[professor1036]

Speaking as a long time creator of jingles montages…I always try to do something a little bit different.

Jingle demos have been a big part of my collection since obtaining a few ‘hissy’ JAM and TMCI demonstrations on tape around 1987, giving an insight into station imaging from legendary radio stations across America. So if and when time allowed…I ventured to recreate a few of my favourite demos, giving a bit of a different perspective to the original. Of course these mock-ups are not designed to replace or enhance the original demos and the legendary (and sometimes erstwhile) radio stations that the demo was created around, but just a bit of fun really…

The first demo I recreated about a year ago was for ‘Madison Avenue’ from Century 21…a wonderful, but underused package in Britain and Ireland, where its main airing was on the BBC North East network. The commercial stations on the otherhand tended to just dip in and out of ‘Madison Avenue’ and just used a few cuts here and there as part of a composite order, ranging from 210-FM, Hereward Radio/CNFM or Signal Radio to South East Radio in Ireland. Recently the package received a bit of an airing when the erstwhile ‘Central Radio’ in Lancashire ordered a few cuts from Century 21’s successor – TM Studios.

Here is my mock up of ‘Madison Avenue’…just over a thousand listens and still going strong!

https://soundcloud.com/professor1036/madison_avenue_alternative

The page below features the ‘abridged’ Studio Dragonfly edit of Madison Avenue…

http://studiodragonfly.com/index.php?Itemid=164&option=com_zoo&view=item&category_id=2&item_id=83

Recently I decided to have a look at another package and try something a little bit more ambitious…namely the legend that is ‘Turbo Z’ from JAM.

This package speaks for itself…punchy, powerful and has stood the test of time with its fantastic production values. I was blown away when I first heard the ‘Turbo Z’ demo as part of ‘The #1 Choice’ demo CD in 1989…and to my surprise, it was quickly picked up by a local station I used to listen to a helluva lot…Beacon Radio. The Beacon resings have often been discussed across differing forums (including Jinglemad) and a lot of collectors have often said that it is one of the best resings of Turbo Z…but I’ve always maintained that in my own personal opinion, the Beacon versions are better than the Z100 originals. To me…Turbo Z will always be associated with Beacon!

Anyway…the original cut-by-cut rundown of Turbo Z’s recreation was done a while ago, but concentrated solely on the Beacon resings. However; Beacon never ordered the full package…so the missing cuts were omitted. Then when I returned to the package, I realised that the Capital Radio (Dublin) purchase was more-or-less the full package, so I incorporated a few of those to fill the cut numbers that Beacon did not order. When I came back to it a third time…I replaced a few of the Beacon cuts with some resings from Piccadilly Key 103 and other stations for instance, to give the mock-up a broader view, similar to what I did with Madison Avenue. The fourth (and most recent) tinkering involved trying to recreate the start or the narrative behind the package, which proved difficult. But I thought I could abridge my version after the section of the demo looking at the morning show cuts, where I replaced Ross & Wilson with Myatt & Perry from Beacon.

So this is my perspective of ‘Turbo Z’ for your listening pleasure…

https://soundcloud.com/professor1036/turboz

Here is the JAM page about the original ‘Turbo Z’, featuring the Z100 originals…

http://jingles.com/jam/radioids/demodl-TurboZ.php

Coincidentally…I recently stumbled across Andy Walters’ Beacon perspective of JAM’s ‘Hit Power’…

https://soundcloud.com/andywcr/hit-power-beacon

Anyway…that’s it for the moment! When time allows…I may add more recreations in the future, please feel free to post yours!

Enjoy!

[DuncanNewmarchMember]

Turbo Z- very nice, I enjoyed that. Personally I think the best UK version of #25 was for The Pulse

[rakMember]

Yes, the Turbo Z remake is very nice. I’ve always thought that the KEY 103 resings of Turbo Z and Sunset Boulevard were very skilfully written – was anyone on here working there at the time? They often changed the melody, and it always worked very well.

I think Beacon Radio were sometimes inclined to cram too many syllables into the jingles they ordered. The Irish Capitol (sic) Radio cuts are quite nice, and I think they prove that JAM wouldn’t have sounded quite as good as Grooveaddicts on Capital in London – horses for courses and all that.

Looking forward to hearing some more Demo remakes.

[glen]

Like it!!!
Thanks!!!

[GrahamCollins]

Nice idea Paul and technically well done.

It is a pity that Beacon Radio didn’t take the opportunity at the time to change their name very slightly if they wanted to use this package – there are too many syllables to fit the Turbo Z logo in my opinion – always sounds rushed to me, so I’ve never liked their versions….. same for Capital Radio for that matter.

