Radio ID Jingles/Imaging Part 2

In part 1 of this series here on my blog I highlighted a company called PAMS and how its founder Bill Meeks made music and broadcast station identification an art form.

I also told you that PAMS still lives on but since 1978 nothing new came out of the company and never will. PAMS is still a company in its own right but the person who runs it today, Jonathan Wolfert has his hands full with his own company that he and his wife Mary Lyn founded in 1970's.

That company is called JAM Creative Productions and JAM is an acronym for its founders Jon And Mary Lyn.

As stated in my first installment of this series, Wolfert got hooked on to radio jingles while growing up in New York City and listen to WABC back in its days as a Top 40 radio station. He soon learned that most of the jingles were created by a handful of firms that specialized in creating musical station ID's.

In 1971 Wolfert came to Dallas to work for PAMS who created many jingle packages for WABC during the 1960's and early 70's. By 1974 Wolfert with help from his wife began to work on a jingle project of their own. That project would be known as "Dimension Two" which was a jingle package intended for mellow pop rock stations. Dimension Two would be the very first jingle package under the JAM name which officially came into existence in November of that same year.

The first world headquarters for JAM Creative would be located in an apartment complex located on 604 Steven Village Drive in Dallas, Texas. A spare bedroom in the space where the Wolferts resided in was used as an office, and the they rented studio time when need be. The one thing that about JAM that they wanted to get across to potential clients was that it a company run by production people.

That ideal came across in their first ad that was published in Billboard magazine in February 1975, and their first demo tape. Their sound, production quality caught on quickly and by 1976 WABC and England's BBC signed on board as stations as clients of JAM. That very same year JAM moved into a small suite of offices on Hines Place, but still was renting studio time. However JAM was growing quickly and needed to move again.

In 1977 JAM Creative Productions bought a studio in Dallas called Sundance that was located at 4631 Insurance Lane. In fact Sundance was the studio that JAM called upon when they needed to do production work. They rebuilt the studio and remodeled the space. One year later WABC's sister station WLS/Chicago became a client and created the Pro/Mod and Class Action packages for WLS that very same year.

Class Action featured the voice of then WLS personality John "Records" Landecker and since he did a 'boogie check' in which Landecker interacted with his listeners on WLS, Landecker did a something similar for the demo with several radio and production people as the callers. Most called up wanting to know about the jingle package and Landecker was ready, willing, and able to sell the package to them. Because of that Class Action is seen as a must have for jingle collectors. For the record Class Action was used by over 130 stations internationally.

The 1980's would be prime time for JAM Creative Productions. In August of 1983 Top 40 radio made a comeback in New York City with sign on of WHTZ-FM a.k.a Z100. New York City had been missing a mainstream Top 40 station since WABC dropped the format in 1982. Z100 turned to JAM to create a package, and in fact Scott Shannon who was the program director of Z100 at the time wanted JAM to produce an ad announcing the premiere of Z100's new jingle package. The ad appeared in the Radio & Records tradepaper and on Feb 24, 1984, Z100 put "The Flame Thrower" jingle package on the air. Z100 would follow up Flame Thrower with "Warp Factor" in 1985. To this day Warp Factor has been JAM's best selling package of all time (330 stations) and a jingle package is counted regardless if a station uses one or more cuts from a specific package. JAM would produce six more custom jingle packages for Z100.

Also in the early 1980's, KIIS-FM Los Angeles was becoming the number one Top 40 outlet in the market and also came to JAM to create jingles for their station. KIIS purchased cuts from a package that was created for WLS in 1980 called "Outstanding." However it was KIIS that made the Outstanding package popular. Outstanding would be followed up with the "Hot KIIS" and "Fresh Kiss" packages that came out in 1984 and 85 respectfully.

JAM was on top of world when it came to CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio) jingles in 1985. JAM took out an ad in Radio & Records telling its reading that 82% of its reporting CHR stations have JAM jingles on the air.

In 1986 JAM leased a building next door in order to accommodate more office space but the demand was high and needed to move into a larger facility. They were unable to find that kind of space so they did the next best thing which is construct their own. They choose some open land on Parkdale Drive and in 1986 began to build their new location. In June of 1987 the facilities were complete and JAM has been their even since. Although it has two studios, the second studio would not be fully completed until around 1989.

If anything JAM has been under the same owners since the very beginning. It has not been brought out, re-named, or mergred into a rival company. JAM also is still a company run by production people, and Jon Wolfert for sure is looking for new challenges when it comes to marketing radio stations.

However their are others in the game, and I will look at one of the newcomers next time.

For more on JAM Creative Productions visit their web site Jingles.com

This will go to the About JAM page

This next link will take you right to their Photo Album

This goes direct to the JAM Fan Page

In 1985 JAM also did promotional song simply titled The JAM Song which not only threw out radio stations but used the actual vocal groups and musical logos of the stations featured. Includes a download.