[JelleMember]

‘Bart is a Dutch version of myself’, says Jon Wolfert of JAM Creative Productions Inc. about Bart van Gogh of Top Format in The Netherlands. This week a lavishly illustrated book about Bart was published. The company is 45 years old this year, Bart is soon reaching his 40th year at Top Format. Over the years he did jingles for hundreds of radiostations all over Europe. He started producing jingle packages of W.B. Tanner from Memphis, Top Format’s trade partner in the early years. But in 1986 they made a giant step for mankind, when they started doing JAM. Steve England and Alfasound supplied the British Isles, and Top Format was allowed to do the continent. They started singing JAM tracks in Dutch, German, Icelandic, Greek, Italian, Russian. Soon they became a perfect copy cat of American jingles. Wolfert thought the production was outstandingly good. In the years Top Format became a producer of custom packages however for the European market, when the JAM river dried up. Besides: European stations wanted a new, European style, no more USA stuff. Bart did numerous custom packages, for Sky Radio, Radio 10 (in a PAMS of Dallas style), for Donna in Belgium, for the Europarade and many many more. It has become a big book, 1,2 kilo, (Bart had a lot to tell), 352 pages, over 360 photos, many interviews. It’s about Bart, but also about changes in radio, how Dallas came about, what happened to PAMS, about his short carreer on the Mi Amigo, about the many stations that came and disappeared. All Dutch, I’m afraid, but Top Format’s considering an English version of it. There are many interviews in the book, with singers and producers and dj’s. Bart considered Jon Wolfert as a teacher in the jingletrade (there’s no school, his specialism was decisive for Bart’s personal development). Unfortunately Coronoa prevented us to go to Dallas and talk at length with Jon Wolfert. Skype had to be the solution. Jon Wolfert speaks out about JAM (will he ever close the door? is there a successor? Why did the custom packages stop? Why did he agree to barter deals, which he disgusted? ) The book is in the Dutch bookshops and can also be obtained from bol.com (the Dutch Amazon). There’s good news, accompanying the Bart book there’s also a free Bart-magazine, filled with sounds and photos and videos. Bart also made a jingle parade with his favorite jingles and there are famous dj’s talking about Bart (like Ferry Maat and Hans Hogendoorn of RNI-fame). Read about the Bart book here: http://topformat.com/bartboek/ See the Bart magazine here: https://topformat.foleon.com/bart/bart/cover/

[UKJinglesMember]

Would be an interesting read if and when it comes out in English! 😉

[ntcarver0Member]

How cool. I’d be really interested in this if an English translation was ever made.

[mjb1124Member]

Some interview clips with Jon Wolfert here that are fascinating…

https://topformat.foleon.com/bart/bart/jon-wolfert/

Sounds like Jon has no immediate plans to completely stop, but is just fine with the lower workload nowadays. Guess you can call it a sort of semi-retirement. He has time to do his Rewound Radio show after all…

[pvankleiMember]

BAM!! Received the book today on my doormat. The book looks great. 352 pages and more than 360 photos.
The unique photos are already a reason to buy the book even the language is in Dutch.

[MarcMannetje]

pvanklei;c-74907 wrote:

BAM!! Received the book today on my doormat. The book looks great. 352 pages and more than 360 photos.
The unique photos are already a reason to buy the book even the language is in Dutch.

Agreed. I got it too. There’s a lot of insight stuff, about the decline of Pepper/Tanner, the art and craftmenship of vocal groups and a lot more. Really great!

[Author]

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