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Should Classic Hits Stations Play Jingles? New WLS-FM Jingles

G

Gregg.

TM, a syndication company, has put out a promotional video, linked here, featuring the new jingles for Cumulus-owned Classic Hits 94.7 WLS-FM, currently #8 in Chicago.


This has sparked the question, "Should Classic Hits Stations Play Jingles?" Sean Ross of Radio Insight examines the issue in an article linked below.

radioinsight.com

Fresh Listen: The Jingles Return to WLS-FM - RadioInsight

In the time of the “disco backlash,” legendary Top 40 AM WLS Chicago became, essentially, an Album Rock station, at least in the evening hours when I could hear it. During that time, two things kept it tethered to CHR. One was the jocks. The other was the WLS jingle, even if it was being played...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

I think they sound good! Of course, I grew up in the Top 40 era where WABC actually prerecorded jingles on the end of its songs, each concluding with the WABC Chime. So I think jingles are part of an exciting music presentation. Maybe those who grew up later, or were more into FM Rock Radio that was anti-jingle, would disagree.

We understand that Classic Hits stations are trying to not sound old or dated. They eliminated many of the elements of the Top 40 era, other than the music. Years ago, Classic Hits WCBS-FM NYC began curtailing its use of jingles. It also eliminated reverb, the echo effect you'd hear when the DJ is speaking. (Unlike WABC, the music on WCBS-FM never had reverb, only the DJ's microphone.) And at this point, WCBS-FM has reduced most DJ chatter to four breaks per hour. Classic Hits stations want to sound contemporary, even if the music is 40 years old.

Currently, WCBS-FM does not use any jingles. It depends on its imaging voice guy to go in and out of breaks and occasionally uses random people to say nice things about the station, in place of a jingle. The new WLS-FM jingles are sometimes just the call letters and dial position, although some jingles include slogans. One has the names of the morning hosts. They don't say FM, even though the call sign is really WLS-FM, since Chicago also has WLS on the AM dial.

So should Classic Hits stations use a prominent jingle package? Or the music is the only element from that era that we should still hear on a modern-day classic hits station?
 
If the mindset is jingles make the format sound “old”, “cluttered”, etc, then why are CHR’s, AC, Hot AC, and even some rhythmics still using them? You’ll still find jingles on almost all iHeart classic hits stations - normally produced by ReelWorld - and Cumulus, normally produced by TM. Audacy doesn’t use jingles, normally, with their classic hits stations. On a large market level, WLS-FM wasn’t, and neither is WROR in Boston.

WLS-FM was one of the non-Audacy stations to not use them. The “no jingle” approach seems somewhat unique to Audacy. I read last year that the format head for classic hits at Audacy did not like the concept of jingles and had them pulled from most stations - I believe “clutter” was supposedly the reason. Ironically, AC, CHR, and other formats don’t seem to have an issue with them.

I believe WLS-FM stopped using jingles before when they adopted a more rock-leaning approach (which they’ve backed off from), which may be a factor. Cumulus’s rock leaning classic hits station in Indianapolis doesn’t use them, but they do in Cincinnati and Kansas City. Many of Audacy’s classic hits stations have a rock lean (such as WOGL in Philadelphia), so perhaps jingles aren’t seen as fitting in with the music. You don’t hear jingles on classic rockers. Perhaps they see the astronomical success of KRTH, which has been heavy on “listener shouts” and hasn’t used jingles very much, if at all in years…and look at their numbers.
 
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101tm said:
If the mindset is jingles make the format sound “old”, “cluttered”, etc, then why are CHR’s, AC, Hot AC, and even some rhythmics still using them? You’ll still find jingles on almost all iHeart classic hits stations - normally produced by ReelWorld - and Cumulus, normally produced by TM. Audacy doesn’t use jingles, normally, with their classic hits stations. On a large market level, WLS-FM wasn’t, and neither is WROR in Boston.

WLS-FM was one of the non-Audacy stations to not use them. The “no jingle” approach seems somewhat unique to Audacy. I read last year that the format head for classic hits at Audacy did not like the concept of jingles and had them pulled from most stations - I believe “clutter” was supposedly the reason. Ironically, AC, CHR, and other formats don’t seem to have an issue with them.

I believe WLS-FM stopped using jingles before when they adopted a more rock-leaning approach (which they’ve backed off from), which may be a factor. Cumulus’s rock leaning classic hits station in Indianapolis doesn’t use them, but they do in Cincinnati and Kansas City. Many of Audacy’s classic hits stations have a rock lean (such as WOGL in Philadelphia), so perhaps jingles aren’t seen as fitting in with the music. You don’t hear jingles on classic rockers. Perhaps they see the astronomical success of KRTH, which has been heavy on “listener shouts” and hasn’t used jingles very much, if at all in years…and look at their numbers.
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We didn't have jingles on the AOR stations that the Classic Rock format morphed from, so I'm not aware of any Classic Rockers using them off the top of my head
 
We still have a '60s/'70s oldies station here in northern New England (WFYX Walpole, NH, and a couple of HD subchannels and FM translators), and AFAIK it's never used jingles. Jingles were fun in the '60s and '70s, but just sound hokey today.
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Yeah. The new WLS jingles sound to me like a weird mashup of the retro WLS audio logo with more modern elements.

