Throughout the 80s, many jingles on local and commercial radio were provided by Manchester based company Alfasound who wanted to replicate the Dallas sound with their own vocalists based in Sale near Manchester. Obviously they would never be as good as what could be heard on Radio 1 and Radio 2 nationally but two guys known as "The Bastard Brothers" decided to put together a send up of their material as can be heard here.
The two guys in particular were both Chiltern Radio presenters Paul McKenna (yes him!) and Anthony James who in respect went on to set up his own jingle company which amongst others has been providing jingles for Steve Wright for over 20 years including that recognisable theme tune.
However around this time Chiltern had started using jingles produced in Dallas by TM and you really can't fault the production, vocals and orchestration in this selection.
I've worked out that up to the GWR takeover Chiltern had a real sense of progression with Paul Chantler arriving a few years after McKenna's departure and enhancing the "Hot FM" brand used throughout the network and Chantler later went on to work for the Essex Radio group amongst others including Peter Stewart!
Alfasound by now had abbreviated to ALFA and had started collaborating with the Dallas vocalists and provided cracking jingle packages for both stations ran by Chantler.
In fact Essex were still using their "Power Positive" jingles from ALFA quite a while after the jingle company went into an untimely liquidation. The demo really gives you an idea as to why Chantler left Chiltern after GWR came in and wanted Essex FM to stand out amongst the crowd.
Overall these are vital ingredients towards making great radio!
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