The Not-So-Distant History Of Radio Jingles

 

Many people of a certain generation might remember a jingle or two from one of their hometown radio stations.

"It was, to use the current terminology, the branding or the imaging of the radio station," jingle producer Jonathan Wolfert says.

Jingles helped to create a station's personality. Throughout the 1960s and '70s, New York's WABC, a 50,000-watt powerhouse heard up and down the East Coast, was the Top 40 gold standard.

"The jingles were the exclamation marks between records," says Dan Ingram, host of Afternoon Drive on WABC throughout the 1960s and '70s. "'The greatest station in the world, WABC!' — you know, whatever."....