have it resung for GEM.<br /><br />Len can also be heard in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmjoz20mjt3">this short extract</a> playing Jimmy Savile's name jingle to promote his "Savile's Travels" show which was syndicated on many ILR stations at the time.<br /><br />When Midlands Radio were taken over by GWR, the FM stations were relaunched but GEM AM continued as usual as it was very popular, and although Len Groat had left the station, the JAM jingles continued with Paul Robey now running the station.<br /><br />His first purchase was this rather unusual package consisting of old Radio Trent jingles by Alfasound with JAM vocals, including a few of the soundalikes that didn't go down to well with Jon Wolfert at first.<br /><br />Towards the end there's some stunning resings of what has to be my favourite oldies' package by JAM "Good Time Radio" including one at the end which was also used by Radio 1 on their 21st anniversary.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?olhgw2yy2jm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1994 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />I happened to have another cut from resung from the above package, this one being <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z3u5o2mqcwq">a birthday jingle</a> for a crush at college called Eloise.<br /><br />It's extremely syrupy and the sort of thing that should have a health warning.<br /><br />More classic JAM jingles got the GEM treatment in the next package in 1996 including some really good versions of the "Backseat Music" package originally done back in 1975 for 95 WPEN, especially the Community Calendar jingle at 1.50.<br />There's also the genuine versions of the cuts from "Special Touch" that had been "adapted" in an earlier Radio Trent package in the 80s.<br /><br />As well as a another custom made news intro by ALFA towards the end.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mq2djnxa3ww"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mq2djnxa3ww">1996 Jingles - ALFA/JAM Creative Productions/Top Format</a><br /><br /></span>The following package in 1997 saw more superb cuts including Xmas jingles from the "Touch Of Christmas" package which must have saved them a bit of money, as well as cuts from "Outstanding", "Double Plus" and more from the superb "Special Touch" package including that brilliant acapella jingle at 2.16.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dmjnlimujq5"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1997 Jingles - PAMS/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />It's probably not surprising that Paul Robey went onto commision more cuts from the package when he joined Fosseway Radio in Nuneaton as part of the Lincs FM group in 1998.<br /><br />However GEM couldn't escape the wrath of GWR for too long as by 1998<br />Tony Lyman started having his show broadcast on the Classic Gold Network throughout the UK and in 1998 the station rebranded to "Classic Gold GEM".<br /><br />They did have <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mminyizvnly">a few final JAM jingles</a> brought in to ease the transition, taken from the "Totally Kool" package that can be heard here.<br /><br />Nowadays the GEM name has disapeared altogether with 945 and 999 AM now part of the "Gold" network but overall, GEM AM had what have to be the best jingles ever produced for an AM oldies station in the UK.<br /><br />Credit to David Barras, Simon Parry, Aston McNeil, Stacey Harris, David Furness, Rob Thornton and of course Len Groat.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-17656514288203529732009-05-04T19:40:00.000+01:002009-05-11T14:24:55.530+01:00County Sound Radio<span style="font-family:verdana;">Onto part 2 of my "May The 4th" special and County Sound Radio, the station broadcasting to Surrey and Hampshire where the concept first began over<br />40 years ago.<br /><br />By the early 80s it had become a reality and with Frank Muir as one of the backers of the station they began broadcasting on the 4th of April 1983 where the first voice was Frank Muir himself who was brought on as a guest.<br /><br />Presenters at the time included Paul Owens who was previously at Devonair, the late Simon Cummings, and Sarah Lucas who progressed to Classic FM.<br /><br />Mike Powell was the station's head of news and presented their extended news programme "County World" on weekday evenings.<br /><br />The station had it's own theme song which was written by Les Reed who amongst his resume also wrote "Delilah" by Tom Jones and "The Last Waltz" by Engelbert Humperdink.<br /><br />The original jingles have been hard to get hold of but a few of them can be heard in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nlijgm2zqwn">this selection of airchecks from 1983</a>, including a few by The Swingle Singers who also did a few of the early "194" jingles for Capital Radio.<br /><br />A year later, Mike Powell had taken over as the Programme Director and being a big radio and jingle fan decided to go over to Alfasound in Manchester for the station's next jingle package where they brought along Les Reed to help them out with jingles based around his established signature tune.<br /><br />The result can be heard below in the demo from the original Alfasound collector tapes and the enthusiasm of Powell helped to emphasise that this was only the beginning of some of the best jingles on UK commercial radio.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tyyzzxqihnv"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1984 Demo - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />Two years later Mike had become the MD of County Sound and the station had become one of the first to implement the RCS Selector computer system into their operation to select the music played.<br /><br />Of course back in 1986 the music was still played off of vinyl and compact discs and the on screen display looked very basic.<br /><br />Also around this time County Sound moved on FM from 96.6 to 96.4.<br /><br />The progression continued with the station's first US sung package consiting of Alfasound tracks with Dallas vocals recorded at the Strawberry Studios.<br />The slightly passe audio quality doesn't really do the tracks justice but they remain one of my favourite custom packages from Alfasound with really lovely vocals and orchestration.<br /><br />Especially on the fast to slow transition jingles.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?v5zzjz0utkt"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1986 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />There was also another version of the station's theme and just for a change<br />I thought it would be good to have <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wkzfxykjmzx">a solo version</a> from top jingle vocalist<br />Trella Hart.<br /><br />In addition to the above cuts, a series of Doc Morgan liners were recorded and <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?obmjgutdmwt">here's the session itself</a>.