JINGLES: BILL MEEKS ENVISIONS A NEW SOUNDING ID . . . APRIL 15, 1972

Motor City Radio Flashbacks logo (MCRFB)From the MCRFB news archive: 1972

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DALLAS — Transitions, instead of jingles, may be the future method of identifying a radio station on the air and, in fact, Bill Meeks is currently developing a musical set of transitions for a progressive rock station in a major market.

Bill Meeks at work inside his PAMS studios, Dallas.
Bill Meeks at work inside his PAMS studios, Dallas.

Meeks, president of PAMS, the largest jingles firm in the world and creator of jingles for major stations in the U.S., such as WABC in New York and all over the world, says he doesn’t think jingles, as we know them, are appropriate for progressive rock stations and “smooth music” stations.

“Jingles will still be around, but I don’t think they’ll be called jingles. They won’t be straight logos, such as now used by most Top 40 stations, but will more than likely musically identify the station. The radio station will be able to go from record to record without pause, but still identify their call letters or the station itself.”

Meeks, a Texan whose business backyard is the world, says that he has created this type of transitional ID before . . .  transitions that have no definitive starting or ending on the cut.

Meeks, who wrote one of the first jingles ever broadcast – an ID for KLIF in Dallas broadcast on November 11, 1947 – now has a staff of 26 people working for his Dallas firm.

In addition, he’s on a rampage at this moment, expanding into other radio fields such as station ownership, marketing of programming for Alto Fonic Programming, producing and marketing programming services and jingles with Dick Starr of Professional Programming in Miami, and partnership in Cybrix, a firm that has a cassette broadcasting system which Meeks says is better than a reel-to-reel system.

In addition to all of this, Meeks is back in college studying music at North Texas State. His musical career extends as far back as the days when he was a staff musician, writer and arranger for WFAA in Dallas. It was about this time that Gordon McLendon hired him and four other WFAA studio musicians for KLIF’s live band. The band used to play lead-ins to KLIF’s various programs, and it was from these lead-ins that Meeks got the idea of using short, punchy intro material to identify a radio station — in short, jingles.

Actually, his musical career started at the age of 14 when he played on the radio with the Ben Ribble’s Humdingers. Later, he played with the Early Bird Orchestra on WFAA and later performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, playing sax and flute. His first commercial jingle was produced by Earl Hayes’ Chevrolet dealership in Dallas.

And his interest in music from a scientific viewpoint has never waned. For example, he has been deeply involved in the studies currently being conducted at Texas Women’s University at Denton, Tex., by Drs. Tom Turrachi and Vance Cotter. The doctors are studying behavioral audio graphics of records, commercials, jingles and news.

Studies are broken down by demographic age groups and economic entities. Some of the test cases are even hooked up so that the sensitivity of their skin can be measured in order to determine their reaction to all of the various elements of programming.

Meeks notes that three New York radio stations were involved in the study- WOR-FM, WABC, and WWDJ – “and the latest ARB showed that the studies were exactly on target. The results of the ARB were predicted by the studies.” END

(Information and news source: Billboard; April 15, 1972)

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A EPIC RECORDS AD BILLBOARD PAGE RIP: “At The Scene” Dave Clark Five January 22, 1966 (click on image 2x for largest view)
A EPIC RECORDS AD BILLBOARD PAGE RIP: “At The Scene” Dave Clark Five January 22, 1966 (click on image 2x for largest view)
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J2P and P2J Ver 1

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Henry Krueger Productions shares this day’s 1974 audio ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’ hits on MCRFB.COM.

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A 1966 DETROIT CKLW RADIO NEWSPAPER FLASHBACK


Detroit Free Press July 25, 1965

Sunday, July 25, 1965

A DETROIT RADIO BACK-PAGE

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A NEW FEATURE ON MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS!

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A MCRFB ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’! WEEK OF 03/24/73

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Henry Krueger Productions shares this day’s 1973 audio ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’ hits on MCRFB.COM.

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PROGRAMMING DETROIT FM RADIO: THIS WEEK IN ’66!

DetroitFreePressDetroit_Free_Press_Sun__Mar_20__1966_FM_Highlights


Sunday, March 20, 1966

 DETROIT FREE PRESS: FM HIGHLIGHTS 

(Above article courtesy freep.com newspapers archives. Copyright 2016; Newspapers.com).

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A MCRFB ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’! WEEK OF 03/23/72

CapCount 3-23-72-(mcrfb)MCRFB.COM TOP 10 COUNTDOWN * March 1972 * A Henry Krueger Production

A MCRFB.COM 1972 TOP 10 HITS COUNTDOWN!

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Henry Krueger Productions shares this day’s 1972 audio ‘CAPSULE COUNTDOWN’ hits on MCRFB.COM.

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WKNR Keener 13 Bumper Sticker (The Motown Sound)

BOB GREEN REMEMBERS * Detroit Motown Sound * BOB GREEN PRODUCTIONS 2010


A MCRFB NOTE

A special THANK YOU goes out to Bob Green for sharing this special WKNR Motown memory with Motor City Radio Flashbacks. WKNR’s Scott Regen reflects on his Motown recollections here as well.

Having never aired, this exclusive Bob Green production segment was intended for broadcast/airing during the ‘WOMC 104.3 Detroit Radio Reunion‘ in 2010. (Click on above image 2x for largest view)




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