The earliest package I have from them comes from little known British outfit
"Radio Operators" and establishes the familiar tagline
"The Station You Can Really Call You Own".
The audio quality's not great but it makes them sound that little bit more nostalgic.
1980 Jingles - Radio Operators
Four years later saw the arrival of the first of many packages from David Arnold, giving a more polished sound to the station and a superb musical logo. About halfway through the selection below, there are a few accapellas including one for the late night quiz
"Pick Your Poison".
Another one of my jingle buddies Aston McNeil was a contestant on there many a time where the presenters included Peter Kingham who came up with the idea for the game, Simon Potter, and Paul Coyte who now does drivetime on the Gold network.
At about 4:12 there's an instrumental country version of the theme which sounds very similar to "Dragster" the theme to BBC's Snooker coverage.
Best of all is the station theme towards the end, which contains shades of
Earth Wind And Fire's "Evolution Orange" from the "Raise" album in 1981.
1984 Jingles - David Arnold Music
In 1986 the Northamptonshire frequencies were brought by Chiltern Radio creating Northants 96, resulting in Hereward broadcasting solely to Peterborough and the surrounding area.
This meant a new jingle package based around the last one but with a more contemporary angle and with the guest vocals of Jimmy Helmes who also sung on Alfasound's stunning Radio Hallam package in 1985 and later went onto become one of the singers in Londonbeat in the late 80s/early 90s.
Listen carefully to the last one, which is a rather bizarre seasonal jingle done in the style of a pub singalong, and you'll here one of the voices yelling "pass the f**king beer!".
1986 Jingles - David Arnold Music
Moving on three years later and more of the same was commisioned, with David Arnold continuing to prove he made the classiest sounding radio jingles in the UK.
1989 Jingles - David Arnold Music
It's worth pointing out however that one of the jingles sounds very similar to one of those from Muff Murfin's (yes that is his name!) iconic Capital Radio package from around the same time and this example puts the two together.
In that same year, David brought the rights to sell Century 21 jingles in the UK and when the 90s arrived Hereward brought their first US made package consisting of cuts from "Madison Avenue", "CBS's K-Lite" and some brilliant resings from "Lander & 93Q".
1990-1991 Jingles - Century 21 Programming
Around this time, Cambridge got it's own radio station, CNFM 103 launching in 1989 with presenters including Nino Firetto, ex Radio 1 presenter Dixie Peach, Anglia TV announcer Phil Fothergill, and Diana Luke who would later become the first breakfast presenter at London's Jazz FM.
The jingles came from Alfasound with US vocals and one of my favourite packages from the clocktower in Sale.
CNFM 1989 Jingles - Alfasound
This package also contained a soundalike, this time from Century 21's "Miami's WAXY" as heard here.
Not too long after, CNFM started sharing programmes with Hereward and starting using identical jingles by them from Century 21. A selection of them can be heard below including some brilliant resings of "The Holiday Package" and "93Q".
Hereward/CNFM 1991 Jingles - TM Century
There was also a cut done for Hereward from the WPGC-FM package originally that identified the station as "Hereward Radio FM" fitting in with the positioning of the US station name.
In 1993 a new set of jingles was ordered for both stations and also KLFM which had launched in the Kings Lynn area and West Norfolk and had previously used a selection of the above jingles.
The new package consisted of resings from "The New WPLJ" and "Good Time Classics" as well as a few other packages. The full set can be heard for Hereward FM below whilst a selection from CNFM is also included.
1993 Jingles-Hereward FM - TM Century
1993 Jingles-CNFM - TM Century
And there's also a selection of those done for KLFM recorded off air.
It's also worth mentioning WGMS (The World's Greatest Music Station) which broadcast on Hereward's AM frequency from 1992 and had a set of jingles from PAMS as well as ones from TM Century.
However in 1994 all stations were taken over by GWR with Hereward and KLFM changing their format to broadcasting "a better music mix" whilst WGMS became "Classic Gold".
CNFM changed their on-air name to Q103 which I've never understood.
In 1997, the Radio Authority instructed the GWR group to sell off KLFM, resulting in it being brought by UKRD and as a result jingles returned to West Norfolk's airwaves.
This package was a resing of "The Ultimate One" by JAM commisioned only four years earlier for BBC Radio 1, although this version had UK vocals by Alfasound which could sound dodgy at times but I guess it adds rawness that the LA vocalists had on the original.
With the possible of exception of what may be the worst resing of the Turbo Z top of the hour I have ever heard.
It appears that the Heart rebranding has already taken place at the Queensgate centre in Peterborough with the Hereward FM logos finally removed (despite staying there since 1994) and replaced by Heart 102.7 banners.
Before
After
Overall it's quite a shame that the Peterborough station won't reach it's 30th birthday.
Thanks to Pete Wilson, David Harber, Chris Stevens at TM, and Dave Nightingale for providing me with some of the audio. And to Aston McNeil for providing me with the photos and additional information.
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