<br /><br />In 1988 County Sound became the first independent local radio station in the South Of England to split frequencies on AM and FM with FM promoted as "The Premier FM" and AM as "The Gold AM" although the jingles announced the station as County Sound Gold.<br /><br />During the day the stations broadcast seperate output but in the evenings and overnight they broadcast together using the 1986 package.<br /><br />Onto the jingles themselves and on AM they brought back some of the vintage PAMS jingles that had been used on the pirates Radio London and Radio England back in the 60s. Some of the cuts such as the news and weather intros had also been redone by Alfasound although how they decided which ones were used on air, I've never been too sure.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jyzimiqnng1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">County Sound Gold 1988 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS</span><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Amongst the PAMS cuts was a resing of the "Sonowaltz" which can be heard towards the end although the station also recieved <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rvmsng30j29">a rather naughty version</a> designed to have a dig at their rival Capital Gold which around this time had started broadcasting on AM at weekends only.<br /><br />County Sound Premier were using resings of the 1986 package with the new station name, as well as some new cuts containing hints of the PAMS jingles with some rather nice presenter IDs.<br /><br />One of them I've included in the selection below happens to be Jamie Crick, who's now doing well at Classic FM and Gaydar.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yrn4ngztgib"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yrn4ngztgib">County Sound Premier FM 1988 Jingles - Alfasound</a><br /></span><br />A snapshot of that era with Mark Chivers can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nmzzddfwzkd">here</a>.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />Also from this time, Mike Powell commissioned Alfasound and TM to produce<br />a special <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nubz0zymqdx">"Thank You Song"</a> for the staff, advertisers and listeners.<br /><br />The song was originally written for KVIL in Dallas but when Mike Powell heard it, he knew that it had to be brought for the Guildford based station.<br />Even TVS got a mention in the song although County Sound served an area where the majority were more likely to receive Thames/LWT.<br /><br />In 1989 Alfasound began selling JAM jingles and Mike Powell was quick to act by commisioning a new set of jingles for County Sound Premier resung from JAM's "The Only One" package originally written for WNBC in New York.<br /><br />This has to be one of the station's strongest and most memorable packages which worked perfectly in terms of fitting the "Premier Radio" name into the WNBC logo.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mnmuhyflfzm">County Sound Premier Radio 1989 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>The jingles were also adapted to replace the 1986 jingles on the night time service on both stations and there was also <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oy2njlwtdtm">a special version of the station theme</a> which made use of both the Premier and Gold melody logos throughout.<br /><br />And here are the County Sound versions of the Premier jingles.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mnoconyce0w"><span style="font-weight: bold;">County Sound 1989 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Also during this time, a new station launched in the Haslemere area providing a more formal service to County Sound under the name of Delta Radio.<br />The jingles were a resing of Alfasound's package for the defunct Centre Radio in Leicester with JAM vocals.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nw4n43ywwiy"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Delta Radio 1989 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />On AM it wasn't going well as Ocean Sound in Portsmouth kicked up a fuss with County Sound over who had the right to use the name "The Gold AM".<br /><br />This resulted in County Sound changing the name of it's AM station to<br />"First Gold Radio" which meant more jingles which consisted of those from the previous Gold package along with a few others including ones that had been used on Radio 1 on it's launch including the one at the beginning of the selection below.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tiquw4qwjmz"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tiquw4qwjmz">First Gold Radio 1990 Jingles - Alfasound/PAMS<br /></a><br /></span>As mentioned in the previous post, Radio Mercury had acquired County Sound in 1991 and relaunch saw County Sound Premier and Delta rebranded as Radio Mercury, whilst County Sound on AM changed it format and jingles to a resing of TM Century's "Classic Oldies" and "Good Time Classics" packages which were actually pretty good in comparison to the station itself.<br /><br />The new tagline was "Good Company".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?modzdtj5y5m"><span style="font-weight: bold;">County Sound 1992 Jingles - TM Century</span></a><br /><br />Mike Powell left the station when the merger took place and took his radio ventures to other parts of the country, with the launch of Pirate FM in Cornwall<br />in Spring 1992.<br /><br />The jingles were once again by JAM and consisted mainly of resings from the Q95 packages, as well as a very catchy station song towards the end which many jingle fans have ended up singing in London town on pub meets.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mzyzdnnbxe3"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pirate FM 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Many jingle fans who own the Alfasound ILR CD with the Pirate FM demo on their will be familiar with <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?czjlvmtl5yn">the bizarre mixout of Right On Q cut 15</a> which ends with<span style="font-style: italic;"> "#In Buffalo"</span> for some unexplained reason.<br /><br />The real reason was that Jon Wolfert at JAM had forgotton to turn off the vocals in the mixdown for a resing of that cut for a station in Buffalo.<br /><br />In 1993 another station was launched in Slough under the name Star FM which consisted of some delightful resings of the KOST packages as well as a few rare cuts from the KDWB package.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jqjjn1mgk14"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Star FM 1993 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />There was also <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1zryzjd3nmx">yet another superb station song</a>, orginally made back in 1979 for WROR.