I happen to think they should. I never considered this question until KOOL signed on, and reminded me that oldies formats usually have jingles.

I like jingles.

I like jingles too, but 'should' they have jingles... depends on the owners intended presentation of the station. Sometimes the boys across the street make you alter your presentation, sometimes you stand your ground and don't acknowledge them and hope that your presentation connects better with the listener.

I'm tired of KQOL's jingles after every song!
Guess who i have on? KLYC!!

Y'know, I sorta wonder if the reason K-Hits' presentation doesn't include jingles is because the previous format, K-Lite, had them.

I don't know about that. The format flip to K-Hits wasn't a face lift for K-Lite, it was a whole new station launch. It makes me doubt that the previous format was considered at all. It seems like Dennis Constantine doesn't like cheesy format elements like silly positioning statements and phoners that make every listener state his "favorite station" at the end of the call, etc. Perhaps it's a "talk to you, not at you" mentality, like the feel KINK has. I just think jingles are fun, and K-Hits is a fun station.

Yes, K-I-S-N

How about this?
Should K-hits lose the geeky Voice Guy?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

K-I-S-N's dead forever.
I grew up with Boss Radio KHJ.
I don't miss it!

jingles? Sure why not... used as a transition.

NOT AFTER EVERY SONG!!!

...."silly positioning statements and phoners that make every listener state his "favorite station" at the end of the call, etc.

LAZY RADIO.....

When I did top 40 in the 70s on FM we used no jingles because we thought those belonged on the "old" AM top 40 stations of the 60s. To us they sounded cheesy and dated. We were trying to sound hip and wanted to image like an album rock station.

But, you know how it is these days. If KHITS bought some jingles, which jock would have to go, in order to pay for them!?!

Yes, there was a period around 1972 when the anti-jingle approach started in Top 40 radio. It was in response to the over-produced stations that got lazy and relied on jingles to add excitement. Buzz Bennett created amazing radio stations (13Q Pittsburgh; Y100 Miami) that had no jingles, with a fun, upbeat presentation. It was up to the jocks to make it great. They were some of the great Top 40 stations of the 70s.

Agreed with Roger. Good jingle use, that appeals to me anyway, is just enough of them to appreciate when they happen --maybe wish they happened a little more often.

That way, the jingle bounces around in the persons head for a while, just like it is supposed to.

IMHO, those things used as an identifier for programming of note is probably my favorite use.

On a related note, Z100 used to throw in a 1Khz tone, maybe 100 - 150 ms long, just a short beep. Liked that, was an attention getter. (Think it was Z00, could have been another station too)

Any of you know about that, heard it, or something like it used elsewhere?

Tight Jingle and Music Liner presentations sounded better on a compressed positive peak over modulated AM signal. The narrower bandwidth lent to the excitment of using that hot poker up ur bum musical/singing Identifier with the limted artifical sound of the music and over processed mic channels in that AM broadcast band venue @ that time.

Along comes FM. Much wider bandwidth. The music sounded more natural to start with. Music was automatically more like a studio presentation or even a live stage presentation. The old jingle/musical liners sounded annoying and pretentious against the music and even the mic channel/announcer/DJ was underprocessed and more natural as well. Different technical venue !

It was a natural progression toward more natural sounding station identifiers.

Yes, indiscriminate use of jingles would just turn into another crutch, like overused and improperly updated liner cards... But a good jingle package, used properly, would be another ingredient to breathe life into a station's presentation!

It's the pendulum factor that things run in cycles: Everything old is new again...

Not being a fly on the wall at CBS, I would have to say that the most reasonable sounding explanation here is that there are no jingles on "K-HITS" because the geeky guy is more cost effective.

Could it also be possible that there is research behind the lack of jingles at K-HITS? In other words, when the K-HITS format was being designed, whatever research method was used showed that the people surveyed preferred a low-key presentation, and that upbeat production and jingles irritated them?

I have heard recordings of the old KPAM, circa 1977, where jingles are used. This station's jingles, compared to the production used on KGW, sounded low-key. The idea that jingles sounded "annoying and pretentious" on FM is one person's opinion, and I can't say that I agree with it.

More than one person's opinion I speak for here.

This wasnt just my observation a whole lot of programming people far more qualified that "yours truly" back in the 70s thought so too. And again I am talking the old style traditional AM radio jingles, the ones like Drake or Drake knock offs, PAMS etc.

You said yourself that KPAM's jingles were lower key than KGW's were in 1977. Well you just made my point. Their use and style of jingles was different than those of the AMs by that time and the industry supported all this with better product for FM stations especially by 1977 ! The early 70s saw a change in attitude by programmers using jingles on FM stations because the 'industry' hadnt changed or accounted for the difference in the technical quality of FM radio. So programmers just resisted or simply quit using jingles all together.

