That's it! "Off The Peg" jingles. Every morning, four singers would come in to PAMS and add custom lyrics to pre-recorded jingles - that way, little stations could afford BIG-sounding jingles, with orchestras, etc.
Gosh, Those good old days when we would actually cue up records and slam carts into those cart machines, some were not cued out. Smelly mics, coffee stains and cigarette smoke late into the night. How I miss it all. Thanks for posting.
I only found this because of The Who’s music. I’m addicted to the jingle at 5:30 so much that I think I’ve made it the most replayed part of the video. It’s soooo good. God I wish more radio stations today were like this.
I remember hearing PAMS jingles on stations in the Boston, MA, area where I grew up; I believe WBZ, WKOX (Framingham) and WKOX-FM all used them. I had no idea where they were recorded, but even at 7 years-old, I wondered what it would be like to be paid to sit around singing about radio station formats. PAMS (of Dallas, TX) competed with Drake-Chernault's "Boss Radio" format, which included a common jingle tune that's still heard today on some oldies stations and their sensationalistic "20-20 News" introductions. The most notorious Drake-chernault radio station was CKLW, which, being in Windsor, was not bound by the same standards of good taste they might have used if trying to maintain an FCC license, so they opened lead stories about the happenings in nearby Detroit with headline like "6 children die in Christmas morning roast!" I don't know if there were any Drake-Chernault stations outside of the USA and Canada.
They ended up with one of Britain Radio's (Swinging Radio England's MOR channel) on Radio 2! "Hallmark of qualitee - Britain Radio" became "This is the beebeecee here on Radio 2"!
Definitely diggin' the jingles. My sister is taking radio classes and is starting to do stuff like that. I never got any experience in radio :( I'm still hoping that I will though. I'd love to bring back some Old Time Radio :)
@Mike Lee Actually, that's NOT an vocoder. This was the Sonovox, the effect that was used on many radio jingles from JAM Creative Productions during the 70s, 80s and 90s and was created around the 40s by Gilbert Wright.
Some of these jingles are now used by online radio station Psychedelicized, which incidentally plays great music 24 hours a day, mostly from the second half of the 60s and occasionally on in to the very early 70s.
@scorpion111151 ...the Big L studio (with Norman St John) can be seen on the upload of Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio PAMS jingles. I didn't have any pix of the SRE/BR studios - so in a mood of devilment, I put the Big L studio on the SRE/BR jingles - and Caroline on the Big L ones. Then I sat back and waited to see how long it'd take for someone to notice!
It's a pity that whoever uploaded this package of Radio London memories, added a photo of Dave Lee Travis in the Radio Caroline South studio! Fyi - Dave Lee Travis never worked on Radio London.
Of course, these jingles were heard all over the USA, customized with the different station's call letters. In the east, those start with the letter "W", and in the west, with "K". The generic tunes had to be adaptable to stations with either letter, which is hard because W is the only letter that's more than one syllable. The first time I heard Radio London jingles was on the "Who Sell Out" album in the late '60s, and I was amused American jingles were used in Britain.
@scorpion111151 CONGRATULATIONS!!! I wondered who would spot that first! It took nearly SIX MONTHS! A deliberate PLOY on my part. You're right of course - he was on Caroline. I already had a pic of the MV Galaxy on my upload of "Sonowaltz" - and I just stuck the pic of the Hairy Cornflake on this section out of obtuse devilment!
1.20 - how did they get away with the Beatles adaptation? 2.59 - many Brits will associate this with a radio quiz hosted by a certain disgraced DJ (clue: not Saville) 5.30 - did they write Our Prayer before Brian Wilson?!
A listener on the Boom Radio Buddies site mentioned the 'We're Gonna Groove' jingle being based on It Won't Be Long. I heard a similar Radio London jingle based on I Saw Her Standing There, so I assume PAMS had a deal with Capitol Records.
And of course the Beeb went to PAMS for the jingle package for Radio 1 - and it continues with the resings done by JAM for R2 and Pick Of The Pops... presented by Tony Blackburn... So the cart content went with him..
It's a silly story! For the whole thing, run down to the BOTTOM of this thread - you are only the SECOND person to notice my deliberate mix-up (or at least, to comment on it) in over TWO YEARS!
DLT on Big L........I don't think so! Great compilation though, thank you.. Used to go down to Frinton and annoy all the locals with my now wife Frinton Flashing. For those that can remember its not as bad as it sounds!!!! Was in Amsterdam on August 14th 1967 at the Caroline offices when Big L closed down sad sad day.
+clive adie You're right! In an earlier piece, I used up the CORRECT pic for Caroline, so here I used this one and hoped no-one would notice. Fond hope!
In the Sixties, many British announcers and DJs adopted "mid-Atlantic" accents. In the Seventies, they stopped - 'cause they sounded silly. Now, some YOUNG ones adopt Rasta accents, not realising Sasha Baron Cohen is Jewish - and was taking the PISS, as Ali G. The circle of life...
