[GlennaMember]

Alot of stations owe alot to Jon And Jam.
The Jam logo is being used by RW for Z100 and now KOST.
Do we see a pattern here?

[nostalgie]

I would also say that their jingles were carrying the “prestige” of the radio station, the brand KOST.

[jr2479]

I don't think the RW One AC package sounds very good in general, but it sounds especially bad with this logo mismatch.

It almost seems if the AC RW One service is an afterthought. CHR sounds very good, and Country sounds pretty good. The AC stuff doesn't stack up very well against the regular ReelWorld AC packages.

RIP JAM on Coast.

[JingleMadMemberAuthor]

Agree.

KOST had if I'm guessing correctly, about 16 or 17 jingle packages before dumping them.

To my knowledge, RW One updates all the time. Sorry guys, KOST will never go to Jam again, cace closed. Stella Prado wants RW only.

The only love song jingles I heard on KOST last night were “Summer nights” and “Nightlines”. 2 jingles that to me, are OK, but like everybody, I would love to have heard Jam one last time.

Just a note to everybody I'm not a huge Jam fan, but when I red the news from the RW website a week ago and heard the station at 6 AM EST this morning, I was vary and I mean vary shocked.

I know how you feel… I have the same fielings as you.

The news is on
http://WWW.Jinglenews.com
For those who want to read it.

[jlehmann]

Wow, what a shame… I haven't been very active trading/talking about jingles lately, and this will certainly drive me further away.

Clear Channel must be in bed with Reel World, because it seems like almost all their stations are using them now. The company is in big trouble itself, so they must be getting a huge discount to use almost exclusively Reel World.

[calguy]

Codymerryman@gm wrote:
Agree.

KOST will never go to Jam again, cace closed. Stella Prado wants RW only.

The news is on
http://WWW.Jinglenews.com
For those who want to read it.

KOST could very well go JAM again considering how awful these RW jingles sound. As for wanting them, she wasn't given a choice.

[LenGroat]

To try and give Reelworld's 'jingle commandoes (their description of themselves..) a chance, I went to their site…

The over use of Flash technology, and Arnold Schwarzenegger/robotic interface makes it 100% mechancial/ 100% non human-personal.. not a good start for a station such as KOST, built on personality and humanity… with warm LYRICS on their jingles

So, to see what they CAN do I found a 2009 package for Key 103 Manchester in Britain.

On the positive side it is a CUSTOM, so if Key 103 can afford this why can't KOST which is in a bigger city/ market?

On the negative side EVERY SINGLE CUT in the package has a Kylie Minogue sound alike singer, no male vocals, one style of music, and identical lyrics…

At least there is some effort put into the tracks but they are way behind JAM in musicality and production values. BUT if KOST had got a ReelWorld CUSTOM it might have been slightly better than the 'chewing gum jingles' they have settled for.

IRONICALLY

Reelworld say (in a tongue in cheek way) that their aim is to:

'create legions of adoring fans the world over while having the time of our lives in the process'

Well judging by their jingles for KOST they are spending too long having the time of their lives and not enough choosing singers, or using WRITERS who can make memorable melodic jingles for a VERY important radio station.

If the management cannot get their BIG stations 'right' what happens to the small ones?

I hope it is a case of 'JAM yesterday, and JAM tomorrow…'

[Bello]

The Key 103 2009 package has got male vocals on some of the cuts…for example the News Intro is male lead.

[JingleMadMemberAuthor]

Len,

The Fee-Mail singer is Karen. Nice voice, and I actually like her stile when she sings in some of ReelWorld's packages.

[GlennaMember]

Another RW rerun.
Cheesy production with same old vocals.

[bruceup]

While I'm sure it's fun debating the esthetics of the KOST situation, knowing how these new jingle 'services' are marketed, I'm sure the jingle switch was 100% financially based. RW One, Kissville, Litehouse, etc. are sold on barter. No cash changes hands anymore – US stations don't have allocations for jingles in their budgets – the only thing they still have in plentiful supply is airtime. I've been a witness to this cash-to-barter transition over the past 5 years, and it's here to stay. If it weren't for Premiere and Dial-Global's barter services, the US radio jingle business would be left for dead.