Annoying and pretentious those AM style jingles DID sound on FM stations. I know I was there ! And so were a lot of other more highly qualified people than me.

When Top 40 stations moved to FM in the early 70s, most adopted a more natural sound in their presentation, including jocks who talked instead of screaming and the absence of jingles. Many stations were doing a hybrid Top 40 single / album cut format where they featured an album cut or two an hour in the mix. Audio processors were very simple, with many stations using the Volumax from CBS, which was fairly limited in what it would do. Compared to AM, it sounded dramatically better. Stations that tried heavy compression with devices designed for AM, like the Level Devil, had a problem holding their frequency steady.

Jingles sound appropriate on KOOL as they have tweaked their audio processing to sound like an AM station. K-Hits, by contrast, has a richer, more natural FM sound in their audio processing. For that reason, it's appropriate that they have no jingles.

appropriate... Probably not the right word....

choice.

An occasional jingle is fine. As was said earlier.

KQOL over-does it

I would not have em sing out "k-hits",seems corny?but instead sing whatever the actual call letters are,plus frequency, city, DJ name, other info!!??

I thought we already decided that K-Hits sounded muddy compared to Kool.

Most radio jingles are produced by one of three companies. Each company has various current jingle packages that they are selling. For each package, they produce various instrumental beds. Each company has a group of singers on call when it's time to sing the call-letters.

When a station signs up for a jingle package, consecutive sessions are booked and they usually crank out several radio stations in one morning. You can hear the same exact jingle package on an oldies station in Portland, an AC station in Eugene and a country station in Longview. The only thing different is what's being sung over the instrumental bed.

Pricing is dependant on market size. Los Angeles stations are going to pay a lot more for the same package than a station in Bend. Also, the jingle companies love to make deals. If you're a big company, you can negotiate. For example, if your New York station signs up for a new package at full price, they might throw in a package for the Portland station for next to nothing. In addition, when a jingle company produces a brand new package, they want a few stations to try it out. They offer special pricing for stations that first sign up and then they turn them into demos.

I think that once a station develops an positive identity with listeners, then it would be a bad idea to mess with it. K-Hits has put lots of work into its image, and has consistently stayed the course on developing its "look" sans jingles. The "geeky guy" is now part of the sound of K-Hits, and now that the station has developed a solid following it might not be prudent to shift gears. When they first hit the air I was a solid proponent of adding jingles; I still like jingles a lot, but that may not be a good fit for K-Hits anymore.

I generally bounce around the dial, making different stations my "home" station for awhile, then switch. I recently re-adopted K103 as my default station while in the car. I'm amazed by how consistent the sound of that station has been over the years, jingles, sounders and all. Thankfully the music is a lot fresher than it had been, so it's a listenable station for me again. But if you think that jingles don't work on FM, listen to K103.

KJR FM has jingles, still using the theme from KJR AM decades ago.

They have one with no words at all! Just the recognizable music that makes the listener sing the words in their head. they play this occasionally between songs.

very cool concept, i never thought i'd hear a jingle with implied lyrics but it works great!

I would like that.

Do they ever incorporate the words, or is the jingle music just done well enough to evoke them in the listeners mind? I'm thinking of the identity spoken at times, then it just fits the music...

Is it like that?

The "Geeky Guy" on KHITS is Poindexter. His female companion is Harriot.

"Jingles sound appropriate on KOOL as they have tweaked their audio processing to sound like an AM station. K-Hits, by contrast, has a richer, more natural FM sound in their audio processing. For that reason, it's appropriate that they have no jingles."

You make a good point about processing differences. However, I wouldn't say that KOOL simply limits the fidelity and K-Hits is more natural. Until recently, K-Hits was downright muddy! It was horrible. KOOL also didn't restrict fidelity exactly, but punches the midrange to create a more active sound. I'd say that KOOL doesn't sound "AM", and K-Hits doesn't sound "AOR-FM"; the two stations simply sound different.

KJR FM has the jingles with the lyrics most of the time, only occasionally do they drop the one with no words.

The music is so ingrained in the image of the station that they can pull this off and it does invoke the words in the listeners mind.

if you were to sing the words "KJR SEATTLE" in your head to the same tune you would get it. especially if you grew up hearing it.

KJR Seattle, always endears the..Channel 95 afterwards, doesnt it?

