[TServo2049]

I’ve heard that PAMS Auld Lang Syne thing before (I have it on Ken R.’s “In Search of Historic PAMS”), and it really does suck. PAMS was absolutely down the shitter at that point, as the toilet flush recording incident proves.

(WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!!!)

Here are some of my “favorite” late-PAMS things…those things that are delightfully, but also depressingly, bad:
-The WMEX sports customs (the Red Sox montage song, complete with obligatory late-PAMS “Jim Clancy talking” segment ; the “Great names in sports? Clif and Claf!’ jingle [yes, to me it sounds like they’re going Great names in sports? as if they are confused by Clif and Claf being referred to as such])
-The WNBC/KNBR stuff (some of it is rather good, but some of it is just weird…like the “Did you hear what Imus said?” WNBC cut, where the singers seem to be tone-deaf [as they quite often seem to be in late PAMS, especially when we have the ear-splittingly shrill combo of Billy Ainsworth and Carol Piper (well, that’s who Tracy tells me took over from Marv Shaw and Jackie Dickson) as the male and female leads], or the “Puts the whoop…in your whoopee” KNBR cut)
-Series 48 (need I say more? Billy, you’re not Marv Shaw! Get over it, and stop trying [and failing] to sound like him!)
-WLS ’76 (aka “Windy ’76”) (one of the wackiest things PAMS put out in its last days, complete with bizarre instrumental tracks and off-key singers; it was also sold to many different stations, leading to many different wild and wacky variations…and if you think the Studio-A-vocals version is nuts, wait’ll you hear the Studio-C-vocals demo…)

PAMS was an anomaly by 1977, following Bill Meeks appointing himself “music director,” and the “Great Exodus” of the early 70s (my name for the myriad firings/walkouts/etc. that occurred at PAMS around 1972-74 [Tracy, correct me if any of these people didn’t leave PAMS]: such people as Toby Arnold, Jodie Lyons, Bob Piper, Jim Kirk, Fred Hardy, Jerry Atchley, Bruce Collier, Marv Shaw, Jackie Dickson, Chris Kershaw, and of course, Jon Wolfert)…and, listening to their last products, I’m somewhat glad that it was finally put out of its misery.

It’s just sad that PAMS had to go out with a whimper, instead of a bang. (In fact, even after PAMS closed, Bill Meeks kept turning out bizarre new jingles and “illegal” PAMS resings…but that’s another story for another time…)

[topcat]

More ‘n more people like more ‘n more jingles…

KLIF Dallas, TX – Jodie Lyons “Lively Ones”

http://www.jingles.org/klifjllo.mp3

KSTP – Futuresonic Productions Custom (1961)

http://www.jingles.org/kstpfs61.mp3

KGW Portland, OR – PAMS 28x w/local production

http://www.jingles.org/kgw28xx.mp3

[Nige]

Absolutely brilliant, TC.
Thanks for all of your postings, keep ’em coming.

Do you have any generics or beds too?

I luv hearing the classics and some of these others too.

[topcat]

Nige wrote: Do you have any generics or beds too?

I luv hearing the classics and some of these others too.

Hi Nige,

Yup… I have generic stuff, but in fairness to the original producers… I don’t post these. In fact, we have *ALL* of the production libraries created by Pepper and its various incarnations… from the original reels right down to copies of the final vinyl disks.

We have released some generic TM country acapellas through kenr.com. We remixed them into stereo from the original 2, 3 and 4-track masters. I have some we’ve remixed from other TM packages, such as Phase II and Phase III… but we never got ’em all together for release before Ken announced his retirement. I don’t know if we’ll ever bother releasing them or not. They’ve all be processed for noise reduction and had what I view as the proper reverb added to them.

Anyway… I ramble on….

Here’s examples from WRAL’s Custom package. They were written and produced by Tom Merriman and Gerry Stockton as “Regal Studios“.

http://www.jingles.org/WRAL_RS.mp3

Here are a few cuts from KCBQ’s 1972 TM Assortment.

http://www.jingles.org/kcbqtm72.mp3

[TServo2049]

topcat wrote: Here are a few cuts from KCBQ’s 1972 TM Assortment.

http://www.jingles.org/kcbqtm72.mp3

Don’t mean to be overly corrective, but no matter what I hear anybody say, this assortment (though it does contain some later shotguns) cannot date from 1972. I have heard many of the Phase II cuts in the assortment (with the odd pre-“WABC” logo) on a 1970 KCBQ aircheck on Reelradio. Call it what you want, the box may say 1972, but I always call it the 1970 assortment (it can’t be any earlier, since Phase II and Sound ’70 were both released in 1970).

Heck, I’ve noticed that in 1970 and beyond, a LOT of stations bought both Phase II and Sound ’70. WCFL, KLIF, KCBQ, KDKA, WOWO, 2UW…all bought cuts from both packages (either separately or as an assortment/composite). I wouldn’t blame them; Phase II and Sound ’70 were THE THING in 1970.

(One of the reasons why I laugh at PAMS’ Revolution ’72 demo and its opening “Radio, 1970” montage of horrible Atwood Richards a cappellas; if they had instead included ’70’s REAL big sellers, PAMS’ Series 40, TM’s Phase II and Sound ’70, and Drake-Chenault’s Series 1, nobody would have judged radio to be so sorely out of date to have had reason to buy R’72! [Heck, nobody really bought it anyway!])

