[IainJohnston]

Its getting a bit too quiet around JM, so maybe time for a dip into the Archives…

In this digital & internet age, its very easy to get contemporary jingle audio – but its so identical
or has the life taken out of it musically so much that “newly announced packages” or customs e.g. on
the JingleNews page/banner on JM virtually never get a word of discussion, or even “collected” much,
unless there’s a (rare) something with a bit of merit.

For some of us from the “reel-to-reel eras”, especially prior to the 1980s, getting an ORIGINAL or
damn-near-original jingle dub, rather than an Nth-generation hiss-filled item that had already passed
around “the circuit” fo ages, was quite a challenge.

A handful of us (often unknown to each other for quite a while, even JMW was doing it) tried different
ways to get “fresh stuff” instead of the “same old, same old”.

In my case, from about 1969 onwards, writing/typing on blue “Air Letter Forms” to radio stations around
the planet mooching jingle dubs, offering dubs of UK station jingles “in return” (really only pirate & BBC
material “available” back then. All very dodgy copyright-wise of course, which I do apologise for retrospectively)!

With a response-rate of about 1-in-10-or-15 stations, and actual tapes somewhat lower, the 5″ and 7″
boxes of 3&3/4 or 7&1/2 IPS jingles would do the much-hoped-for “thud of a jiffy bag coming in the letterbox”.

To ignore my own Thread title above, I’m not going to post the FIRST kinds or bundles of jingle I ever collected
as they were everywhere then (I’m sure they would be very familiar to many on this Forum), but instead a few
selections of ones from some of those 80-plus station-recorded old reels I got DIRECT from the actual stations.

To those that admire (?) the sound of certain “contemporary” jingle producers’ “product”, some of the things
I’ll post will be likely be anathema to their ears.

But the world of radio jingles has long and varied “roots” and many “branches”, some stunted, others
with a huge variety of the interesting, the wonderful, and even the weird, to explore in its history.

So please feel free to wander around some of the stuff I’ll be posting, even if you DON’T like them!
(…although many stations clearly did when they ordered them !!! )

Or indeed post your own contributions of ones from “What were among the first jingles YOU ever collected ?”

IJ

[IainJohnston]

Commencing with…

The second reel that ever came in – 3&3/4 IPS of Pepper-Tanner “Winners” for
WAVE 970 kHz Lousiville Kentucky, USA.

https://soundcloud.com/allthebestjingles03/ij-classiccollection-02-wave-louisville-pt-winners/s-21C1V

An actually quite rare example of a station “demo’d” on a cut on a P-T demo tape that actully did
go and use the package involved (P-T were notorious for “using” stations on their demo tapes that
DIDN’T actually use their products).

In this case, the re-sings had a tag-line different from the Winners demo.

PS – the audio quality is what it is now for the age of these items from my Collection.

PPS – if anyone has ANY of the items I’ll be posting but in far better audio quality, please contact me!

[joeroderick1310]

Like them or not, they had a unique sound. I did like them because they were a part of our broadcasting history. I’m glad you saved them.

[bobgreenradioMember]

my first were from “quality jingle company” of ft. worth tx.
they were on a 10″ wax (cut) record.

next came crc and a few pams via tom shovan, on tape

late 50’s & early 60’s.

[jonnoMember]

My first jingles were off air recordings of Radio Victory in Portsmouth – if you know me, that will come as no surprise
Followed by other ILR locals Ocean, 210 etc. and occasionally Southern, Mercury, County Sound when propagation on the VHF band was good enough.

I bought the Radio Nova jingles CD around 1990 – these were my first proper audio quality jingles and at the stage I still hadn’t made acquaintance with anyone in the jingle collecting world.

Discovering JingleMad and finding collectors’ sites on the internet re-sparked my interest.

A little trading ensued (despite me having virtually nothing to offer) with the likes of the extremely generous Nicky Schiller, Iain Johnston, Graham Collins, Hirsty, Dave Nightingale, and others (apologies for not naming everyone).

As time went by, I purchased demo CDs, and traded more and more establishing a great network of new friends all thanks to JingleMad.

I became the proud owner of the Alfasound reference master 15ips reel to reel tapes of the two packages they produced for Radio Victory in 1981 and 1983. I still have the crabby C60 cassette with those same jingles that I recorded off air over 30 years ago that started off this crazy hobby!

[nleibo]

My first jingles happened when i was in the US Navy. A “newbie” came aboard and joined the Ship (US Aircraft Carrier Forrestal) Radio station–so you can imagine one of the first things we talked about was –JINGLES. He actually had some PAMS jingles that were produced for his college radio Station–in addition to PAMS Series 34 (“C”–I think–which featured “Coming On Strong for the Weekend” jingle)–and I began “dubbing” like crazy..the start of a LONG “Road”–which (hopefully) still has a way to go…

[radio_blokeMember]

Cant quite remember if this was the first, But It was definitely on reel and very early on the jingle path

[IainJohnston]

CHOV Pembroke Ontario, 1340 kHz, one of the USA/Canada “low power” AM channels,
that were STILL far more powerfull than many a UK ILR on medium wave!