I had a friend , in radio and originally from Seattle-Tacoma, who went to a Mariners game back in the early 80s and they had KJR night. He said that it was almost a spiritual experience hearing an entire KINGDOME full of people singing the KJR SEATTLE Ch 95 song over and over again. He said it was like hearing the five notes from "Close encounters of the 3rd kind"

Infact they used the KJR tune for a music bed in the old 97.5 KOOL FM jingle package over here for the first year or so of this station in the Tri Cities. A clear channel thing for awhile and Im sure they did it because of the familiarity of the tune to any transplants from Seattle Tacoma.

Not only is Mark Lindsay's show gone from K-Hits but "American Top 40, the 70s" also, at least, so it seems.

Kool 105.9 has had jingles since switching from KIJZ. So at this point if K-Hits got jingles, wouldn't that technically be responding to the competition?

Kasey Kasem started early Sunday morning, I didn't start listening until about 7:30 but they they were already into hour 2. They got to #1 by 9:00. Apparently they've shifted it back an hour - don't know why.

That's good to hear! I thought it odd that they would cancel anything that was so 70s intensive and it's such a great fit.

Just to catch up this thread, Mark Lindsay has been back on K-Hits for awhile. The reason I'm here is to mention that they have been playing all the songs in their library from A-Z since Monday. They're only doing this from 6AM to 10PM but after 4 days, are only up to the letter "I"! I'm hearing songs I haven't heard in 40 years! People are always complaining about the same songs, over and over. Well, there's certainly none of that. They said it would take about 2 weeks. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. I'm also surprised they would put their audience in jeopardy for that long a period. Incidentally, there doesn't seem to be much past the mid-70s but it goes as far back as the 50s!

re-activate 910 KKISN and super62 too!!!!!!!

OK jingle freaks, this is extremely trivial, but here goes...during a trip over the 4th of July weekend I came within range of KGR-680 AM out of Helena, Montana. They were using the exact same famous signature "KJR Seattle, Channel 95" sing, except it was sung "KGR Helena, Channel 68." Surprising to the say the least, and a little eerie too, since I had not heard that famous sing on AM for 25 years. Anyone, (Craig?)know the history of this frequency? Were they top40 in the 60's and a legitimate copy of KJR, or is this just a case of an owner or manager going for nostalgia?

A quick check in the 1998 Broadcasting Yearbook shows KKGR 680 licensed to East Helena, sign-on date May 26, 1988. KKGR is (still) a daytime only operation with 5,000 watts. The 1998 format listing was Full Service/Country.

It seems like "Variety" is the name of the game in radio today.
Not only is k-hits playing a huge variety of music, but KUFO has also been playing a HUGE variety of music with deeper tracks.
The Buzz uses the liner "A fresh new VARIETY" and Z100 uses the liners "More variety less talks". Since when does top 40 care about variety??? just curious.

Im glad most stations are starting to expand their playlist and give more variety. I get so sick and tired of hearing the same OVERplayed burnt out songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER!

Thanks, Randy. They're doing syndicated oldies today. Still, it is so rare today to come across something on the AM band that stands out!
(or FM for that matter...)

does anyone besides me not like the eveng guy K hits has? Its Tom Kent.

I like him. He's got high energy(something that station desperately needs.

I think he is pretty good in his presentation. This is the kind of image that K-Hits should have used from day one, instead of that geeky "Wonder Years" guy.

The geeky voice guy on K-hits has got to go, he is HORRIBLE!

K-hits needs some uptempo jingles and more high energy jocks.

Just my 2 cents which really= $200 that I will be getting from Raizin.

Classic Hits stations don't usually have jingles, or "geeky" station imaging voices!

more variety would help the station. Maybe if they could go deeper into a classic album.

> Maybe if they could go deeper into a classic album.

Wouldn't this go against the implied concept of the station's format? Marketing the station as "K-HITS" implies that they play radio hit singles. They could squeeze by if they occasionally threw in a hit record that the audience might remember but that doesn't get a lot of airplay on oldies stations today. However, if they were to play more obscure album tracks that listeners would not generally remember hearing on the radio, then the station's format would start to veer off into the direction of AOR or AAA.

They could maybe do one album per day and once an hour have a track from it. For example they could use "Dark side of the moon" by Pink Floyd.
They could also like you say go into the hits that weren't number one hits but were classics just the same.

I don't know, once you get past the KHITS morning drive show, then the nite show, then the mid-day shift... does any of the rest matter?

The mid-day guy is so bland and lifeless. When you listen across the room from the radio all you can hear is a low rumbling when he talks. Listen closely and it's even scarier.

I think this station has been parked, for eventual release.

Is Brad Dolbier out or on vacation?

Wayne: Brad was drafted! He's in Nam doing Recon for 3 weeks.

I thought they got rid of the draft Craig.

They made an exception.

Yeah, Album Track for a top 25...like "Me and Baby Brother" ...War....