Jeff: Two weeks ago here in Wavescan, Ray took us on a trip down memory lane with a listen to some early sung radio commercials and radio jingles. One of the most successful jingle production companies was PAMS in Dallas. PAMS was closely associated with Gordon McLendon’s KLIF 1190 in Dallas, which was one of the first stations to adopt the new Top 40 format in 1954. In part 2 of the story this week, Ray looks at how the jingle business developed, and how jingles spread not only thoughout North America, but across the Atlantic and around the world.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. In 1960, Gordon McLendon took a vacation to Sweden, to visit his friend Jack Kotschak. He was amazed at how dull Swedish state radio sounded, and became aware that offshore stations had been set up off the Danish and Dutch coasts to broadcast pop music and commercials free of government control. Gordon invited Jack to come visit him in Dallas and see how radio was done in Texas. Jack stayed in Dallas and after listening to KLIF for a week, they together decided that an offshore venture, complete with PAMS-style jingles, should be set up off the coast of Stockholm. And thus the idea for Radio Nord was born, which Jack began to organize as soon as he returned.
In the USA at that time, many TV stations were converting from black and white to color, and radio stations didn’t want to be left out. So, never mind how nonsensical it may have been to apply the concept to radio, many radio stations claimed they’d gone color too! In 1957, Gordon McLendon had bought a station in Shreveport, Louisiana, KEEL 710, which he converted to a Top 40 format and modeled after the very successful KLIF in Dallas. Here’s an example of a PAMS ‘color’ jingle for KEEL, followed by the version that was used by Radio Nord, sung in Swedish by the Henry Fox Show Orchestra in Stockholm.
KEEL these days is still on 710 kHz AM, but as a news talk station. Radio Nord opened off Stockholm in 1961 and operated very successfully for 17 months until government legislation (and the harsh winters of the Baltic Sea) forced its closure. And while we’re on the subject of ‘color radio’, European listeners may remember when Radio Luxembourg got in on the act, albeit with jingles sung with British accents.
That jingle was from Luxembourg’s 1964 package. The similarities at that time between stations using PAMS jingles were obvious – whether in Los Angeles,
New York,
or Europe.
1964 was also the year many of the British offshore stations got their start. Caroline was the first (in March), quickly joined by Radio Atlanta a few weeks later. Other smaller stations followed during that summer based on former wartime forts in the Thames estuary, but then the largest and most professional of them all arrived in December – Radio London, set up entirely with Texan funding.
The managing director of Radio London was Phillip Birch, and here he explains why they went to PAMS in Dallas for their jingles.
Radio London chose a selection of jingles from PAMS series 16, 17 and 18 – the most successful sets to that point – and coupled with their 50,000 watt transmitter fast-paced presentation style, disciplined Top 40 format and personality DJ’s, the station quickly established itself as the market leader. The jingles were an instant success, and differentiated the station from all the others.
But, in spite of the success of the station, some of the Texan backers disagreed with the use of British DJ’s, and wanted the station to sound more American – more like a clone of KLIF or WABC, which they thought would have wider appeal throughout north west Europe. So, in 1965 they left and set about creating their own station, and purchased the MV Olga Patricia which arrived off the British coast in May 1966. It was carrying not one but two stations – Radio England with a top 40 format, and Britain Radio with an easy listening format – and both were staffed mostly by American DJ’s. These stations came complete with two of the newest PAMS jingle packages – for Swinging Radio England they had PAMS Jet Set, series 27
and for Britain Radio, they had the Smart Set, series 28-X, which had been created especially for MOR stations.
However, in a rookie move, the Radio England DJ’s started test transmissions including playing the full set of jingles. A few hundred yards away, Emperor Rosko on Radio Caroline South duly recorded them all over a radio, and promptly set about editing them with a tape splicing kit, replacing the name Swinging Radio England with that of Caroline instead. And by the next day, Caroline had a full set of pirated PAMS jingles too!
To regain some originality, Radio England then had some new jingles produced at Spot Productions, also in Dallas, modeled after the Batman craze that was going on at the time. Mind you, Radio England wasn’t above saving some money either. While they were at Spot, they took all the demo carts for WPTR 1540 in Albany NY, and gave all their own DJ’s aliases, the same as the names used on WPTR.
And, of course, the ‘Johnnie Walker’ who got his start on Radio England has since become one of the most famous DJ’s in the UK, still using that name on the BBC to this day.
In 1967, most of the British offshore stations were closed, and the BBC announced plans for their own pop music service, Radio 1. Up until that time, there had been no jingles on the BBC, but the controller of the new channel, Robin Scott, had been given the brief to make it sound as much like Radio London as possible. Here’s Phillip Birch again.
So, here’s an example. Spot the similarity!
In the 1970’s, there were a whole raft of new stations in Europe, and jingle production in the UK became big business for companies such as Alfasound and Steve England Productions. In the USA, PAMS finally closed their doors in 1978 when both Top 40 music and radio marketing were headed in entirely different directions. Other production companies in the USA took up the slack, and for the next 12 years, PAMS-style jingles were produced by CPMG run by Ken R. Deutsch and Ben Freedman, utilizing the vocal talents of the Johnny Mann Singers.
Then in 1990, the original PAMS Corporation, including all its copyrights, were purchased by JAM Creative Productions, also in Dallas. JAM founder Jonathan M. Wolfert had been employed by PAMS before he and his wife Mary Lyn Wolfert started their own company in 1974. JAM currently produces new versions of the classic PAMS jingle packages over the original PAMS backing tracks, and they’re very popular with oldies stations worldwide.
PAMS’ address was just as famous as its jingles. The studios were located at 4141 Office Parkway, which is now part of the Cityplace district of Dallas. Marketing genius and promoter Bill Meeks passed away on September 8th, 1999 losing a battle with cancer. He left behind an unequaled legacy of fond memories for those who were teenagers in the 50s, 60s and 70s!
Back to you, Jeff.
