A bit of my life story, in which it interweaves with Jon Wolfert of JAM Productions. I wrote this as an accompaniment to a three part jingle montage of JAM jingles, to mark Jon’s 50th Anniversary running JAM.
As soon as I got a tape recorder I started recording things from the radio. When the British pirates arrived I recorded them, but slowly began to focus on jingles. These were quite new to me at 12 years of age.
Sitting poised with my hand over the record button, I would attempt to anticipate a jingle and curse under my breath when the DJ spoke over them.
Before long I discovered others who had somehow obtained jingles in the clear. Soon it was evident these were demos, and PAMS already stood out above the rest.
A network of jingle traders which extended across the Atlantic, which is just as well, since that is where they came from. However 3¾ips was the usual speed and often 9th generation copies, so tape noise and dropouts were common.
By 1969 I was working in the London branch of The Algemene Bank Nederland, this was before it merged with Amro and Twentsche. Foreign calls were normal, so I had the brainwave of ringing PAMS in Dallas, and asking for demos.
Now PAMS was already selling packages to the BBC, but they knew commercial radio would soon start in the UK so they were keen to bite.
They were quite amazed at getting a call from “London, England” as Americans love to call it, and were only too keen to send off my first batch of demos in a jiffy bag, with an impressive letter, using an electric typewriter which produced a very crisp typeface. Again something I hadn’t seen before.
Hearing first generation dubs at 7½ips was mind blowing compared with all that had gone before. I was soon on the phone for more, which they sent without quibble. Next I was on to Pepper Tanner, Heller who sent jiffy bags the size of pillow cases, Drake and others, although I never managed TM for some reason. I had jiffy bags arriving weekly from somewhere, and I now had the ability to trade with others who had pristine dubs.
In addition we received ‘jingle samplers’ from the USA. American collectors would make montages of prime cuts from their own collections. Jonathan Wolfert, Ken R, Storm King, Don Williams, Joe Myers, Ron Harris, Wild Worm to name but a few. Thus I quickly learned the remarkable range of resings that were being made across the US and around the world.
By 1971 I was still requesting jingles from PAMS, and I had exhausted almost every numbered series from #22 to #40 and numerous named package.
Although I didn’t realise it at the time, Jon Wolfert was now working at PAMS, much to the envy of his jingle friends!
There I was, still requesting demos, but now asking for the most obscure numbers #14 to #21, and different versions of #28, #29 and #30 for WKBW. ‘Some Kind of Radio’, Solid Rock, KIIS 70.
I even had the audacity to ask for the complete Radio London collection, #16, #17, #18, #26-D and #31. This Jon duly sent to me, but now he had me sussed, he knew exactly what I was up to.
How did I know? He included one of his own samplers which I call “Riiight!” after the exclamation added to the end of a very serious sounding PAMS’ copyright warning. This he dubbed to some space on a 7” reel together with the Big L collection.
Well, I left the bank to head for the British Pirate in the North Sea that had made its name in the 1960s, Radio Caroline. It was now anchored off the Dutch coast, to get around the British Marine Offences Act.
I took a large holdall of PAMS tapes with me, courtesy Jon, and am quite certain it helped secure me the job, since my boss-to-be Chris Cary, aka Spangles Muldoon aka Herb Oscar Anderson (Just to use HOA’s jingles) I therefore knew he was a jingle freak too. His eyes lit up as I opened the bag. ‘Take me on, and you get these thrown in’.
Caroline soon became ‘Some Kind of Radio’ and “You’re on a music weekend, you’re on it with Caroline”.
Steve England also joined the ship at the same time, and his opening line to me was “Are you the bloke with all the PAMS jingles?” My reputation had obviously preceded me. So next was ‘Happiness is a thing called … Norman Barrington with good music” Thanks to UBN’s open bed, and Steve’s matching sonovox (I directed the logo melody).
Caroline led me to meet my future Dutch wife, but that’s another story, a great example of what is known as ‘The Butterfly Effect’ (Thanks Jon!)
At this time, Jon had left PAMS to set up his own operation. His timing was actually impeccable, since PAMS seemed to have lost it’s way. Jon was a natural, self taught as was I, from listening to all these tapes, listening and learning.
But he got to know the singers, the arrangers, how the cuts are put together. What makes a jingle more than the sum of the parts. He understood that bit of magic, that leaps out and grabs you, and you don’t forget it.
As he once said ‘a jingle isn’t a short piece of music, it’s a piece of drama’. Perhaps also important, he got to see what PAMS was doing wrong too. It was to be Jon who carried the torch of magic excellence forward.
Being a fan of other producers, I am thinking of Heller, who had a completely different approach to production. In particular one composer, Dick Hamilton. I feel I know this because his influence is evident in Jon’s work from the start.
To my ear the early cuts that he made for Rick Routh at WXEZ and Bernie Quayle at WOHO, and the long cut from Dimension II just shouts Hamilton. His penchant for producing long cuts, almost songs, which can be broken up and yield several stand-alone cuts. So Jon had a great palette of styles from which to choose, and writers and singers who already knew what to do.
As an Englishman, I make no apologies for the large amount of BBC material I have included in my 50th salute. There are several reasons for this, for a start I have them all, but also they cover Top 40, CHR, AC and MOR formats.
Then there is the enormous inventory of JAM jingles which the BBC bought for both Radios One & Two, and not just full packages but numerous top-ups and tweaks in between.
Jon also created a number of custom packages for both stations, so likely there are cuts you have never heard outside of Britain.
Sadly as we entered the 21st century they began to lose their way. Radio One became very niche, and whilst Radio Two took over much that had been on Radio one, however they began to use TV celebs at a loose end on other BBC contracts, rather than people who understood radio, presenters that listeners loved, such as Steve Wright and Ken Bruce. Only Tony Blackburn remains, the token original, who is now part of the furniture.
Now run by accountants, the BBC were only interested in cost, cheap is what they want, and cheap is what they now get. The grey suits upstairs have no particular love for radio, and do not even know their own history.
Still I would not be at all surprised if the BBC was Jon’s biggest account. As an aside, I think in starting JAM from scratch, Jon, no doubt with Mary-Lyn’s unwavering support, beat the laws of gravity by pulling himself up by his own bootlaces, only to end up buying a private airplane, in part funded by the British tax payer.
I cannot possibly feature every package JAM has produced in 50 years, and so have been totally indulgent and only included the cuts that blew me away, one way or another.
I have split my sampler into three 15 minute parts, roughly chronological, but not always. I have gone by the release date, so where a station buys something later on, it will appear earlier in the sequence.
I have followed Jon’s career at distance, but will never forget his discreet inclusion of weird and wonderful stuff from PAMS, whilst we were still both practically teenagers. (He is 3 months younger than me). Thus 5000 miles away, his actions affected my own life course.
I could not resist a little nod to the fun samplers that the jingle fraternity used to make way back then, that last voice you hear is that of Ron Harris of ‘RH Audio’ who once opened a sampler with the immortal line [Cue Drum Roll] “R H Audio resents!.. Jon Wolfert working at PAMS”.
Listen carefully in good headphones or monitors, and you might spot the odd tricky edit.
Above all, enjoy.
Norman (Better late than never) February 2025.
Please play in this order:
