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Z-100 Top 'o the Hour Sonovox Jingle

J

JRZFM100

I was looking back at this Z-100 on-air history posts, and it made me think of one of the classic Z-100 top 'o the hour sweepers, circa 1984/86... (voice over in donut between "Serving The Universe....... Z-100 NY").

So the complete Top 'O The Hour Sweeper would be:

Sonovox: SERVING THE UNIVERSE

Voice Over: "Birch and Arbitron Rated Number One, Thanks to You!"

Sung: Z-100 NEW YORK!

Trivia... and question -

I believe there were two and only two versions of the Sonovox 'serving the universe' jingle. The first was early Z-100, beginning circa 1984/1985. This version ended with a sung jingle with lyrics "Z-100 New York"

The second, from Jam Turbo-Z, circa 1989, began with sono 'serving the universe' and ended with "Z-100 (sung) then Z-100 (sonovox) NEW YORK!" Two Z-100's in the ending of the second jingle.
A faster, updated version of the first.

Anita, do you or others know which jingle package contained the first version of 'serving the universe' sonovox? I can never figure that out. For sure it's not Flamethrower or Warp Factor.

And the full version of the top of the hour original 'Serving the Universe' sonovox with bed ending in 'Z-100 New York' does not appear on any of the Jam demos in that fashion.

The sweeper can be heard on Major Market Air Checks, New York 1985 if anyone has that cassette.

I believe that one Jam demo has a very similar jingle but its "Serving The Universe (sono) with Hot Hits (sung) Z-100 (sung)" - not exactly the first Top 'O The Hour sweeper jingle that is SO familiar.
 
I have Z=100's orignal jingles on a JAM demo reel (yep, it goes back THAT far in my collection) courtesy of the late Fred Hardy of JAM. I did a little investigation and that jingle was released as part of the Zurbo-Z jingle package, cut 10 on the JAM page linked here.

I do notice a difference, although it could just be my memory, but the demo ends with a double "Z-100" but I seem to remember listening to the station and there was only a single sung "Z-100" before "New York."
 
MJB1124 -
You are correct, the full donut version of the original jingle does not appear in any Jam demo.

Bill -
You are correct also, Turbo Z (1989) contains the later and updated version with double Z-100 ending (Z-100(sung) Z-100 (sono under)) lyric.

I am still looking for the name of the jingle package from which the original is taken. Perhaps we have John Wolfert or someone else from JAM is on here who can provide the answer.

And for emphasis, my original post meant to infer that my favorite Top 'O The Hour version was the final product with the phrase "BIRCH AND ARBITRON RATED NUMBER ONE, THANKS TO YOU" inserted, as there were many variants in verbage on the voice in between.

This is good trivia for Anita... If she doesn't know, I will be surprised!
 
JRZFM100 said:
Anita, do you or others know which jingle package contained the first version of 'serving the universe' sonovox? I can never figure that out. For sure it's not Flamethrower or Warp Factor.
Click to expand...


I would not dare speak for the lovely and talented Anita... but I'd venture a guess that it could from either be the "Red Hot" or "Skywave" packages...
 
Didn't Ernie Anderson ("The Golden Throat") do some of their voiceovers back in the day? He used to voice WTIC-FM 96.5 of Hartford, back in their pre-1994 days as 96 TIC-FM.
 
Ernie: "THE LOVE BOAT - TONITE on ABC"

I believe that Ernie did ultimately do some work for Z-100. I remember that he became very popular in radio in the mid 80's, maybe starting in '85 or '86.

I don't think he is the voice of "Birch and Arbitron Rated No. 1... Thanks to You", or the most popular variant... "From the Top of the Empire State Building". I just don't think those were Ernie.
 
On a separate but related topic... I remember a Z100 TOH ID from the late '80s/early '90s that went something along the lines of "From the top of the Empire State Building and shaking the ground on the planet below... this is W-H-T-Z100 -- New York." Does anyone else remember that one? For some reason, I've never been able to find a mention of it anywhere.
 
The Z-100 top-hour you are asking about was done as part of the JAM "Warp Factor" package. The original version, which can be heard as cut #9 on the demo, said "Serving The Universe with Hot Hits, Z-100". It was made in February 1985. But upon receipt of the package there were several modifications that Z-100 requested. One of them was to re-do that cut, so that it could be used as a top-hour with a voice-over included. So we made the cut over again, and delivered it in March 1985.

By that time we had already sent out demo tapes of the new package to CHR stations everywhere who were craving it. Had we changed the version of cut #9 that was on the demo after sending out so many, it would have created massive ordering confusion forever. So the revised version has never appeared on any demo.

And yes, Ernie Anderson did do voice-overs for Z-100 and you can hear a few samples in the "Skywave" package from 1987. Listen to the "sample voice-over" versions of cuts #4 and 8. Skywave also included a "serving the universe" jingle, but that one was sung not sonovox'd.

When we did "Turbo Z" in 1989, we created an updated version of the Serving The Universe jingle with sono on the front and the double Z-100 ending.

Hope this helps!

Jonathan Wolfert
JAM Creative Productions, Inc.
Dallas, TX
 
I remember the TOH jingle they played back in 1998: "Broadcasting live, from the city so nice, they named it twice. Z100 WHTZ, Newark, New York City"
I don't think they stuck with that one for very long though.
 
I do remember that one. They seemed to have a lot of different TOH ID's around the 1996-98 period. One had the beginning of the 1985 "Serving The Universe" jingle without the end tag, another used the full Turbo Z jingle (though it might have been without the sonovox at the end), another used a newer "Serving The Universe" jingle from the Z+ package, and there were some that used no jingle.

By the way, glad to see you on this board, Jon!
 
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