Like many a smaller station back then, on Pepper-Tanner stuff as barter or whatever.
Cuts there from PT “Pacesetter” (I believe) which I’ve still got old cuts from a couple of stations,
and the dodgy “WABC vocals demo” Reachin’ Out Touchin’ You or whatever it was called,
PT at their….[ insert opinion as required ]

[IainJohnston]

A bit more Pepper-Tanner – I’m not actually concentrating on them
– its just the way I’m going through stuff!

In the 1960s Pepper (-Tanner) had many Country & Western stations on their books – usually
as ever probably smaller stations on barter deals.

For all PT’s faults, they did “traditional” C&W-era format jingles VERY well – lots of fiddles,
“Nashville” style vocals, and throbbing double-bass, although any RW fans listening to
the following selection may have a problem with the “horsey-clippity-clop” bits !!!

And like many PT packages back them, the client received a “pre-record” bundle of
“corresponding instrumentals”.

These were the 21st and 29th reels that I received –

https://soundcloud.com/allthebestjingles03/ij-classiccollection-29-21-wjjd-chicago-wmni-columbus-pt-countrygentlemen

The WJJD seems to include a slightly “newer” (!) second package but I’ve not got a name for it,
although it carries a “One of the Great Countries of the World” tagline; the other package “may”
be “Country Wide” but I’m happy to be corrected on that.

[IanF]

The first one’s for me were the Alfasound tapes, Volumes 3, 4, 5, and 6, with David Arnold’s 1987 demo and Marcher Sound ’83 not long after that

[scotronMember]

Well done Iain in getting a bit of a discussion going. Although I must admit, my jingle collecting and more importantly, my jingle knowledge, pales into insignificance when I am amongst such a knowledgeable group as this. All I can do is relate my experience of jingle collecting from about the age of 16 onwards. This is about 1969 /70 and I have no idea where the seed of liking jingles started, that is now lost in the mists of time, but the seed must have been planted back in the mid 60’s listening to the pirate ships and then Radio Luxembourg. From that Radio One started in 67 and I suppose I was aware of those early jingles being very familiar. Of course I had been hearing them on the pirates. So for the moment, it was just an interest. I just knew I liked jingles and used to try and record them ‘off air’ as everyone I have since found out used to do as well. So here we are, pre-internet and no way of knowing that this unique interest in jingles was actually not so unique and others were fascinated by them all over the world. It would be several years before we all ‘connected’. As my interest grew, I do remember seeing ads in the music press, like Sounds, Record Mirror and Melody Maker with folk offering cassettes of radio jingles on the small ad pages. I bought several tapes, looking back now of course, the quality was ‘interesting’ in most cases. But, I was starting to like this jingle lark and wanted more. I am sure I still have the cassettes somewhere…no idea if they will play…but some of my early collecting came from East Anglian Productions run by a guy called Ray Anderson. I know Iain knows this story very well… But back then, regardless of the quality, these were jingles that I had not heard before. Probably be horrified at how they sounded now in this digital age. I have related this story before on another thread, but always good to replay again for some of our newer members. One day I received a 1/4 inch tape through the post of dozens of American jingles ordered from a source that I cannot remember. I had to borrow a reel to reel machine to play them, but I will never forget hearing my first jingle that had different lyrics to the one I had become familiar with. I had no idea about syndication or resings or any of that stuff. The jingle in question was from Series 27 The Jet Set, Remember This Golden Classic. It was the same jingle, the same track, but…the lyrics were different!!! What was going on? The lyrics I was now hearing were. “Here’s Jack Gale to ruin your breakfast…….” and onto the station name and slogan. I think that was the turning point for me in becoming a jingle collector and perhaps finding out more about them and who made them. I do remember when Radio One first started using JAM for their jingles in 76 !! They had been promos on air about a new sound and I do have a memory of having an argument with one of my pals at Hospital Radio who was also into jingles, who told me they were from JAM. I assume he had read something somewhere, but I insisted …no you are wrong, it is PAMS. Well, we were all blown away by that first JAM package back then. From that time till now, I have just been a fan, not as avid a collector as some of my friends on here.But what a great outlet JM is for all of us to get together to share material and talk about this wonderful world of jingles.

[IainJohnston]

“The jingle in question was from Series 27 The Jet Set……….. Here’s Jack Gale to ruin your breakfast…….”

Still probably the most “inspired” lyrics version of PAMS Series 27, it was WAYS 610 kHz Charlotte North Carolina,
a staunch customer of PAMS. Available on the KenR “Sixty-Wonderful” CD.

“some of my early collecting came from East Anglian Productions run by a guy called Ray Anderson. I know Iain knows this story very well”

Mr Anderson did very well out of my station-recorded tapes – and lets say that funded my two Ferrograph Series Sevens,
which I finally donated to the local Museum of Communications this time last year – probably classed as “breaking for spares…”

Some digital dubs of N-th generation copies of some of my tapes have even reached me from USA etc collectors all
these years later – just more tape hiss than the originals :^)

[Author]

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