<br /><br />However with interference on 101.6 coming from KFM in Tonbridge Star FM relocated to 106.6 and brought in resings of the existing cuts as well as a few more from the newer KOST packages.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kg25xznmywe"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Star FM 1995 Demo - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Back in Surrey, Radio Mercury had lost the license to broadcast in Surrey and Hampshire and Mike Powell and the UKRD group got it back, bringing back the original County Sound back to AM and FM in September 1995 as well as Delta Radio on 97.1.<br /><br />The jingles from "The Only One" returned but as there were only a handful of cuts which had "County Sound Radio" in them, they went to JAM and brought a resing of the similar sounding "Nothing But Class" also done for WNBC and contained a superb top of the hour.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jm1nytdoqyn"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jm1nytdoqyn">County Sound Radio 1995 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>The 3 notes at the beginning of the cut were the signature chimes from NBC but as the radio station WNBC had been long gone, Mike took the opportunity to adapt the NBC chimes as the County Sound chimes by postitioning them at the beginning of each station's top of hour news jingle.<br /><br />However, County Sound on both AM and FM was a short term plan as in 1996 a new station would be launched on FM under the name 96.4 The Eagle.<br /><br />The station took to the air in January 1996 with breakfast presenter Peter Gordon and the first record being Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" which was also used to launch Fox FM 7 years earlier.<br /><br />The jingle package has to be one of my favourites from JAM consisting of cuts from Hot KIIS and Turbo Z, as well as the station song which was the slower version of the song used by Pirate FM, originally from the Channel 4 package which was a television station in the states.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3mnwykwjtnm">96.4 The Eagle 1996 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mgkkye2lj2t">A selection of airchecks</a> featuring overnight "android presenter" Talon can be heard hear with several JAM jingles and a series of rather comforting promos making use of the theme to Star Trek Voyager.<br /><br />In 1997 over in Berkshire, Star FM brought in a new jingle package resung from "It's Nice" originally for WNIC in Detroit with the station sung as "Wonderful Star FM" to fit in with the WNIC melody logo.<br /><br />Brekafast presenter Tony James brought a set of additional cuts which for me personally shows what many breakfast shows on UK radio are lacking in terms of presentation, even if these are rather syrupy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ywjuzzxnldm">Star FM 1998 Tony James Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>Wey Valley Radio also began using resings of the WNIC jingles that can be heard in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gmmhnwjoz3w">this selection of airchecks</a> with the news jingle preceeded by the chimes.<br /><br />Delta had also dropped it's package after being used on and off for nearly 10 years and replaced it with a resing of JAM's "Totally Kool" but retaining the Delta Radio logo from the previous package.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kmqmmgneqrm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Delta Radio 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>Not long after, Delta began broadcasting with their name on Wey Valley's frequencies and both stations started using resings of the WNIC jingles.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ljntzm2zzkn"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Delta FM October 1998 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />And County Sound itself on 1476 AM had started broadcasting an overnight oldies service and decided to buy some more classic PAMS jingles.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?znzyd0ynej0"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">County Sound 1998 Gold Jingles - PAMS/JAM</span></a><br /><br />In the late 90s 96.4 The Eagle decided to give it's sound a refresh and commisioned a resing of the "Z Plus" package by JAM and a an absolutely stunning top of the hour from "Overdrive".<br /><br />When I was staying on a PGL study weekend in November 2000<br />(well, there was barely any studying at all) in Hindhead,<br />I spent an awful lot of time listening to the station and I doubt anyone else from my secondary school could understand my enthusiasm and routine of making sure I had to have my radio switched on at the top of the hour when possible.<br /><br />I've been trying to grab hold of the package for a long time although a few airchecks can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nemjglheq5i">here</a> with quite a lot of appearances of that news intro.<br />(Hang on, what's that record playing in at 1.29?)<br /><br />Around this time UKRD had even extended the Eagle brand to Bristol and Cambridge although by 2001 they rebranded to Star.<br /><br />I even brought <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?uh2ynn0mwtz">my own version</a> from JAM a few years with a hint of Electric 6 in the vocals and whilst I was impressed with it at the time, I find it excrutiating to listen to.<br /><br />County Sound Radio around this time had moved from 1476 to 1566 and shortly after the move brought a new jingle package resung from JAM's custom package for the Century Radio network in the UK, later demoed for Mix 100.3 in Denver so it could be sold to US stations.<br /><br />It was all looking good for the FM stations as well as Mike Powell had been working with Steve England in the UK and Jon Wolfert at JAM to produce a custom package for the FM stations including The Eagle, Pirate FM, and KLFM in Norfolk which the group had brought from GWR.<br /><br />The tagline was "Today's Radio" and featured a contemporary and uptempo set of jingles from what I'd say had to be JAM's best custom package of the decade in terms of taking things to the next level.<br /><br />Sadly, Mike decided to move elsewhere in 2001 and the miserable old fart who took over decided not to air the package and replaced the exisiting ones with uninspiring sweepers.<br /><br />And everyone says that radio has an exciting future...<br /><br />Anyway the package did resurface on Steve England's website and can be heard below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lcjzmzyzenz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">UKRD 2001 Custom Package (Unused) - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />It did find a place on the VOA stations a few years later as the three note County Sound logo fitted in perfectly, and KIMN had the package demoed in 2006 as <a href="http://www.jingles.com/audio/d_AndNow.mp3">"And Now"</a> which can be heard via the JAM website.