Combined with the wordy slogan "Number 1 for the 80s and classic hits," these jingles feel like shoving 10 lb of stuff into a 5 lb bag.
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As I listen to the samples from the new package, I don't think the problem is the "retro audio logo", but how cluttered all the rest of the stuff makes it all feel. IMO, they'd do themselves a big favor by stripping that other stuff out, and turning what's left into a small series of shotgun jingles, all relying on the basic "W-L-S" logo, with or without the "94-point-7", with or without the "Chicago!" coda. Four or five cuts at most, used to add a quick bit of spice to each hour. Take Bill Drake's advice, less is more.
 
Weiserguy said:
As I listen to the samples from the new package, I don't think the problem is the "retro audio logo", but how cluttered all the rest of the stuff makes it all feel. IMO, they'd do themselves a big favor by stripping that other stuff out, and turning what's left into a small series of shotgun jingles, all relying on the basic "W-L-S" logo, with or without the "94-point-7", with or without the "Chicago!" coda. Four or five cuts at most, used to add a quick bit of spice to each hour. Take Bill Drake's advice, less is more.
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Weiserguy may have a point. Maybe the happy medium is, yes, use jingles. But not with slogans or the names of the morning team. Leave it with the three most important elements: The call letters "WLS," the frequency "94.7" and sometimes the city "Chicago." (A real legal ID should have "FM" between WLS and Chicago or it's an incorrect I.D.)

BTW, I was in the car earlier and WCBS-FM used a quick jingle between two songs: "101.1 CBS-FM." So I was incorrect in the original post, saying WCBS-FM doesn't use jingles. But I don't think they are used much and it's just the frequency and call letters.
 
If done well, I think it could be a nice addition. KJEB 95.7 in Seattle used to air jingles. They used to identify as KJR-FM, a nod to their glory days as KJR 950 during the top 40 era.

I always liked the jingles they used. Something real simple like “KJR Seattle, Channel 95.7!” Obviously all of that has long been thrown out, but it was a nice touch.
 
63 Big WAYS in the Charlotte NC area (50s/60s) uses the old jingles from 61 Big WAYS, which was the Top 40 station in the late 60s and 70s.

Ironically. it doesn't even play music that 61 Big WAYS would have played unless the Top 40 station played oldies along with the new stuff.
 
fordranger797 said:
If done well, I think it could be a nice addition. KJEB 95.7 in Seattle used to air jingles. They used to identify as KJR-FM, a nod to their glory days as KJR 950 during the top 40 era.

I always liked the jingles they used. Something real simple like “KJR Seattle, Channel 95.7!” Obviously all of that has long been thrown out, but it was a nice touch.
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The problem with those "KJR Seattle, Channel 95.7" jingles is that they didn't match the era of the music that was played on that station. When I listened to KJR-FM while visiting the area, I generally recall hearing 70s and 80s music -- but I know that by the mid-70s (and probably earlier than that), KJR-AM had quit identifying as "Channel 95" and was just "95 KJR".
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
Yeah. The new WLS jingles sound to me like a weird mashup of the retro WLS audio logo with more modern elements.
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Which are a retread from The Big 89, and had nothing to do with 94.7. If they want to recapture the sound of the '80s, they should try to grab the WYTZ "Z95" calls from that era, if available.


PTBoardOp93 said:
Combined with the wordy slogan "Number 1 for the 80s and classic hits," these jingles feel like shoving 10 lb of stuff into a 5 lb bag.
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Jingles in an of themselves are fine for an middle age-skewing format that is targeting listeners who were young in that era. But it has to fit, and this doesn't.
 
KeithE4 said:
Which are a retread from The Big 89, and had nothing to do with 94.7. If they want to recapture the sound of the '80s, they should try to grab the WYTZ "Z95" calls from that era, if available.



Jingles in an of themselves are fine for an middle age-skewing format that is targeting listeners who were young in that era. But it has to fit, and this doesn't.
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The station did have the AM style jingles, both leading into the "flip" to Z95, and earlier than that, some even incorporating AM & FM together, when they were simulcasting dayparts. So there is a history of the FM side having that sound. I remember being torn between LS-FM and B96, as to which jingles were better. They were all really well done back then. The Z95 jingles were great, as were the LS-FM packages. There were also some "FM 95" jingles (post-WRCK, maybe 1981 or so?) that were pretty spiffy. This new package just doesn't flow well. Seems like they tried too hard. A simple remake of the classics would have been really nice. I was excited to see the news of the jingle "rebirth" until I heard them.
 
I have a unique perspective about jingles.