[IanF]

Interesting opinions on Beacon’s Turbo Z resings. I consider it better than the Z100 original IMHO and I never found it rushed at all. The pure octane of the tracks themselves fitted in well the the fab harmonies and pronounciations of the vocals. When they exploded onto the airwaves for the first time in 1989, my reaction was ‘wow’. It’s also still my favourite JAM package for Beacon. It would also appear that Beacon’s Dave Myatt and Ian Perry had a great time in the States whilst getting the jingles done. According to Ian Perry, Dave was knew what he wanted from JAM….and got it

[professor1036]

Thanks for the comments so far…much appreciated!

Yes, the Turbo Z remake is very nice. I’ve always thought that the KEY 103 resings of Turbo Z and Sunset Boulevard were very skilfully written – was anyone on here working there at the time? They often changed the melody, and it always worked very well.

I think Beacon Radio were sometimes inclined to cram too many syllables into the jingles they ordered. The Irish Capitol (sic) Radio cuts are quite nice, and I think they prove that JAM wouldn’t have sounded quite as good as Grooveaddicts on Capital in London – horses for courses and all that.

Looking forward to hearing some more Demo remakes.

I think Turbo Z (and JAM come to think of it) would have worked fine on Capital in London…infact knowing Capital at the time, they probably would have bought a custom package.

Interesting opinions on Beacon’s Turbo Z resings. I consider it better than the Z100 original IMHO and I never found it rushed at all. The pure octane of the tracks themselves fitted in well the the fab harmonies and pronounciations of the vocals. When they exploded onto the airwaves for the first time in 1989, my reaction was ‘wow’. It’s also still my favourite JAM package for Beacon. It would also appear that Beacon’s Dave Myatt and Ian Perry had a great time in the States whilst getting the jingles done. According to Ian Perry, Dave was knew what he wanted from JAM….and got it

I agree with you Ian…I think the sound of the jingles has more to do with the pace of the tracks, plus the station name fitted well into the follow-up package concentrating on the KIIS logo. Infact…the first Alfasound jingles for Beacon in 1985 is a good example where some of them do sound rushed, but this was ironed out to a certain extent in the subsequent packages.

[tyty21]

Neal, that’s a great idea! if you can, try making it worldwide as well. another demo you can do is Hot Kiis, or Flamethrower.

[mbMember]

My first hearing of Turbo Z was on Beacon followed by the early Alfasound resings for KFM. I think you all know that I do regard this as one of the finest resings by JAM and I prefer to the Z100 versions – I also think they are a little more creative and yes do squeeze in a long slogan but it fits well. If you listen in particular to the Accapella end logo sings of Beacon Radio they just sound amazing. I don’t know if it was the group, the mix, the producer but that day it all came together and I think is as near perfect as you can get. Each time they had a new breakfast show for some reason they seem to have the new cuts sung at Alfasound – So the replacement Bob Davies, Dave Myatt, Nigel Freshman cuts were different whilst on 103.1 Will Tudor had his JAM vocals playing. I might put together a montage of the different resings as far as I can recall they had Will Tudor (Shrops) then Myatt & Perry, Bob Davies then Dave Myatt then Nigel Freshman. I think the quality of resings depends on the timescale given, singers available and fit of the name / strap lines but Beacon and Key 103 certainly have some of the best resings.

[professor1036]

You should do an alternative demo of Breakthrough. It sold well over the years so there is plenty of cuts to go with.

Funny you should mention that!

[professor1036]

Here’s number three in this occasional series of recreating legendary demos and this time I’m concentrating on Breakthrough from JAM…a firm Jinglemad favourite.

This recreation is dedicated to David Barras who passed away in 2012. Longtime contributors to JM will remember his love for JAM jingles and also for Breakthrough…David used the jingles on-air at Sun FM in Sunderland. http://jinglemad.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/3732/jam-breakthrough-stations-s-/p1

For your information…a ‘Breakthrough’ thread started by JMW about the evolution of ‘Breakthrough’ http://jinglemad.com/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/6933/jam-and-breakthrough/p1

Anyway…here’s my alternative ‘Breakthrough’

https://soundcloud.com/professor1036/breakthrough

Hope you like it!

[LenGroat]

That’s a lot of work – well done! And thanks for the reminder of Jon’s ‘before & after’ comparisons.

Truly an innovative and classic JAM package. I was fortunate to sit in the booth for the Trent versions as the special ‘Breakthrough’ vocal group built the layers. I don’t know how to describe it musically, but it starts sounding very strange, some unbelievable notes/harmonies, then suddenly they dropped-in the last few ‘layers’ and it all gelled together into that tight powerful sound!

