 |
A Brief History of Radio Jingles America's first commercial radio station signed on in 1920, and by 1923 there were over 500 licensed stations. The broadcasting industry grew steadily. In the 1930s and '40s radio was a prime source of family entertainment. Networks spanned the nation and allowed the entire country to share in the great events, news, and entertainment of the day. To make this a profitable endeavour, commercial time was sold to advertisers and sponsors. Before long, messages and songs about everything from cereals to soaps, and soft drinks to cigars filled the airwaves. The catchy musical messages became known as "jingles". The same singers and musicians who were featured on the entertainment shows usually also performed jingles for the sponsors. Although most of the effort was devoted to singing the virtues of products, a few stations began airing jingles to promote themselves. This became increasingly important as more and more stations took to the air, and the jumble of call letters that a listener was exposed to began to rise. It wasn't just vanity. The value of a station's commercial time was (and is) gauged by its audience ratings. In order for the ratings to be high, listeners must know and remember which station they heard so they can report it accurately in a survey. The memorable jingles aided listeners' recall. They also added more production value to a station's sound, enabled them to bridge awkward transitions and fill time if a program ended too early. As early as 1947, singing station identifications (ID's) were used by KLIF in Dallas, Texas. Since then it was 'exported' throughout the world, even to free radio stations on shortwave. I hope you enjoy them! If you want to know more about the history of radio jingles I suggest reading 'The hits between the hits' by Don Worsham.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |