The Time Machine Show on KKSN often plays 1960s Coca Cola singing commercials featuring popular musicians of the day. Today, it was Gary Lewis & The Playboys pitching that wonderful carbonated drink. I'm curious, does the Coca Cola Corporation actually pay for reruns of these old commercials on oldies stations, or are they just there for the nostalgia value?

I would like to believe Coke is paying to run those old Coke commercials, but I would assume the origional contracts allowed they only be used for a limited time. So, I think its NOT the real thing!

Do coke or pepsi still do that (have big name stars sing their commercial jingles)? Maybe they gave up on it shortly after the infamous Pepsi Generation Billie Jean Michael Jackson hair explosion.

Alfredo & 62kgw: To answer your question, let me first setup the situation at the time (2003-04) The Time Machine was on until midnight. I was the DJ at midnight and also the Entercom overnight technician, watching the over the 8 stations, so I was at the studio Saturday nights around 10:30pm in preparation for the automation flip over to Sunday.

During my time with Dave & The Gang we had a great time every weekend. One night I brought in my Coke CD thinking Dave might want to play at least the Nancy Sinatra :60 which I thought was FAB! After previewing other cuts in cue. Dave had Trish burn the entire CD of 65 cuts. I told Dave at the time, I had previously heard these cuts on Dick Bartley. I didn't think Dick or Coke thought this was hurting their image one bit. If anything, Coke would reap the benefits of nostalgia in profits, a win, win situation! And What GREAT SPOTS They Are!

Wow! That's pretty cool that there is a CD of classic Coke commercials! Coca Cola gets a free plug, and the spots sound really great! Singing commercials, well done, are really cool. I only regret that I wasn't around to hear many of these great musical commercials when they first came out.

As a side note, archive.org has several compilations of television commercials from the 1950s with some really great jingles. I think that I heard the Hertz jingle played on the Mark After Dark show some time ago.

KKNX Radio 84 here in Eugene will mix in vintage radio commercials throughout the day...such as ones for the 1957 Muntz TV and the 1958 "Be Sociable, Have a Pepsi" ad.

PS; the tag voice on Coke spots....such as "THE SUPREMES FOR COCA COLA!!!!! is Dick Saint who was a legend in Top 40 radio...worked at Kisn and is Nelson's (Buzz) Father! Dick passed away about a year ago. Worked all the big markets.

Then there was the Coke jingle that became a top 10 hit record (or vice-versa?) (1970?).
I'd like to teach the world to sing.
I'd like to buy the world a Coke.

I have heard John Williams play a few of these old commercials in the afternoons on 910.

The Hillside Singers had the original hit...and it was covered by the New Seekers.

Here's a KISN & KGW aircheck from 1972. It has most stop-sets unscoped, so you can hear the full commercials. It is a 85 mb download (93 minute aircheck), but well worth it. Happy New Year & enjoy.

http://www.divshare.com/download/14536-3a2

Whoo-hoo! Thank you, Steve!

That sounds like Bobby Goldsboro on the first Coke commercial, but I don't know who is on the second one about 12 minutes in.

As a market outsider I only got to hear KISN on a few occasions, so this is actually my first opportunity to compare KISN and KGW with a critical ear. In this snapshot, KGW comes off totally smooth and they make it all look easy while KISN sounds almost as if they are trying too hard to fight the competition.

Does anyone know which station was first to use "Super" in their ID? I always assumed it was KGW.

As much as I like all the hype on KISN, I'd say KGW is doing a better job speaking TO the listener rather than shouting AT them. The head-to-head competition made for two very good radio stations.

"As much as I like all the hype on KISN, I'd say KGW is doing a better job speaking TO the listener rather than shouting AT them. "
Yes, that was the big difference between them, particularly in the 60's. KISN was the shouter, KGW was more mellow.

Steve You've Done it Again! Great Stuff! Where do I begin?

At the time both stations were doing different approarches to the Top 40 format. I like both efforts.

What a treat to hear the original KGW 70's Jingles! Air checks I've heard before this were from the mid or late 70's. Around 1974 KGW changed their jingle package. I never liked their replacements. They sounded dated with the new singing harmonies. The ones on this air check sound fresher and more together. Never understood why KGW did this. Many of the 45's in my collection were "Mike's Mother Monsters".

I think the last jock in the last 4 minutes of the air check is David Stone, though he doesn't identify himself.

> Then there was the Coke jingle that became a top
> 10 hit record (or vice-versa?) (1970?).
> I'd like to teach the world to sing.
> I'd like to buy the world a Coke.

This must have been huge because I can remember singing this song in school in the early 1980s. I also ran into a baby's windup toy, around the same time, that played this song and had a wheel with pictures of things in the song (like the snow white turtle doves). I remember that both the toy and our school music books had a statement that the Coca Cola corporation owned the copyrights to the song, so I'd say that most likely, Coca Cola's ad agency created the song for use in advertising, and then Coca Cola decided to license it to third parties.

In 2000, Coca Cola did a 30th anniversary version of the ad, in which they had a bunch of 30 and 40-somethings singing the song. The idea was that this was a 30 year "class reunion" for the kids who appeared in the original commercial.