On The Eighties Channel™, we have five jingles airing from the old TM Penetrators series (which were first released in the mid-1970s ... the same package I used when I programmed an uptempo AC in the next market north of L.A. in 1978): Three are shotguns, both with and without a frequency shout. A fourth is a sweeper with a TEC shout. And the fifth is a TOH legal ID, also with TEC shout.

There are six or seven jingles per hour, depending on how deep we get into the end-of-hour fill sequence. And there is a jingle ahead of every power, all around the clock.

I am following the same philosophy now as I did almost 50 years ago. Shotguns were, are, and always have been, a great way to get the call letters (or slogan) out there and send an unconscious message to the listener that the music has started again. But for them to be effective in that way, they have to be short. The problem I have with today's jingles is that too many of them try to force too many positioning statements in, which just makes the jingle longer than (IMO) it needs to be.

The sweeper is very useful to slip the calls (and frequency or slogan) in the middle of a sweep without being consciously obtrusive and I have always subscribed to that philosophy. I do not believe that "listener shout-outs" -- and we all know those are produced, not spontaneous from the audience, right? -- do a better job of calls/frequency/slogan recall than a jingle.

Of course, since we are talking WLS-FM, maybe my "rules" don't apply in a PPM market.
 
A better article about the use of Jingles was posted by Sean Ross a few days after the WLS report.

DAVE BETHELL ON THE SCIENCE OF THE RADIO JINGLE​

Basically it talks about why Jingles are used and what they do for product recall, etc. Think about any commercial you see on TV these days...McDonalds, State Farm, Bulb Head, Liberty Insurance. They ALL have some sort of musical logo, or jingle, accompanying their message. Some have gone back and added said musical logo to their message after the fact. Its a powerful recall method. Hence why radio has, and should use them.

The WLS musical logo is super powerful, and memorable to the audience they are trying to reach. Anyone who grew up in the 70's and 80s in the Midwest knows that 3 note legacy. Same with he WABC jingles, KISS fm in LA, and so on. Voice guys regurgitating positioning statements over dance beds is great, but with certain formats--Classic Hits being one of them-- a quick well produced 4 second shotgun can be a great identifier, even in a PPM market. Just because you dont NEED to identify yourself with the meters, it doesnt mean you shouldnt.
 
Gregg. said:
Weiserguy may have a point. Maybe the happy medium is, yes, use jingles. But not with slogans or the names of the morning team. Leave it with the three most important elements: The call letters "WLS," the frequency "94.7" and sometimes the city "Chicago." (A real legal ID should have "FM" between WLS and Chicago or it's an incorrect I.D.)

BTW, I was in the car earlier and WCBS-FM used a quick jingle between two songs: "101.1 CBS-FM." So I was incorrect in the original post, saying WCBS-FM doesn't use jingles. But I don't think they are used much and it's just the frequency and call letters.
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Amen!

I think he is retired now but maybe Scott Shannon could do an annual Jingle work-shop where he teaches what is a good radio station jingle and what isn't. What stations should use them and how they should be crafted around an easily understood mission statement.

I haven't heard them recently but I guess 4 months ago CBS-fm had the jingles that you mentioned and a few with just "New York's Greatest hits, 1oh1point1-CBS-ef-em!

They were okay, but obviously that station should be running the Z100 jams jingles from the 80s, in fact they might even have them already sitting somewhere???? Who knows 😂

Lite fm in New York had chr jingles, might still be using them, and they sound perfect!

I think jingles Craft a nice sound, but if you were in the camp who thought that jingles were just an annoyance you put up with because they are so gosh darn "sticky" then you probably stopped them with ppm. I think they craft a brand and that is essential today.

There's lots of these out of touch people who over compensate their own deficiencies by blasting everything from the past as bad and anything new as the only answer or only path forward.
They currently are blasting the latest Timberlake album while their granddaughter plays 80s music. I personally like Stargazing with my lunch but I might also have Meatloaf with dinner because I like what I like, nothing is forced by reasons for a professional to unpack.
 
"I haven't heard them recently but I guess 4 months ago CBS-fm had the jingles that you mentioned and a few with just "New York's Greatest hits, 1oh1point1-CBS-ef-em!

They were okay, but obviously that station should be running the Z100 jams jingles from the 80s, in fact they might even have them already sitting somewhere???? Who knows 😂"

Yes...CBS-FM had JAM resings of the classic Z100 cuts from the 80s...and used them for many years...as did many of the "Entercomm/CBS/Audacy" Classic hits stations (WOGL, WOCL, K Hits in Chicago, WOMC, KLUV, KOOL-FM in Phoenix, KEYN, Etc) Then the Reelworld people got to em...and created a custom Classic Hits package for the Audacy stations (CBS-FM to start)...and what do you know? They use them very sparingly now...so little that most of you dont hear them even if you listen. Dont get me started on why that is, but it has to do with the jingles themselves and who makes them...
 
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