Yesterday's radio commercials and related jingles are disposable flotsam and jetsam. Often rescued from the dumpster and tape eraser, here's where they live to celebrate another day, and give us a peek into the pop culture of the past. All material has been sourced from tapes or vinyl discs (records) used on the air at radio stations or dubs of said tapes, transferred for pristine quality when possible.
With halloween coming up, I thought I'd dig my favorite Halloween spot out from 1974. This was a national radio spot on a syndicated show called "The Superrock Special" hosted by Don Imus, likely an episode of a long forgotten radio series the radio legend did in his days at NBC. It's not a bad show, but the commericals are probably the most interesting thing on the reel of tape these days.
Personally, this spot still scares the hell out of me. Voiced by what it seems to be actor Percy Rodriguez (who also did the "jaws" trailers a year later) his haunting delivery alone sets the mood that only gets more dark and intense by the screams of Mercedes Mccambridge.
The funny thing is, I finally saw the movie 10 years ago and didn't think it was really scary at all, almost a comedy given some of the lines the devil in Regan gets to say. The radio spot though....is all too frightening....shame the movie wasn't for me.
From 1974, Warner Bros. Pictures
The Exorcist
:60 sec
First off my apologies of not updating the jetsam more frequently. It's been a busy month, and I also do my weekly radio show/podcast and work on audio for my internet radio stream. I occasionally watch classic TV shows on DVD, take care of my 9 budgies and clean the house, hang out with the wife...well, you get the idea. It's been busy.
One of the issues with the jetsam is that posting a tape or a vinyl disc with a lot of cuts eats up time, often hours. You transfer the cuts, cut them up, name them, mp3 them, post them, create the links, write the details, and so on. In an effort to cut down on some of this time to make the posts more frequent, I shall put multiple cuts of one tape or disc side in one mp3 file and let you cut them up as you see fit. If you don't have a audio editor, may I suggest AUDACITY a great freeware program which will do the job nicely.
But on with The BIG Sound...
I couldn't find much about Richard H Ullman (the jingle producer) on google, in fact I couldn't find anything that really gives the history of the company, but the way I know it, They produced jingles for radio, both customized ones for radio stations (they produced a package called "Wonderful Cities" in the early 1960s that was used by many stations around the world) and obviously, as posted here, some generic off the rack stuff which can be customized for a local client
I confess, I find this stuff so campy it's fun and would love to hear it on the air today, if for no other reason but to spice up the rather homogenized sound of commerical radio. This stuff would stick out like a sore thumb, in a very good way.
Looking back at this Jingle for a chain of Canadian Bakeries which to my knowledge is not long out of business, it really can lean towards the naughty if your mind is occasionally in the gutter like me.
From The Early 1960s?, Open End Commerical Jingles
Produced by Richard H Ullman Inc, New York City, NY Disc # JOE-5-R
11 Cuts of Various Lengths
01-Real Estate
02-Grocery Store
03-Finance Company
04-Bank
05-Supermarket
06-Dairy
07-Savings and Loan
08-Shop Downtown General
09-Shop Downtown-Xmas
10-Movers
11-Shopping Center