<br /><br />Last year County Sound celebrated it's 25th anniversary with <a href="http://tvi.gg/sm/audio/doc.mp3">a special documentary</a> including an interview with Les Reed as to how the station song came about. Definitely worth the listen and in all cases, I'm sure it's a lot more informative than what I've written above.<br /><br />Thanks to Sean Saunders, Stacey Harris, David Furness, David Barras for the airchecks, Sean Martin, and most importantly Mike Powell for having a hand in some of the best jingles on UK commercial radio.<br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-79465289486677232002009-05-04T17:52:00.000+01:002009-05-11T14:24:22.079+01:00Radio Mercury<span style="font-family:verdana;">On this day exactly (because it was a Bank Holiday) in 1992 one of radio's infamous merger's took to the air when Radio Mercury and County Sound merged together to provide a single service over Surrey, parts of Hampshire and parts of Sussex.<br /><br />And yes, they did use the pun from Star Wars.<br /><br />That pretty much makes it the ideal time to reminisce about both stations through their jingles, starting off with Radio Mercury which turns 25 in October this year.<br /><br />Fondly remembered by many radio fans in the UK, Radio Mercury was designed to serve the Surrey and Sussex area with a distinctive sounding station, aware that other commercial stations could be recieved so John Wellington who had succesfully set up Essex Radio earlier in the decade brought in a line up consisting of some of the finest and familiar presenters.<br /><br />These included ex Capital jocks Tony Myatt and Peter Young on Breakfast and Drive respectively, Ed "Stewpot" Stewart on mornings, Pat Sharpe fresh from Radio 1 to present the evening show for the teens, and Wellington's star from Essex Radio Tim Loyd or "Timbo" as he was known who presented the popular night time show on weeknights on both Mercury and Southern Sound.<br /><br />With the now ironic tagline "The Heart Of The South" the station was lucky to broadcast from the picturesque location of Broadfield House which overlooked a delightful field and tennis court and to top it all they had a superb jingle package produced by David Arnold and Paul Hart with the Royal Philarmonic orchestra of which the main theme can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?imwzm2wiidy">here</a>.<br /><br />Many have have thought that parts bear a resemblance to "Music" by John Miles which in turn sounds like the theme to "Blakes 7". To be honest I reckon Danny Elfman should have received a lawsuit when a similar melody appeared in his theme to the Batman movies.<br /><br />Anyway, back to Mercury and the jingles were based around one of David's earlier packages for Marcher Sound with newer cuts introduced with the extra notes added to the beginning of Mercury's melody logo.<br /><br />But rather than go on about them, it would be better just to hear them.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?3mwijzvixj2"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1984 Jingles - David Arnold Music</span></a><br /><br />The station went on air on Saturday the 20th of October 1984 where each presenter would do a show for an hour. The first presenter was Ed Stewart but in reality he wasn't actually live in the studio as he had organised a charity golf tournament in Spain, months before the launch was announced so he had to pre-record his part.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ddrqd52jdme">A few classic airchecks</a> from aorund the time of the launch can be heard courtesy of Sean Saunders old site featuring Pat Sharpe and Peter Young. It's probably the only time I've heard a presenter acknowledge the IRN newsreader by their name.<br /><br />At the beginning, the station broadcast on 1521 AM and 103.6 on FM but due to regulations stating that frequencies from 103.5 to 105 were reserved for the BBC, the station on FM moved to 102.7 where it remains today.<br /><br />The station did special strands such as "The Weekend Of A Thousand Hits"<br />which would take up a whole weekend with little chat from the presenters not even breaking for the Network Chart as up to the early 90s at least neither<br />Radio Mercury or Southern Sound broadcast the programme.<br /><br />More airchecks can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kz0mnk0mmgj">here</a>, where at the beginning the presenter fades up IRN too soon so we hear end of the LBC news intro.<br />Back in those days the IRN feed was a direct link to LBC's on air transmission which remained until 1989 when Satellite technology allowed a single feed from the IRN studio.<br /><br />In 1991 Radio Mercury merged with County Sound Radio in deeper Surrey and North East Hampshire to form Allied Radio. Radio Mercury took fuller control and on the fourth of May 1992 took over County Sound's FM service and Delta Radio on 97.1 and relaunched them as Radio Mercury.<br /><br />On 1521, the County Sound name was adapted with a mixture of presenters from both Mercury and County Sound including the late Simon Cummings, Peter Gordon, and newcomer Peter Stewart who presented "The South Tonight" news magazine.<br /><br />The jingles on AM were resings of the Century 21 WMXJ jingle as used on 210 FM, whilst on FM David Arnold produced some additional cuts with Dallas vocals, to be used alongside the original jingles with the tagline "Your Kind Of Music.<br /><br />A selection of them and shorter variants of the 1984 package can be heard here courtesy of Neal Bowden.<br /><br />By the mid 90s the AM station had re-branded to "Mercury Extra AM" whilst on FM the presenters had began to start referring to the station as "Mercury FM".<br />Some more airchecks from this era can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ikbjzna3djz">here</a>.<br /><br />In 1995 Mercury lost the license for Surrey and Hampshire which was brought back by UKRD and County Sound, so Mercury decided to make a fresh start and after 11 years they brought a brand new jingle package consiting of a range of JAM jingles with Alfasound vocals.<br /><br />The selection ranged from "Brite And Sunny", "Skywave" and my favourite JAM package "Fresh KIIS" amongst others, as well as resings of the Alfasound news and traffic cuts for Lincs FM back in 1992.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zneym5xyy3m"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mercury FM 1995 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Mercury Extra also recieved new jingles on AM which was a superb selection of cuts from "Hi-Qume", "Sky Trax" and "Digital Mix".<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2qzvdmzzmmj"><br /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2qzvdmzzmmj">Mercury Extra 1995 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM Creative Productions</a><br /><br /></span>It was more than evident that things weren't really working on AM so another rebrand took place shortly after with the name "Fame 1521".