RealAudio PlayerThe WABC Jingle Montage
(or, as it turns out the "Potpourri")
This WABC Jingle montage was donated by David Keller. After we posted it, we received the history of it from "Famous Amos" of "The Beach" 94.3 in West Palm Beach Florida. We had credited "West-Wood Productions" as the source of this montage. Well, as it turns out, it wasn't the "Westwood" Productions we thought it was.....
Now HERE is a fascinating story. Amos wrote:
"I am blown away by the WABC Jingle Montage... but for a completely unexpected reason. To say the least, I've heard it before... A LOT!
"There was, circa 1972, no such animal as "West-Wood Productions". Two young ladies who had done some promotional jingle singing for the old WINS, cut that horrible acappella at the beginning, as a courtesy to Randy WEST...who, with his CCNY pal Howie Schoenholz (rough German translation:"-WOOD"), fancied themselves in a production company together, someday.
"Randy West was THE WABC freak. Worse than you! When I first saw your page, I immediately thought of Randy; only he could have had such devotion to the minutiae of Musicradio 77. He knew the names of the engineers on your page (whatever happened to the man who dubbed the music, "Klaus"??), the equipment they used, the number of every studio at 1330 Avenue of the Americas, every air talent's resume, etc. etc. Before "jingle collectors" even became an expression, he had a dresser drawer filled with every little blue PAMS box with a demo in it, and a lot of dubs from the production vaults of WABC.
"This montage, officially, has a name: "POTPOURRI".
"Randy put this tape together on the stereo in his bedroom at home, off Pelham Parkway in the Bronx, around 1972... the year we shared part-time duties at WRNW-FM, Mt. Kisco, with one Pete Salant. He overlapped audio on two separate channels, using a quarter-track Teac and a second deck (he even had an early-model cart machine!).
"Potpourri" is not merely an ode to WABC, but an appreciative showcase of Bill Meeks' incredible PAMS, Inc.(Series 27 had to be The Radio Jingle's finest hour!)
"Note the grand finale of the piece: after building to a series of "Dan Ingram" jingles, the tension culminates in the PAMS "religious" jingles; "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" was actually a WABC PAMS "Sunday morning" Jingle! It intentionally symbolized Randy's absolute worship of Ingram, thought by many (me too!) to be the finest air talent in the history of Radio. The "choral" jingle at the very end was what Randy and I used to refer-to, as "The President Is Dead Jingle", as it was used by WABC primarily after celebrity obits and various news reports of tragedy.
"Randy and Pete and I went on, a couple of years later, to do the infamous "NINE!!!!" tape with Howard Hoffman, when he and Howard were working in Middletown, N.Y., where it was produced at the original studios of 1340/WALL. Randy was last heard from doing voiceovers in Hollywood, and was at one time the same "Randy West" to whom Wink Martindale would throw it, on The Family Channel's "Trivial Pursuit"."
Well, now we know... And here it is:
RealAudio Player
WABC Musicradio 77 Home Page