[Jim Donahue]

Since I was only able to start collecting after t’internet came along, I was wondering whether any of the, er, more seasoned JMers had any stories to share about collecting in the pre-digital days. It must have been much harder just to find other jingle enthusiasts, never mind actually getting hold of material. Before the World Wide Web I thought I was the only person on the planet who cared about jingles!

[RobinBlamires]

This is touched on a fair bit in the “Collector’s Tale” series.

I still have the audio, but it’s been taken off the web since.

[Jim Donahue]

I would love to hear this Robin, if there’s any chance of a re-post : )

[PKMember]

Back in the mid-late 80’s the old Anoraks UK Weekly Report magazine from Blackpool was a way many people found out about other collectors, swapping cassette dubs of jingles and other stuff.

[IainJohnston]

As one of a kabal of greying/balding JMers from the late 1960s/early 1970s “first wave” era, I’ve occasionally posted a blether or two on “What it was like back then” in the world of “Jiffy Bags thudding on to the doormat” and mooching 5″ reel 3&3/4 and 7.5 IPS dubs (mono usually..but not always…) from stations around the (pre-ILR even) world, via addresses in the World Radio/TV Handbook, and even simply letters addressed to “Radio Station (insert call letters), City (insert…) State … USA” – surprising how often a tape might appear, or stickers, and even the odd T-shirt or other goodies.

A damn sight harder than online!
But perhaps much more rewarding?

As for finding other collectors, early 1970s in the UK there was a small network, partly based upon a core of ex-pirate “names” and people with peripheral Beeb associations. Some of us are still in contact today, some have got back in touch very much thanks to this very Forum :^)

Some of us still have our original (but creaking) reels.

“Before the World Wide Web I thought I was the only person on the planet who cared about jingles!”
…
“Back in the mid-late 80’s the old Anoraks UK Weekly Report magazine from Blackpool”

Personally, the late 1970s through to the early 1990s I thought no-one did the hobby in the UK anymore. And then…thanks to the late John Uphoff of Channel 103 Jersey… I discovered it was anything but.

I’d never heard of this Blackpool publication until your post today!

The daftest thing of all is, that while we were doing the thing in the UK 40-45 years ago, we never had any inkling that a certain now-Dallas-based gentleman was doing the exact same thing in the States, and one day WE would all be buying resings of the jingles we were collecting but from him, with our very OWN lyrics on them – and completly legally at that (and that itself is a long, long story…)

[gameswizardMember]

Anoraks UK Weekly Report magazine from Blackpool

I kept all the editions I received… one copy even featured my station when I used to broadcast.

[Jim Donahue]

I’d never heard of the Anoraks UK Weekly Report either until today!

[IanF]

I’d never heard of the Anoraks UK Weekly Report either until today!

Same here

[PKMember]

Thing with the Anoraks UK magazine was as well as ordinary listeners, anoraks and pirate broadcasters, much of the readership of were broadcasters or people that worked on or in ILR and the BBC, it was a much respected read of the day.

This was a time when pirate radio was seen as a logical way into the industry, jocks moving around working in ILR, BBC and pirate stations on land, North Sea and Ireland. Even occasions of a small few jocks working on ILR and a pirate station at the same time.

I remember when he was on Radio One, the late soul DJ Steve Walsh turning up and doing a show on Birmingham’s PCRL 103.5! That would never happen now lol!

[IainJohnston]

Since we’re on the topic I think…) I had intended in the run up to my 60th birthday a couple of years ago to do
a “Super 60” montage of 1 cut (or maybe 2…) from each station tape I’d ever scrounged out of stations over the
years, playing out in the order I’d received them – this being from very late 1960s, through the mid 70s, then a
wee bit of then-VERY-difficult-to-get ILR, then the (to me very lean collecting years) of the 1980s which was
mainly stuff from Oz, NZ, and obscure corners of Canada and the odd US station or two, to the 90s and a bit
more success in the cassette then mini-disk (!) era, up to my re-discovering of “jingleland” and all you guys
(and gals…) via t’Internet (nothing wrong with 28k dialup was there, just slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww?)

Unfortunately a health hiccup knocked me for six for a while, so despite collating/digitizing/etc/etc lots
of bits in preparation, I never got “round tuit”.

If anyone would like to do a similar idea of the cuts/stations/packages THEY got when they first started
collecting (whatever DECADE that might be in any individual case!) I’d be tempted to have another go at it
if there was enough interest, but I’d probably do it in smaller audio “chapters” rather than try to make a
possibly-too-long-to-listen-to all-in-one effort of what I had in mind.