<br /><br />ALFA and JAM were once again brought in to provide another jingle package, this time from the "American Mix" package orginally for WBLI and I think the UK singers gave it a good go.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nt0dzqmjukm"><br />Fame 1521 1996 Jingles - ALFA/JAM<br /></a><br /></span>In the late 90s the Mercury stations were brought by The Essex Radio Group who in turn were also brought by the Daily Mail. Mercury FM was re-branded as<br />"The Hotter And Fresher Mercury FM" and although the sung jingles disapeared, the enthuasism and wide/uptempo selection of music remained.<br /><br />AM had yet another re-brand as the station became Breeze on 1521 sharing programmes with the long established AM station for Essex FM.<br /><br />By the end of the decade the Mercury brand name was stretching out further than Surrey and Sussex as it was adapted for KFM in Tonbridge, Oasis FM in Watford and Ten 17 in Harlow. However with the exception of Watford, most of them dropped the name after a couple of years.<br /><br />In July 2000 The Daily Mail decided to pull out of radio operations (although thankfully they had sense not to take control of running their stations) and sold the Essex Radio group to GWR and the worse was yet to come.<br /><br />The relaunch took place in October where breakfast presenter Paul Wisdom was sacked and replaced by Essex FM drivetime presenter Paul Lovett, and an unknown girl called Emma which represented you typical experienced jock/bimbo presenter duo, dominant with GWR's "Morning Crews".<br /><br />Despite networked programming becoming more dominant, there were still old hands within the station such as Simon Osbourne and Chris Oxlade, and it was down to them that in October 2002 they celebrated the station's 18th birthday in style with a special anniversary show.<br /><br />The programme can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mgmyjcjy0u5">here</a> which contains interviews with many of the old presenters and of course some of the funny stories from over the years such as Richard Branson's ever contrived UFO April Fool's stunt.<br /><br />You also get a really good sense of the time the programme was transmitted as a result of some of the records played such as Nelly and Kelly, Busted's debut "What I Go To School For" and Pop Idol contestant Sarah Whatmore with "When I Lost You", who didn't get in the final 10 but was proposed to by Simon Cowell on the show.<br /><br />Mercury for the time being won't be affected by the rebrand but if they did, at least it would mean that the "Heart Of The South" strapline could possibly make a reappearance.<br /><br />Thanks to Sean Saunders, Neal Bowden, Stacey Harris, Chris Stevens and David Furness.<br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-57217221950822813102009-05-01T17:24:00.002+01:002009-05-13T17:55:09.193+01:00Hallam FM<span style="font-family:verdana;">Today is 20 years to the day since Hallam FM began transmitting as an FM only station for Sheffield and South Yorkshire and with the 35th anniversary of Radio Hallam approaching later in the year, I thought it would be a good time to take a trip back in time and look back at the many IDs from the station.<br /><br />Radio Hallam began in October 1974 with a presenter line-up consisting of Radio 1 veterans Johnny Moran, Roger Moffat, and Keith "Screws" Skues.<br /><br />You could say it was a "shaky start" as the first record played "I've Got The Music In Me" by Yorkshire resident Kiki Dee got stuck just over a minute in<br />and Johnny Moran had to change it pretty hastily.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vokwyyinmro"><br />The main theme</a> jingles were written by Ray Martin and produced by EMIson which established the familiar melody logo used by the station beyond the station's first decade. The jingles also make clever use of the song "On Ikley Moor Bah 'Tat" made more famous by Yorkshire Television.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zqm3iymmdii"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1974 Jingles - EMIson</span></a><br /><br />I'm guessing that as a station itself in those days it wasn't perfect, and I'm judging that solely on a comment made by Len Groat on Jinglemad<br />saying that Sarah Kennedy's show on Radio 2 wouldn't have sounded<br />out of place in Hallam back in those days.<br /><br />That sounds like the perfect summing up.<br /><br />In line with many stations, various pop stars used to record their own special jingles for the station used alongside the main packages and one of my favourites has to be <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2yzttmnkmd2">this one by Pilot</a>, based around their 1975 number 1 "January".<br /><br />The main jingles themselves used by Radio Hallam also had vocalists who had sung on pop records with one example being this one from 1979 based on the theme of "Hallamland". The jingles were produced by Sue Manning and the male vocalist was the late Mike Smith who used to perform with the Dave Clark Five back in the 1960s.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?momk5zjgwgz"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1979 Jingles - Sue Manning Music</span></a><br /><br />A really well written jingle package although sadly the original master was destroyed when Hallam moved studios in the mid 90s.<br />I remember reading that former presenter Simon Hirst and jingle fan<br />Dave Nightingale were gutted to the point of tears when they heard about the disposal.<br /><br />The jingles themeselves are more extended songs than jingles although there<br />is a hint of the Radio Hallam logo played towards the end of some of the cuts<br />on guitar.<br /><br />Three years later they returned to Sue Manning and brought an equally superb jingle package featuring the vocals of Kiki Dee and Gerrard Kenny.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jwmjznirmyl"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1982 Jingles - Sue Manning Music</span></a><br /><br />I really love the orchestration and solos, not to mention the synthy robotic cuts towards the end and that ever sinister news intro at 3.42.<br />If I was to be woken up by that in the middle of the night, it could lead to dreadful consequences.<br /><br />The package saw a few additional cuts including ones for the station's 10th anniversary and cuts resung with the tagline <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1dizn0mndtz">"Number 1 In Yorkshire"</a>.<br /><br />Bill Mitchell had been long used as the voiceover on Radio Hallam at this time, although I seem to remember a story about one of the presenters wanting a liner for his show, but as Bill wasn't available the said presenter spent the night smoking a load of cigarettes in order to get his voice gravelly enough to try and do his own one.