But back to Phase II and Sound ’70; those two packages are an example of groups of jingle packages that often seemed to be bought in tandem (i.e., together, at the same time, by the same station). Here are some other examples:
-PAMS’ Series 27 and Series 29 (linked by the all-male vocals and Gleni Rutherford (nee Tai; I have no idea if she used “Tai” before or after she married Paris Rutherford, or even when she married Rutherford)
-PAMS’ Series 32 and Series 33 (linked by the predominantly all-male vocals, the hip style, the early Moog synthesizer work, and Trella Hart providing those great solos)
-PAMS’ Series 42 and Series 43 (linked by…well, actually, not really linked by much at all! They both had the 7-voice group, and they were both top-40-oriented short cuts, but besides that, they had no common link. Yet stations often bought the two together…)
-PAMS’ Smart Set and Tuned Young (linked by the same “Naked City” musical logo, and both geared to MOR stations, with Smart Set being “good music”-oriented, and Tuned Young being more suited to “chicken rock,” as I call it)

Darn it, I’m rambling again…but U.S. jingle nuts like Tracy will appreciate this stuff…

[topcat]

Okay… Here’s a few more items dusted off from the shelf. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about them. They’re just examples of the packages, I guess.

4BH – PAMS Assortment

http://www.jingles.org/4BHPAMS.mp3

7LA & 2AY – PAMS Series 42A “The Igniters”

http://www.jingles.org/7LA2AY42.mp3

KWOC – PAMS Assortment

[TServo2049]

topcat wrote: Okay… Here’s a few more items dusted off from the shelf. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about them. They’re just examples of the packages, I guess.

Well, maybe not remarkable…but I hear some interesting stuff…like the “super oldies” lyric in one 4BH cut, and the “K-wock radio” slogan in the KWOC jingles (and some interesting lyric variations there too).

The series represented here are great…that’s one good thing these have going for them…

[topcat]

Last one for the night… er… morning, in the UK….

WFLM – PAMS “Stereo Island”

http://www.jingles.org/WFLM_SI.mp3

[TServo2049]

Ah, “Stereo Island.” Quite a good easy-listening package…even if the vocals are a bit dodgy, the music tracks are very nice.

[topcat]

Around 1970, PAMS decided to put out a couple of contests they could market to stations. KYA was the pilot station, and the contests were MEMORY BANK and THE PIED PIPER. As part of the purchase of the contest(s), you got a few customized tie-in jingles to promote the sucker. Here is a composite of a few cuts for THE PIED PIPER for various stations (KYA, WOAI, 5AD and WSM).

[topcat]

Bill Simmons was the “deep voice” on the solo cuts from PAMS Series 16, 17 and 18. His bass voice can be heard distinctly on PAMS series into the mid-sixties. Jim Clancy later took over as the bass-man, and has remained as such ever since.

Here is 3DB Melbourne, Australia‘s Series 18 “Sonosational”. I’ve included cuts featuring Mr. Simmons, who passed away on January 24th.

[topcat]

At one point or another, it seems that all of the jingle companies had a christmas grid. PAMS was the first to originlate this concept/method of getting several jingles out of one basic sing. However, they also had a couple of non-grid cuts in the package… which are showcased here:

[ronfilMember]

TC,
Thanks for all of your posts!!!
Do you have the second cut in that grid for WFIL??

[topcat]

ronfil wrote: Do you have the second cut in that grid for WFIL??

‘fraid not. We lost the second .mp3 file when our servers were upgraded.

-TC

[topcat]

Happy Saturday, everyone…

Futuresonic DJ Themes

http://www.jingles.org/fsdjthm.mp3

CRC Series 31

[topcat]

As I was pokign around jinglemad, I noticed that a lot of people have posted their personal cuts. Well… I don’t have many… so I thought I’d post my brother’s PAMS cuts. Some of these cuts go back years ‘n years ‘n . . . . . .

[topcat]

WHYN AM&FM bought muchos packages from JAM over the years. Here are some cuts from one of those Dallas adventures…

[Brian]

Ahhhh TC yet again I hear the BBC Radio 2 lyrics from summer 1985. Memories like the corner of my mind. (put your tongue away Brian)

[topcat]

Here is the PAMS Series 44 Stepper cut, as produced for me by CPMG/PAMS on May 8, 1988. I didn’t like the orignal mix, so I have “rebuilt” the cut from scratch, using all of the acapella stacks/elements and the moog-only mix of the track (which I conveniently edited to fit my logo).

[topcat]

Here’s another mix of my PAMS Series 44 Stepper Cut… heavy on precussion… that I did this morning.

[topcat]

Here’s a quick composite of KDKA Pittsburgh jingles produced in 1973 by TM Productions.

[NickySMember]

Brian wrote: Ahhhh TC yet again I hear the BBC Radio 2 lyrics from summer 1985. Memories like the corner of my mind. (put your tongue away Brian)

Have to agree Brian … indeed I have splashed out on a personal cut from the package

[topcat]

More JAM cuts for WHYN/FM Springfield, Mass.

[Nige]

Ahhh yes, shades of Radio 2 yet again.

[topcat]

Once upon a time, PAMS produced a package called ‘The Happy Difference” a/k/a Series 25. Jodie Lyons was commissioned to create some jingles based on this series. The results became known as PAMS Series 28x, and cuts from the series ended up in PAMS Series 29 and Smart Set.

Included in Series 28x were “Happy Difference” acapellas. Jodie told me that Bill Meeks (PAMS Founder and owner) almost had a nose bleed when he saw how many vocalist were singing on these acapellas. Jodie said that he had the best male singers in town all crowded around a couple of microphones… no vocal stacking.

Here are some outtakes from that session…

[Author]

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