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Valerie Geller's Jingle Column

smedge2006 said:
So why have news-talk stations gone away from sung jingles in the last 15-20 years, toward
sparse instrumentals? Is it...

1. Consolidation and cutbacks?

2. An entry-level target audience (males born in the 70's and early 80's) who grew up on rock stations that didn't have jingles?

3. A lack of jingle product that works with the talk demo?

4. Something else?

http://www.radio-info.com/programming/newstalksports/the-power-of-jingles
Click to expand...

I'd bet anything it's budgetary.

Jingles are just sprinkles on top of the icing on the cake.

PS: I really have trouble believing Geller's claim that a whole line of people at a bank broke into a sing-a-long to the WABC jingles...as catchy as they may have been. Seriously.
 
jas2525 said:
PS: I really have trouble believing Geller's claim that a whole line of people at a bank broke into a sing-a-long to the WABC jingles...as catchy as they may have been. Seriously.
Click to expand...

Given the shares that WABC had in its biggest days and the passion people had about stations then, the story is not surprising at all.

Also considering that first five notes of the WABC jingles are also the notes from "New York, New York" it is certainly possible that folks would sing that particular jingle line.

I had the same jingle package at a station I owned, and, of course, the "New York, New York" notes did not mean anything. Yet there were even listeners who had car horns that played the jingle notes, and I frequently heard people whistle the jingle line in public.

So, aside from the fact that I know Valerie Geller has no need to make up stories, the anecdote rings totally true.
 
DavidEduardo said:
jas2525 said:
PS: I really have trouble believing Geller's claim that a whole line of people at a bank broke into a sing-a-long to the WABC jingles...as catchy as they may have been. Seriously.
Click to expand...

Given the shares that WABC had in its biggest days and the passion people had about stations then, the story is not surprising at all.

Also considering that first five notes of the WABC jingles are also the notes from "New York, New York" it is certainly possible that folks would sing that particular jingle line.

I had the same jingle package at a station I owned, and, of course, the "New York, New York" notes did not mean anything. Yet there were even listeners who had car horns that played the jingle notes, and I frequently heard people whistle the jingle line in public.

So, aside from the fact that I know Valerie Geller has no need to make up stories, the anecdote rings totally true.
Click to expand...

The first 5 notes of "New York, New York" are not the same as the first 5 (really 6) of the classic WABC jingle.
 
pjc1961 said:
David maybe meant "I'll Take Manhattan" by Rodgers and Hart from the 1929 short film "Makers Of Melody" for the WABC jingle.
Click to expand...

Sorry, brain f--rt on my part. In any case, the connection with the city was very strong.
 
jas2525 said:
Okay, I can just about recognize a similarity there, unlike with "New York, New York"....but still....WHO would ever think of THAT?
Click to expand...

Just about anyone in the 60's and 70's...
 
jas2525 said:
PS: I really have trouble believing Geller's claim that a whole line of people at a bank broke into a sing-a-long to the WABC jingles...as catchy as they may have been. Seriously.
Click to expand...

When Valerie was at WABC's helm, the station's target audience was still the Baby Boomers. The very same Baby Boomers who in years prior listened to WABC as a Top 40 station. When WABC flipped from music to talk, the jingle themes all stayed the same. In fact, the theme is still used to this day, I believe.
 
NewsStud said:
When Valerie was at WABC's helm, the station's target audience was still the Baby Boomers. The very same Baby Boomers who in years prior listened to WABC as a Top 40 station. When WABC flipped from music to talk, the jingle themes all stayed the same. In fact, the theme is still used to this day, I believe.
Click to expand...

Wasn't she more of an interim PD? IIRC, she was PD for only 6 months or so in 1989.
 
jas2525 said:
Wasn't she more of an interim PD? IIRC, she was PD for only 6 months or so in 1989.
Click to expand...

Something like that. I forget the dates but it wasn't a very long tenure. My point was that the jingles were imprinted on the minds of the target audience from a very young age... and were paying off much later in time, despite an entirely differently-missioned radio station.
 
jimwalsh2001 said:
With due respect to Ms. Geller, jingles are the least of talk radio's problems...
Click to expand...

Holy cow, ain't THAT the truth.

I probably listen to less talkradio now than ever in the 30+ years I've been checking it out. It's so boring, political and repetitive. Makes you wonder how feeble a mind you have to have to endure it day after day.
 
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