[IanF]

Another jingle legend sadly gone. RIP Ben

[jinglejoeMember]

Rest in Peace, Ben. God be with you and Noreen and your boys. Thanks for the jingles, the talks and spaghetti dinner.
joe c

[RadioboyMember]

Hey JC, JT here – happy 2013
long time long time.. Read the thread about Ben Freedman, never will forget the time we got together down in New Orleans & hung out with Ben, Fred, & others.. was a good time, very sorry to learn of his passing..

When I had the opportunity to be in a position to have some jingles created for two stations I was affiliated with a while ago, I contacted Ben, because I knew he would be able to produce exactly what I needed with the budget that was available, & Ben certainly didn’t disappoint!

Here is a short montage I put together this morning to share with you, & whomever else may enjoy savoring some of the terrific fun jingles he & his crew produced.

http://www.mediafire.com/?8v861q3yrcccai9

Figured you of all folks, would appreciate ’em

Take care & be well.

Cheers,
`JT

[jc_djmac]

Wow. another membor of the jingle community gone forever. how sad. My thoughts and prayers go out to him, his friends, and his family during this time. even though I’ve never met ben, he was always grate to work with. the jingle community will never be the same without Ben. R.I.P.

[LenGroat]

I never met Ben… but am very sad to read this….

[michiMember]

This is very sad news. Back in the early 90s, Ben did some Series 18 sono cuts for REC’s Telephone Entertainment operations.. He was one of the “characters” of jingleana but he made radio IDs accessible to those with very very low budgets. He will be missed here at REC.
REC Ben Freedman PAMS cuts by Michelle Bradley 2

[DavidHemsley]

I’ll be producing an hour long tribute to Ben later this year – anyone that has anecdotes or wants to submit anything, please contact me – jingle.network@gmail.com

Thanks

[jinglejoeMember]

I’m not sure if this was the norm, but, after having corresponded with Ben since the early 1980’s, I finally got to meet him in Dallas when he worked at C21, about 1989. I was to meet him at the jingle house and when I arrived for my tour, he presented me with a complimentary reel and cassette with a shout of my name, sang just before my arrival.
How cool was that! That name shout meant, and still means, the world to me!
joe c

[jinglejoeMember]

Thanx, JT!
That time in the Big Easy was superb! And partying with another long time, long gone jingle legend, Fred H, was the best time of all. Never to be forgotten.
joe c

[m_hodgeyMember]

It’s getting to the point where I’m frightened to visit this site in case there’s more bad news.

I’m saddened to hear that Ben Freedman has passed away, especially after the news that he was on the mend after suffering another heart attack in December.

Back in 2005, I had a couple of Gwinsound cuts re-sung by Ben, and later in the same year, one of his own cuts too. Working on these cuts with Ben was an absolute pleasure and I still cherish all those emails we exchanged; I loved the way his emails were full of life, a pleasure to read and how he used to start them with ” Mark my boy!” or something similar.

Memories of Ben for me are of a such a genuine and generous guy. The jingle world has lost another jingle great, but my thoughts and condolences are to his family at this difficult time.

RIP Ben.

[johnquincyMember]

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ben the last several years, doing audio editing and CD assembly, plus jingle demo creation. After each of his jingle sessions in his home studio, he would mail me several discs of generic jingles, shouts and sono for editing and inclusion into one of his Promo Bank CDs (and later, DVDs).

Ben mixed everything down “live” from his DA88s directly to a CD recorder, with spoken instructions added along the way. Every few months — when a few hundred Promo Bank cuts had been collected — I would master and mail him a set of compiled discs.

I was impressed with Ben’s novel way of recording group vocals. Unlike most of the other jingle companies, where all of the singers are in the studio at the same time, Ben would bring in the girls one day, the guys a couple of days later, and then the bass singer a few days after that. Not only did this allow him to give his customers “female only” and “male only” mixouts of his cuts (plus let the enterprising customer remix the vocal blend to his or her liking since the jingle beds were provided in the clear), but let Ben do more cuts per session since fewer people in the studio at one time cut down on thamountnt of mistakes.

Abby Holmes was the group leader for Ben’s latter day sessions. Abby’s husband Roger take care of writing the vocal charts. Other singers included Kay Sharpe, Rosana Eckert and Brian Beck.

Ben was planning another session in Februrary. He had asked me to choose four cuts to be resung at the end of the session. Ben never paid me a dime for my audio work — but compensated me in customized jingles, which for a jingle lover like me, was much better!

Working with Ben has been a great experience. I always wanted to be part of the radio jingle industry, and thanks to the U.S. Mail and the Internet, I was able to do it several hundred miles away from Dallas — not that I wouldn’t mind living there!

Ben, you are already missed.

[WAVAMember]

More sad news
R.I.P Ben

[martinlesterMember]

Ben Freedman, No one was more passionate about jingles than Ben

Here is my little Tribute to the Jingle Guy

https://soundcloud.com/martinjlester/ben-freedman-1949-2013-rip

This Starts and Ends with what I consider Ben’s Greatest Package “Mainstream” the end Jingle Features Abby on Solo and I believe was the first session with what later became Ben’s 8 Voice Vocal Group

RIP
Another great loss for the jingle community.

[ratnobMember]

Here is my little Tribute to the Jingle Guy

A lovely tribute, Martin.

[Tracy CarmanMember]

Benjamin R. “The Jingle Guy” FREEDMAN

FREEDMAN – Benjamin R. “The Jingle Guy” January 9, 2013, in Plano, Texas, age 63. Buffalo native and beloved husband of Noreen (Del Monte) Freedman; dear father of Joshua Freedman, Jessica (Christopher) Geiman, and Ben Freedman, Jr.; loving grandfather of Layla and John Geiman; brother to Barbara (Kenneth) Condrell; and beloved son of the late Alan (Bud) Freedman and June V. Freedman. Ben’s passion was to write and record radio jingles for thousands of local and national stations and DJ’s. Through the years, Ben recorded jingles in his home studios in Buffalo and later in Dallas, TX. Ben was so proud to sing the glories of the great Buffalo DJ Danny Neaverth and his famous lyric “Danny Moves Your Fanny in the Morning on KB and Oldies 104 Radio” in the 1970’s and 80’s. Ben was also proud of his 25 years working locally with his father Bud at their family business Bergman Tool Manufacturing Company. Above all, Ben was a family man. He dearly loved his wife Noreen to whom he was married to for over 27 years. Ben also cherished his children and grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending at this time.

Published in the Buffalo News on January 13, 2013

[johnquincyMember]

There’s a guest book to sign for Ben Freedman here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/buffalonews/obituary.aspx?pid=162311455#fbLoggedOut

I’m not sure his wife and kids will see the JingleMad comments, but they will see guest book entries.

[robynretro]

RIP, Ben. Thank you for your contributions to the jingle community as a whole.

Robyn

[dogman849]

Ben helped me with some jingles when I was in the middle of nowhere in Afghanistan! I remember him saying he needed to take a break from jingles. Can’t believe he is gone!

[Rob Persani]

I won a jingles network competition for Promobank and Instant Radio Station through the Jingle network and had some shouts and acapellas done with Ben. Amazing value, and a lovely man who was really interested in finding out about radio across the pond, I was just listening to him talking me through the session on the CDs he sent, so many different tracks and versions of everything. I know he’d been ill at the time, so sad that someone so passionate about his work could be gone in the prime of his life

[johnquincyMember]

Article in the Buffalo (New York) News about Ben:

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130116/CITYANDREGION/130119381/1116

[Author]

Posts