<br /><br />The end of 1985 saw what has to be one of my favourite packages for the station being introduced, produced by Alfasound and featuring the stunning vocals of Jimmy Helmes who later went onto have chart success in the early 90s with Londonbeat.<br /><br />A very powerful and uptempo package and very well produced.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?n5dmikz5kjy"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1985 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />As you'll here from some of the cuts however, the restrictions of the IBA were still present well into the mid 80s as there are cuts for the classical show and the big band show which kind of spoilt the concept of Hallam being a<br />"24 hour power station".<br /><br />Changes had to be made and with the IBA relaxing the rules, Radio Hallam joined force with Pennine and Viking to form the Yorkshire Radio Network in 1987.<br />This saw the introduction of another package which again featured Jimmy Helmes on vocals but I'll save them for a later post about the network.<br /><br />More jingles were made for the network throughout the late 80s with the one below establishing a more coherent sound for all three stations.<br />Hallam's version can be heard below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zmyqyojo13y"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1988 Jingles - Alfasound</span></a><br /><br />By 1989 the government had enforced a ruling that all commercial radio stations had to broadcast a different service on AM or they would lose the frequency. Radio Hallam followed suit and on the 1st of May 1989 they would be changing their on air identity to Hallam FM whilst AM would broadcast the syndicated Classic Gold service with Viking and Pennine.<br /><br />Here's the <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nhqjn31nayy">pre-launch promo</a>, and <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dylljxuzy3n">the launch itself</a> featuring Howard Pressman.<br /><br />The jingles themselves were the same as the rest of the network containing JAM resings with UK vocals and Alfasound custom tracks.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tbjnf0mumzw"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1989 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM</span></a><br /><br />Into the 90s Hallam was wanting to add more of it's own identity outside the network, so they introduced a new logo and their own seperate jingle package which continued along the same theme as the last, but with it's own strapline "The Sound Of Success".<br /><br />The package contained re-lyriced versions of the 1989 jingles but with a couple of new cuts including the Morning song from Turbo Z and a superb version of a cut from the "Non Stop Power" package towards the end of the selection below.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xjxijmjm25j"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1990 Jingles - Alfasound/JAM</span></a><br /><br />I'd even say that the version with UK singers was better the JAM original, although you can make you own decisions through <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jmlvzmjohtm">this example</a>.<br /><br />1991 saw the station's first fully fledged JAM package with JAM vocals and it was a stirling effort consisting not just of cuts from Turbo Z like everyone else, but also a few of the earlier Z100 packages such as Warp Factor and Red Hot.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jynj2ymfwom"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1991 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />I happened to have a resing of one of the cuts done for myself as you'll hear<br />in <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zgiymjjljmq">this example</a>, although which one is better isn't really for me to say.<br /><br />Although it is rather exciting to hear "Yorkshire" sung through sonovox.<br /><br />Another JAM package followed in 1993 </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">based around some of packages done for Q95 in Detroit although there were also cuts from a few of the Z100 packages and "Power Station" for WPLJ.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Amongst the cuts included are the stunning top of hour jingle from Q Cuts at 0.25 which was also used by Key 103.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmzvdntmynd"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1993 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />In addtion here are a few more <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ny1yyyjhjlt">name shouts</a>.<br /><br />The premise was the station being "The New Hallam FM" but not in the same way as GWR relaunched their stations such as "The New Trent FM", "The New 2CR FM" etc.<br />Partly because jingles were still present on Hallam FM but the premise was that no obscure records would be played and that all the songs played would be ones that the listeners would know, old or new.<br /><br />Presenters by this time included James H Reeve who hosted the phone in show, and fresh faced Chris Rogers who shortly went over to Newsround on CBBC and now reports for ITV News.<br /><br />1995 saw another JAM package, this time based around the "Metroline" package orginally done by JAM for Metro FM in Newcastle.<br />I like how they changed the melody logo in the Hallam package although for obvious reasons it sounded better with the Metro FM tune.<br /><br />Anyway, here they are.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?to2gn10inmy"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1995 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />It's also worth hearing the superb <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jnn14ktym31">top of hour news intro</a> which has to be<br />one of the perfect examples of a sung news intro.<br /><br />Then in 1997 the station went to TM Century and brought a package resung from "LA's Number 1 Hit Music Station" and "We Play The Hits" originally for KIIS FM Los Angeles.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dnonnfq1dkz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1997 Jingles - TM Century</span></a><br /><br />Considering that some of the cuts dated back to 1991, they sounded more fresh compared to the previous JAM jingles and I reckon they'd still work today.<br /><br />Daryl Denham was hosting breakfast by this time and decided to get a few variants on his name jingle shortly after, with hilarious results.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kna24nloaij"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Daryl Denham TM Century Jingles 1998</span></a><br /><br />This was only the beginning however, as Daryl then went onto present an X Rated version of his breakfast show each month with a few classic PAMS jingles which were given a rather dirty makeover.<br /><br />Not for those who are easily offended.