I too think that many of the KOST jingles I've heard over the years are unique works of musical art, and fit the station like a glove. Unfortunately, commercial radio is, at its core, a business, and that's never been a more obvious statement than at this point in time.

[LenGroat]

Bruce

Thanks for making two Authorative and definitive points:

'Unfortunately, commercial radio is, at its core, a business… that's never been a more obvious statement than at this point in time'

'I too think that many of the KOST jingles I've heard over the years are unique works of musical art'

Inevitably the 'older' ones amongst the contributors here are at variance with the younger ones over what is a 'good' jingle, and that is witnessed by the Intense interest in this topic.

It is frustrating that some of the key people in the newer jingle companies have such low profiles, and the 'giants' from the 60s to 90s have either passed on, retired, or are nearing retirment, as I just do not see any new 'stars' rising.

We cannot 'change the jingle world' here, but I guess we can at least 'rattle on their door' with our comments, but at the end of the day we are left to enjoy jingles that will not be used on air again. It is becoming a kind of …

'Jingle Museum'

And THAT is sad….

[Maya53]

Do not forget that JAM recently did a AC custom package for Q92.9 in Pittsburgh about a year ago after that station adjusted its formats and moved away from the “Lite Rock” moniker. The jingles that are used on the station sounds too old and some of the cuts sounded like they are from the late 80's/early-to-mid 90's. I really doubt that this package won't be as successful as the “Fresh” package, which I believe was the first package that does not use their seven-voice vocal group. That package is also used for Sunny 95 in Columbus, KAFE from somewhere in Washington state, and certain others. I think mainly is because 75% of the top rated AC stations prefer newer sounding jingles than the outdated ones such as JAM to match with today's music.

My belief is that JAM's days are being numbered, not just because of decisions being made by PDs to match their station's imaging to today's taste of music, but because they sounded too old. It is like you can't have a PAMS cut played before a Justin Timberlake song, it doesn't fit to their current format. But fortunately, there are some stations that still going for newer customs from them, such as WLS which is known for JAM jingles since it was first used in the mid 70's during its top 40 days. Not only that, they are now airing a new custom package. Also you can hear JAM on certain music channels on Sirius XM.

So, this could be the end of JAM. Now with stations, even WABC dropping them. Only time would tell…

[GlennaMember]

And the people at RW will start celebrating.
We will be listenning to junk that sounds like people screaming over cheap cheezy trash.

[rakMember]

Looking at http://www.1330networks.com/valier/index.html JAM *are* offering jingles on a barter basis for the Valier show –
though I suspect stations wouldn't be able to offer enough services back to JAM to make bartering for complete jingle packages viable?

I don't know enough about how the bartering system works – is there someone who can post in more detail about bartering for jingles, as that does seem to be the way the industry is going in these cash-strapped times.

Back on topic briefly – I'm underwhelmed by the latest RW offering for KOST – it should have at least been a custom RW package. Let's hope they return to JAM in the future.

[Inferno]

Maya53 wrote:
Do not forget that JAM recently did a AC custom package for Q92.9 in Pittsburgh about a year ago after that station adjusted its formats and moved away from the “Lite Rock” moniker. The jingles that are used on the station sounds too old and some of the cuts sounded like they are from the late 80's/early-to-mid 90's. I really doubt that this package won't be as successful as the “Fresh” package, which I believe was the first package that does not use their seven-voice vocal group. That package is also used for Sunny 95 in Columbus, KAFE from somewhere in Washington state, and certain others. I think mainly is because 75% of the top rated AC stations prefer newer sounding jingles than the outdated ones such as JAM to match with today's music.

My belief is that JAM's days are being numbered, not just because of decisions being made by PDs to match their station's imaging to today's taste of music, but because they sounded too old. It is like you can't have a PAMS cut played before a Justin Timberlake song, it doesn't fit to their current format. But fortunately, there are some stations that still going for newer customs from them, such as WLS which is known for JAM jingles since it was first used in the mid 70's during its top 40 days. Not only that, they are now airing a new custom package. Also you can hear JAM on certain music channels on Sirius XM.

