Last week I posted a few comments on New York's WABC having a long 30 year heritage of JAM jingles as one of the greatest stations in that world.
However according to a thread on Jinglemad it seems that sadly it's no longer the case.
With the departure of Johnny Donovan, the man who commisioned the jingles for many years since it became a news/talk station, it appears that the "new suits" have dropped the JAM jingles and the legendary melody logo from the station completely which for me is unthinkable.
If you listen to the new TOH and are familiar with the programming style of WABC then you're in for a surprise. And not a nice one at that.
It just doesn't blend in at all to the main ABC news theme which many of the JAM top of hour jingles for the station did perfectly by ending in the same key.
In fact it's just not what you would associate at all with WABC overall and whoever's responsible have come in and wrecked it all.
Overall it's safe to say that owners Citadel have taken what is one of the most established brand names and melodies in the world and have completely fucked it all up.
However they can't take the memories away which will live on in the minds of many Americans and even in this country to an extent as many of WABC's JAM jingles in the 1970s were resung for BBC Radio 1 with the stations former controller Johnny Beerling being one of the many fans around the world, of the New York station.
Moving along and I went into the radio rooms this morning to record a promo for my Xmas Soul Show tomorrow which can be heard here.
It's along the same lines as the one I did back in May for S04S2 although I don't sound great on there as a result of still having a sore throat.
It's got all the usual cheese like you would expect from one of my promos although it has to be said that none of the other shows have recorded promos this year which is rather sad.
Back in the first year Tim used to make a few very memorable ones such as these examples for Josie's Punk Show and Goodlass and Marshall.
The tradition continued to an extent when I took over the role although I can remember before Freshers Week 2006 recieving the raw audio for a promo for the week's special events, back in Canterbury via e-mail and Ricky stated that they were to be straight to the point and no fannying about in the same way as the above examples, which I fully understood.
Although the process can be a bit of a bugger sometimes, especially when presenters haven't prepared anything, meaning that they sound less than enthusiastic about their show on the promo which doesn't really help to do the job intended.
However one of my favourite creations was one that didn't actually go out on air for Tudor Rock last May for the first Smoke's Out 4 Summer.
There was a shorter version without the word "twat" although I doubt he realised it was that offensive in professional circumstances, although being me I would find it hilarious, especially when said in a Manchester accent.
I asked Lottie if I could schedule it on the system during todays live shows which today include a three hour special of "The Chas And Dave Show" featuring a special exclusive interview with vocalist and musician Frank Turner as done by both Charles and Mark from the sports show.
I'm hoping they record it as it's possible I'll be away in Central by late afternoon. I still don't even know what exactly is going on but even if we end up not going I won't be too bitter.
Apart from the fact that I could have done a two hour show tonight as the Shuffle boys finished last week but the promo's on the system now.
I then headed to the library to try and find some relevant books to include in my critical report or what I'd like to call "token literature quotes".
I didn't put too many in due to the lack of books in the library about radio and feature making but the word count was quite high anyway despite being under 3000 words.
Although I hope Matthew takes into account the one from the live show was around 3,500 words and the total amount of words for both critical reports put together is 6000 words.
The description in the course handbook of how long the critical reports should be, was explained very poorly, but then again quite a few University assignments are to be honest.
However it's all done and sent via e-mail to Matthew and that's it. No more practical radio assignments which means the rest of my year really is my own due to me having no theory lectures this year.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading the non-poncey literature for my dissertation whilst listening to the many records and discographies I have on my hard drive from the likes of Spyro Gyra, Shakatak and even stuff from our own shores back in the day like Joy Division and The Smiths.
Unlike last year I'm really valueing the luxuries of life avalilable on my external hard drives.
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