Coke jingles in the late 60's & 70's were all published by Shada Music, Inc. (ASCAP).

Dottie West had a Coke hit record in 1973 with "Country Sunshine" peaking at #2 on Billboards' Country chart. #37 on the A.C. chart and #49 on the Hot 100 chart. RCA APB0-0072. The jingle was also used on radio & TV spots.

Bobby Goldsboro had a Coke hit record in 1974 with "Hello Summertime" peaking at #8 on Billboards' A.C. chart and #79 on the Country chart. U.A. XW529-X. The jingle was also used on radio & TV spots.

The chart in question was actually called "Easy Listening" long after the songs were really "AC". I'm not sure when the changeover was but I'll guess around 25 years ago. Not long before 1973, most of the songs were decidedly adult. For instance, The Righteous Brothers version of "Unchained Melody" didn't make the chart on its maiden voyage because it was "rock-n-roll"!

Yes! I was in a hurry. Thought I had enough time to post but time ran out! So I abbreviated the chart names. Check my time stamp above (6:15pm). That's when I like to be out the door headed for work. I always try to be in the building 30 minutes before my shift, incase of traffic problems and such.

The book used is titled "Joel Whitburn's Top Adult Contemporary 1961-1993". That's why I went with the A.C. abbreviation. The first Billboard titled "Adult Contemporary" chart was issued April 7, 1979. This was changed to "Hot Adult Contemporary" on October 20, 1984.

The chart has had many titles over the years but started as "Easy Listening" on July 17, 1961 changing to "Middle-Road Singles" on November 3, 1962. On May 2, 1964 yet another title change "Pop-Standard Singles". Then back to "Middle-Road Singles" on October 24, 1964. Then back to "Pop-Standard Singles" on May 1, 1965. And finally back to "Easy Listening" on June 5, 1965.

While were on this subject before anyone else posts. The Billboard Country chart mentioned above was officially called "Hot Country Singles".

Thanks, Craig. The "Hot" was in reference to the Hot 100 chart but Billboard decided to scatter the name around its other charts. That's all fine and good but now people will think the Hot Adult Contemporary chart was for Hot AC, which didn't exist yet.

Does anyone remember the Jefferson Airplane commercials for "White Levis"? They sounded as if they had lyrics that were loosely adapted from the print ads in stream-of consciousness style, and aired in about 1968.

"White Levis" were a style that came in white, but other colors were still considered part of the line. I remember Grace Slick singing, "White Levis come in black or blushing Bravo Blue..."

I didn't remember them until you mentioned that line. Thanks!

anyone who would like a cd of the vintage commercials we run on KKNX here in Eugene, just ask and I'll e mail you the mp3 files. We are currently runing 69 of the 300+ inventory that I have collected of the past 45 years. There are a lot of coke and Pepsi commercials and a lot of cars, like Pat Boone pitching the 1957 Ford.

Regarding the KGW/KISN airchecks linked above, there were two things that I was really surprised to hear on AM top-40:

1) KGW ran a public service announcement that very blatantly acknowledged that some of its listeners enjoyed smoking marijuana.

2) KISN ran a commercial for the Church of Scientology.

!?!

Haven't listened to the download just yet. That will be entertaining.

Thanks Steve, I look forward to this.

I believe the Church of Scientology spot was a PSA, so KISN was pushing the Church. Of course at the time, personnel really didn't know as much about Scientology.

I seem to remember the Church of Scientology tried to buy time on KAAR (1480 Rock) or something like that Church. Bob Ancheta was the P.D. at the time and might remember more.

Seems to me, early on, not much was known and "Dianetics" was a big deal. Maybe somebody read the book!

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but playing an old commerical without permission from the copyright holder is a legal no-no. While it may seem like Coke would benefit from "free publicity", Coke endangers their trademark by letting someone run the ad without permission because this opens the door for others to do the same -- perhaps some that projects Coke in a bad light. This would make it tough for Coke to sue to protect their trademark.

All I'm saying is: Lawyer!

Neat! That's a great KISN/KGW air check from '72! A couple legendary American mass appeal top-40 powerhouses. I had never heard KISN in that time frame. They sounded nice and up. Like CFUN from that era. Phil Harper on KGW is a riot -- altho I don't remember KGW sounding so laid back then. The "You" jingle package that followed (1974-75?) gave KGW a more uptempo sound.

It seems to me that KGW's announcing style was fairly mellow in most dayparts until after KISN went off the air.

To clarify the time frame of that aircheck compilation, most of the music in the first section of KISN entered the Billboard chart in April of '72, while the KGW section and second chunk of KISN are actually from March of '73. Songs on the KGW and second KISN airchecks mostly entered the charts between February and April '73, and references to Easter and an upcoming Bee Gees concert on April 1st on the KGW portion nail it down to March.

There was a time in the late '60s or early '70s when Scientology (or "going Clear") was actually considered hip in certain influential circles, much as Krishna, EST and TM once were. So it's not too surprising that the cult made some inroads into mainstream radio back then. Nowadays Tom Cruise is considered weird for belonging (and deservedly so), but 35 years ago few would have given it a second thought.