[michiMember]

The very first sung jingle I bought for the old REC phone lines from back in 1989 was Turbo Z cut 26:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/rec-jam-turbo-z-cut-26-rec407

About a year later, I would buy several different lyrics of Turbo Z cut 10:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/rec-jam-turbo-z-cut-10-free
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/rec-jam-turbo-z-cut-10-1
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/rec-jam-turbo-z-cut-10

It’s been remixed in Morse code:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/turbo-z-10-rec-in-morse-code

Then about 20+ years later, I went back for Turbo Z cut 10 again, this time for J1:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/j1-turbo-z-cut-10-japans

We took that jingle and our previous cuts and we mixed, sliced, diced and julienned that cut:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/j1-radio-turbo-z-cut-10

It was so good, even the mice were excited!:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/the-mice-broke-into-jam-and-recorded-a-jingle

J1’s next new jingles will be from Breakthrough.. but I will still always be a fan of Turbo Z.

=m

[IainJohnston]

Blimey!
Breakthrough definitely sounds better with UK station names than even the ‘PLJ! :^)

(Wot> No Channel 103 or Q96 in there though Prof :^[ ?)

[michiMember]

Here is my mockup version of the TM Channel 4 Hot AC package demo but with J1:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/tm-channel-4-hot-ac-demo-with-j1

[PKMember]

Blimey!
Breakthrough definitely sounds better with UK station names than even the ‘PLJ! :^)

(Wot> No Channel 103 or Q96 in there though Prof :^[ ?)

The Tony Blackburn Pick Of The Pops Breakthrough cut isn’t in there either Iain!

[professor1036]

Blimey!
Breakthrough definitely sounds better with UK station names than even the ‘PLJ! :^)

(Wot> No Channel 103 or Q96 in there though Prof :^[ ?)

Blimey!
Breakthrough definitely sounds better with UK station names than even the ‘PLJ! :^)

(Wot> No Channel 103 or Q96 in there though Prof :^[ ?)

The Tony Blackburn Pick Of The Pops Breakthrough cut isn’t in there either Iain!

To quote myself “…utilising resings from the depths of my collection” if I haven’t got a clean copy of it, I can’t include it.

[professor1036]

Here is my mockup version of the TM Channel 4 Hot AC package demo but with J1:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-bradley-3/tm-channel-4-hot-ac-demo-with-j1

Thanks for sharing that recreation michi…sounds very good!

That’s a lot of work – well done! And thanks for the reminder of Jon’s ‘before & after’ comparisons.

Truly an innovative and classic JAM package. I was fortunate to sit in the booth for the Trent versions as the special ‘Breakthrough’ vocal group built the layers. I don’t know how to describe it musically, but it starts sounding very strange, some unbelievable notes/harmonies, then suddenly they dropped-in the last few ‘layers’ and it all gelled together into that tight powerful sound!

Thanks for that Len…I liked the Trent resings of it, infact I always thought more stations in the UK should have ordered ‘Breakthrough’ in its entirety. I *think* only Essex FM and Sun FM more-or-less ordered the whole package. Severn Sound had a really good version of ‘Breakthrough’, but it was only a selection of cuts. Unfortunately they didn’t last long on-air because Severn Sound was taken over by Chiltern who installed ‘The Hot FM’ identity.

[tyty21]

hey! don’t make me jump on the bandwagon, not yet! I may have to dig through some demos and see what resings I could find for this side of the pond!

[IainJohnston]

“To quote myself “… if I haven’t got a clean copy of it, I can’t include it”

{Ahem} Paul, I can maybe do something about that… ;^)
IJ

[professor1036]

Thanks for the responses folks…

I’ve just completed number four in this occasional series…this time recreating Hot KIIS from JAM.

https://soundcloud.com/professor10363/hotkiis

Another favourite JAM package of mine…as first heard by me on Radio Nova and Radio 1.

Anyway…hope you’re enjoy the recreations, they seem to be getting a bit of traction listenership wise so thank you! I think I’m going to cast my eye over Century 21 once again next time…decisions, decisions!

Jingle demo recreations Soundcloud playlist…
https://soundcloud.com/professor1036/sets/pauls-jingle-demo-recreations

[jonnoMember]

Great work Paul! I love this package too, and nice to hear some station names jump out of that demo that I didn’t realise had cuts from HOT KIIS.

[professor1036]

I’m in a good mood…and this one has been requested, so its two demo recreations posted in one day!

Century 21’s ‘Steamroller’…

Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/professor10363/steamroller

[IainJohnston]

“nice to hear some station names jump out of that demo that I didn’t realise had cuts from HOT KIIS”

Agreed!
Paul, I’m realising with these mock-ups that my collection is severally full of VERY big gaps :^)
(…although I have HK12 as a Personal Cut at least…)

Definitely looking forwards to more from this “series!

[Spoons]

These are incredible. Love Steamroller !

[Author]

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