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tmmzgjz3gzn"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Daryl Denham PAMS Jingles 1998-2000</span></a><br /><br />In 1999 a new jingle package (if you can call it that) was introduced from Octagon Music with a more youthful urban sound in comparison with the Dallas jingles.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kkmqtunhnuj"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1999 Jingles - Octagon Music</span></a><br /><br />From what I've heard, Simon Hirst who presented drive around this time hated them when they were introduced and it was a bit of a comedown when you look at all the others done earlier in the decade.<br /><br />However the man who composed the jingles themselves recently made a few posts on Jinglemad explaining how the package was made and the only problem he had was that the melody logo sounded like a football chant.<br /><br />In line with many stations in the early noughties, sung jingles made a disapearance from Hallam's airwaves until a new set of jingles from Reelworld arrived in 2004 based around their Kiss 106.1 package.<br /><br />By the end of 2005 the station brought their own custom package from the same company which contains some very clever takes on tunes that were big around this time such as The Rasmus and Natasha Bedingfield.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jznjnnqjmj2"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2005 Jingles - Reelworld Productions</span><br /></a><br />And that takes us right up to 2009 where the production company has changed but the melody logo and strapline is still the same, with these jingles from<br />Wise Buddah.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?lqnohmz4ljt"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2009 Jingles - Wise Buddah</span></a><br /><br />Overall they're definitely a station that's gone through the full circle of radio jingles in terms of styles throughout the last 25 years.<br /><br />Thanks to Simon Hirst, Dave Nightingale, Christian Spooner, Pete Wilson,<br />Mark Hodgkinson, Chris Stevens and Aston McNeil for various audio and info.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15855908517053542.post-88488196175953041922009-05-01T03:32:00.000+01:002009-05-11T14:23:17.768+01:00Radio Aire<span style="font-family:verdana;">Here we go then, yet another dissection of a radio stations history, in the first of a series of stations who won't be taken over or rebranded, but deserve some sort of nostalgic wallow.<br />And this time being the ideal time to do so whilst I've got plenty of spare time before I finally leave Harrow Halls.<br /><br />The first port of call on my jaunting is Leeds' very own commercial station<br />Radio Aire, launched in 1981 and broadcasting to the big city<br />(appropriately enough) to this day.<br /><br />And as a lot of people on my radio course past and present hail from the area, I thought I'd attempt to find out more about the station that they would have listened to at one time or other.<br /><br />Remember, this isn't historic or factual account of the station in detail, and is written entirely on my own point of view paying specific attention to the jingles themselves.<br /><br />And if anyone's got any additional information/corrections, or extra audio then you're more than welcome to help out as always.<br /><br />Radio Aire began broadcasting in September 1981, with BBC Radio Leeds covering the West Yorkshire area for almost 15 years prior to launch.<br /><br />The first jingle package was one by a little known company by the name of Crocodile Music where the main theme can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dzwymomvljj">here</a>. From my own personal perspective there's a hint of David Arnold in the jingles themselves in terms of the brass, although Aire never went to the man himself for a custom package in their 25+ years on the air.<br /><br />Anyway here's the rest of them.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nkzjt5g3ozy"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1981 Jingles - Crocodile Music</span></a><br /><br />Presenters around the time included Peter Levy who went on to become a familiar face on the BBC's Look North, James Whale who joined the station in it's second year having previously presented at Metro Radio in the North East, and Andy Kershaw on one of his first rungs on the broadcasting ladder.<br /><br />Top voice over artist Bill Mitchell was brought in to provide some spoken liners which can be heard below.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?tiiujxzmyym">Radio Aire Bill Mitchell Liners</a><br /><br />1983 saw the disposal of the original jingles (but not on a long term basis) in favour of these cuts from an unknown company, with a very synthy 80s sound.<br />If anyone knows who produced them, it would be very helpful.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m0zmzykzm4z"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radio Aire 1983 Jingles</span></a><br /><br />A year later they had another package produced, this time by David Reilly and as the lyrics suggest was specially made for use in 1984 on it's own. It's quite a nice orchestral theme with really good vocals although I've never understood the principle aim of the package with regards to the year.<br /><br /></span><span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yzqoyzyndmm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1984 Jingles - David Reilly</span></a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />In a bizarre twist of fate, 1985 saw a return to the original 1981 package for a few more years.<br /><br />The late 80s saw what many jingle fans would consider to be one of Aire's<br />best packages, courtesy of Muff Murfin's Standard Sound based in Worcester.<br /><br />The programme controller around this time was one Christa Ackroyd, formerly<br />the station's head of news and by 1990 would be one of the main presenters<br />of YTV's Calendar for 11 years before crossing over to Look North.<br /><br />This consisted of custom cuts, as well as resings of cuts from TM's US packages such as "Rock Solid" and Murfin's Capital Radio 1984 custom including the traffic jingle at 8.47.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mynmmjlvnzy"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1987 Jingles - TM/Standard Sound</span></a><br /><br />Although the audio quality on the MP3 isn't 100%, it doesn't add an advantage to the fact that I think the vocals are too aggressive (as per normal for a Muff Murfin package) and in places are poorly sung. One key example being <span style="font-style: italic;">"Radio Aire Main Event"</span> bed at 3.57 which many have misinterpreted as <span style="font-style: italic;">"Radio Aire Merry Men"</span>.<br /><br />There's also that dodgy "Heading Into The 90s" cut at 1.55 although thankfully it wasn't a signifier of the jingles that were to come.<br /><br />In line with many independent local radio stations, Radio Aire split frequencies in 1990 to become Aire FM on 96.3, and Magic 828 on AM.