Some things would be very “obvious” (think KenR and the PAMS ref tapes rescues), others perhaps long
forgotten even by USA JMers, some stuff dire, some near unique, and definately a LOT of “rareties”, and
many a favourite now long-lost to the skips/dumpsters by the jingle company & station corporate
mergers over the years – AND many a package that SHOULD have been binned without ever going on-air…

Thoughts Gentlemen?

[jonnoMember]

I had a pile of Anoraks UK Weekly Report mags once upon a time. Found out about it from hearing an advert on a 48m band shortwave pirate station. I think that’s how I also found out about World DX Club’s monthly “Contact” magazine and Now Radio magazine, both of which I subscribed to – but alas no longer have any of those publications either

This would have been late 1987. I think I learned of ‘Alfasound’ via Now Radio magazine.

[jonnoMember]

Jingles: A Collector’s Tale (Part 1 of 4)

[IainJohnston]

Jonno, don’t know why, but your s/c link comes up for a second then crashes out as not found :^(

[jonnoMember]

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

https://soundcloud.com/jonno-4/jingles-a-collectors-tale

any better now?

[jonnoMember]

Part 2

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[jonnoMember]

Part 3

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[jonnoMember]

Part 4

Embedded at home.recnet.com/soundcloud

[Jim Donahue]

Many thanks for posting these Jonno. So far I have only had time to listen to half of the first part and it is excellent. Great to hear stories from some people I “know” from on here. Looking forward to listening to the rest – though I wish they were downloadable so I could pop them into my ipod for the journeys to/from work!

[IainJohnston]

There’s s/c downloaders available that run via F/fox – they add the download icon/button to the on-screen options.

Windows and mac versions.

[Jim Donahue]

Cheers Iain – I’ve just taken care of that : )

[glen]

Off the subject Kind of
Is Jeremy Richardson still with us?
His site hasn’t updated since 2009

[ratnobMember]

Good question. Collecting was very different. For one thing, it was hard to know how many other people shared this potentially ned enthusiasm for jingles. When you did find someone else who collected, it was great – an affirmation that you weren’t a complete outcast.

It was all much slower too. I used to write to programme directors at US radio stations asking them to send jingles. Around 1-in-10 responded, and this was how I built my collection. I also – as you’ll know from the ‘Bob’ story – pretended to be PD at an obscure UK radio station (and sometimes, via my sister’s Pennsylvania address, an obscure US station). I’d send a letter requesting demos to the main jingle companies and get tapes sent. I dreaded someone phoning up from the companies to talk to me in person.

That story is here:
http://www.bobdinan.co.uk/Blog/Origins.html

I say it in person at around 1:04:15 on the ‘Collectors’ Tales’:
https://soundcloud.com/jonno-4/jingles-a-collectors-tale

Thanks for the interest.

[IainJohnston]

“I used to write to programme directors at US radio stations asking them to send jingles. Around 1-in-10 responded”

I must confess I was doing the EXACT same thing – and the “1-in-10” response “hit” level is about right – although
the jingle tapes “ratio” itself was a bit lower – sometimes the audio would be an aircheck, sometimes the jingles would be
montaged/sequed (not so easy for them pre-computer-era…), sometimes a station “profile” as punted to potential
advertisers (Ozzie station particularly did “profile” audio in the 1980s). One station didn’t send their own stuff, but
DID give me SIX PAMS “blue-box” demos – a “holy grail” then.

“pretended to be PD at an obscure UK radio station”

I didn’t personally use that particular wheeze (although some other “methods” I used were a bit …er…), but
a certain Edinburgh gentleman at one time “ran” a very impressively-named hospital radio service, and his
sideboard was piled-up with 5″ demo boxes, especially Memphis ones.

[ratnobMember]

This thread has inevitably made some of us nostalgic about those early days of collecting.

Last year I visited JAM and sat at the grand piano where so many great cuts were written and performed. I’ve been listening to the audio again tonight, and you may enjoy re-hearing it too:
http://geoffbarton.co.uk/files/Audio/Bob-in-Dallas/Bid1-Piano.mp3

The whole visit to Dallas is here:
http://www.bobdinan.co.uk/Blog/Jingle_Podcast/Entries/2014/2/17_Bobs_Jingle_Pilgrimage.html

[Jim Donahue]

I just heard your section from the ‘Collectors Tales’ today Geoff and once I’ve got thru’ the other parts I will be listening to the audio (again!) from your wonderful trip to JAM : )

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