So, this could be the end of JAM. Now with stations, even WABC dropping them. Only time would tell…

I think your'e wrong. Just because high profile stations are not using JAM doesn't means it's the end of them. Sure, JAM's client list is not as many as 10 years ago but they still make a lot of jingles worldwide.

JAM 20 years ago were where Reelworld are now. Everywhere! However, everything has a shelf life. As does Reelworld and it's only a matter of time before they pushed out by another “trendier” jingle company.

[calguy]

I honestly don't hear Reel World sounding that modern or JAM sounding old. True, JAM uses real musicians instead of synthesizers but to me the only difference is how Reel World is selling their jingles and in the current economy it's giving them an advantage. But the vocals are realy where they differ. I still feel JAM is better and if you listen to their newest jingles, JAM can sound just a contemporary as anyone. Better mix than RW as well. The RW jingles that KOST has had forced on them actually sound old to me. Like 2nd rate CHR jingles from the 80's. I think the real difference is that RW has reps assigned to sell jingles for various markets. Their aggressive, but that doesn't make their product better. Just my opinion and I've been working in radio for a long time… Perhaps you should hear how the locals feel, and yes, I'm a poster there too… http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=149353.0

[BHHolberg]

Just listened to the aircheck. KOST has gone from the class of the market to just another music station in one fell swoop. The attraction of the ReelWorld sound eludes me…always has. They remind me of the tremulous (and short lived) “Rock of Chicago” ids that WLS ran in the 70s.

[945KBAYguy]

Thank god! Everyone i talked to hates the KOST Jam stuff, Im sure this will bring them better ratings. They sound great too!

[ratnobMember]

Thought I'd take a listen to see whether Love Songs has been rebranded yet. Here's what it sounded like last night (Sunday 26 July 2009) – automated output with beautiful solo JAM cuts.

Make the most of them – they may not be on air for much longer.

[freq-ky]

TOH wrote:

If WLIT uses this package,no problem at all.

WLIT don't have this package on air. I believe they were used as the pilot station to get the service up and running. They use Key 103 '09/KMYI and one of the Kiss CHR packages on air at WLIT (Kiss Boston 2006 or Kiss Dallas 2004).

Well I'll be…………Many thanks for that info.The last I heard was that WLIT had pulled the plug on jingles so it's nice to hear.

[radioboy949]

I guarantee it was $$$.

[mjb1124Member]

LenGroat wrote:
Inevitably the 'older' ones amongst the contributors here are at variance with the younger ones over what is a 'good' jingle, and that is witnessed by the Intense interest in this topic.

Hey, I'm a “younger” contributor and I much prefer the classic JAM sound over the “cool” Reelworld sound.

[nostalgie]

Thanks for saying that, Mike! I don't feel alone anymore…

[GlennaMember]

Jam the number one choice for jingles.
At least the Jam vocals doesn't sound like a bunch of fingernails on a chalkboard. The RW stuff sounds like computer generated fake voices. Who are trying to sound sexy. Until we get some program directors who know what they are doing its going to be like this.
I'm 52 yrs old and maybe I'm too old to appriciate this kind of so – called jingles.
I alot of others who write to this column remember what jingles are SUPPOSED to sound like.
Jam, TM and Radioscrape are the best. And always will be!!
The companies run by people who KNOW what their they doing.
Vocals that sound human with tracks that fit the format.
NOT jingles that do NOT fit the format.
After all has anybody ever heard a song on KILT for example
sounds like somebody screaming, like their jingles.
If I were programming a station today, and if they told me eithier RW, M-edge or nothing I would go with nothing!!
Sorry folks the jingles not supposed to be the subject of the station. The music and personalties are what people like to listen to. And when the jingles don't mix people get turned off. For example if I'm listening to Faith Hill and the song ends I don't to hear a singer or singers yell
KILT OR KRKT.
Sorry but I grew up knowing what jingles ARE Supposed to sound like.
Maybe; I'm too old to know what jingles are suppose to sound like.
For the people at TM, JAM and Radioscrape I love you people!!!!!!!
Okay off soap box now.

[Author]

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