<br /><br />There was initally a poor reception on FM due to the "More Music" format and quite a few listeners stayed loyal to AM where a few of Aire's more maturer presenters had moved.<br /><br />Aire FM had it's first JAM jingle package which was a resing of the much used<br />KIIS 90 package.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dxinujanien"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aire FM 1990 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />In line with many other US influnced FM stations in the UK, American voiceovers were used in line with the sung jingles, with Aire using JR Nelson.<br /><br />One such liner that I'm not sure made it to broadcast, can be heard <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dywgzymuizm">here</a>.<br /><br />Magic 828's were</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> from Century 21's "Classic Oldies" package which many jingle fans regard to be the best resing of said package for a UK station.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jfzmdn22imm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Magic 828 1990 - Century 21</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /><br />Shortly after they went to TM with US vocals resung from a package called "The Magic Of Boston" which fitted in nicely.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?z5dryik1ik1"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Magic 828 1990 Jingles - TM Productions</span></a><br /><br />Two years later Aire returned to JAM for another package, this time for a resing of "The Beat" for Los Angeles urban station "FM 92 The Beat" which brought back the original name to the station's jingles as "Radio Aire FM".<br /><br />One of my favourite JAM packages around this time which has some superb solos and a brilliant weather bed, even if it does sound like something from<br />the Dirty Dancing movie.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?w4d1tgjkomv"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radio Aire FM 1992 Jingles - JAM Creative Productions</span></a><br /><br />Chris Moyles had been at the station for a few years and can be heard in<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zymomumnj1n">this clip</a> using the fantastic hour opener as uncovered by JK and Joel at Radio 1<br />a few years ago.<br />Whether a jingle as lively and uptempo as that works for a love songs show is debateable.<br /><br />I refer you to Chris's comments about love song shows on the radio in his 2006 autobiography where he gets it spot on.<br /><br />Aire went to TM Century in 1994 with a fantastic composite of cuts from "The New WPLJ", "Y-98 FM" and "Dallas Power".<br /><br />I haven't got the whole package as such at the time of writing, but here's a selection as posted last year by fellow JingleMad member Neal Bowden.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2gymzry2ii2"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radio Aire FM 1994 Jingles - TM Century</span></a><br /><br />Another fellow jingle fan and Yorkshire resident Martin Simm once mentioned how the second cut in the above montage was used as part of a fireworks display or something or other on an outside broadcast which would have looked great from a visual sense.<br /><br />In addition to them there's also a selection of cuts done for <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mnntl4gjll2">Carl Kingston</a> who was a mainstay of Radio Aire for many years, also including a few cuts making use of the earlier JAM packages.<br /><br />More changes were ahead in 1995 as the programme controller had heard a package by LA based company Groove Addicts for BRMB in Birmingham and wanted to have it done for Aire FM.<br /><br />However it cost too much money to have it resung so Aire turned to local production company Mezzo who did the theme music for James Whale's ITV Nighttime Show and they came up with the example below which worked well.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1uwnnzknmqx"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aire FM 1995 Jingles - Mezzo</span></a><br /><br />Impressed by the first effort, more were commisioned with the new on air name "The New 96.3 Aire FM" and a vibrant and uptempo selection of cuts including ones that sounded like Livin' Joy, and another sounding very similar to Incognito.<br /><br />Around this time Bruno Brookes had joined the station as one of their presenters after being dropped by Radio 1.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?anmqqzmnwkg"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Aire FM 1996 Jingles - Music Force</span></a><br /><br />Jingles then made a disapearance from both Aire and Magic from the late 90s<br />into the early 90s until around 2001 when Aire FM rebranded back to Radio Aire.<br />They intitially had a jingle package by Reelworld resung from the Kiss 100 custom from the London dance station, which was followed by a resing of a package for Kiss 108 FM in Boston.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?it2izmgrygm"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2003 Jingles - Reelworld</span></a><br /><br />2006 saw a new custom package in time for the station's 25th anniversary produced in the UK by Wise Buddah. The package included two cuts for Simon Logan's breakfast show and I bet he told the guys at the company to make it as close as they could to their jingle for Chris Evans' Radio 2 show.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?f2m0zjlwnxz"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2006 Jingles - Wise Buddah</span></a><br /><br />And I had to upload this from Martin Kelner's podcast where he was invited to Radio Aire's 25th birthday do in September that year which included <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?04tmhztzzfd">a brilliant speech by James Whale</a>. (Contains strong language)<br /><br />A good excuse to also upload the song <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ntznujlntzm">"Bimbo"</a> which was released as a single at the height of the shows success around 1989.<br /><br />Which brings us pretty much up to date where the station brought some more jingles by Wise Buddah in 2008 picking up from the themes established from a couple of years earlier.<br /><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mwtkyzmfete"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2008 Jingles - Wise Buddah</span></a><br /><br />Overall a diverse insight into the jingles that made up the station sound of one of the UK's most recognised commercial radio stations.<br /><br />Credit to David Hemsley, Steve Maguire, Sean Martin, Christian Spooner,<br />Mark Hodgkinson, Aston McNeil, Martin Simm, Neal Bowden,<br />and Dave Nightingale.<br /><br />And special mention to Rob Thornton who I'm sure would have been very appreciative of this post, being a man who lived in the area and was a really helpful jingle collector.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0