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.
It's been 55 years this year that Coca Cola rolled out their still rather memorable "I'd like to teach the world to sing" campaign shot on a hillside in Italy. It's still really relevant given the state of the world in 2026 and how wide spread the soft drink still is globally.
I did a look at the campaign in an exhibit in 2015 when the TV series Mad Men used it in their series finale. It seems coke put out a promotional 45 some 55 years ago in Canada with the 60 second original version in additional to a couple longer covers from Canadian artists the Laurie Bower Singers and Dr. Music. You can find the details on the original blog page HERE
This page though will focus on what Pepsi was doing in two "ET's" or Electrical Transcriptions delivered for that year to radio in Canada. Technically they're just usually louder then normal LPs to help keep down surface noise over multiple plays on AM radio. Back then, a lot of national commericals were still coming in on vinyl, the 1970s had a transition from transcription to reel to reel tape before the end of the decade. After the cam[paign wass older , it made for a fun collectible and in the way of soft drinks, a delightful time capsule of an era focused on the soft drink. It certainly was a cultural staple for most of the 20th century and continues to be in the 21st century, albeit to a lesser degree with health drink options also on store shelves. Let's throw back to the early 1970s now though.
Pepsi covered the genre's of commerical music with this disc and likely got played over many radio stations for that year. Play and download below.
We have 3 instrumental music beds for Diet Pepsi from 1971. To me, all 3 are the same, and it wasn't uncommon to put the same audio multiple times on a ET, likely because of one cut got a bad scratch, you can play another cut to solve the problem of getting a new disc, but I dubbed all 3 anyway. It's delightful early 70s background music you'd expect to hear behind a commerical of the era.
We lost another Canadian comedy pioneer recently in Catherine O'Hara. Going back to the 70s, even before SCTV, she was doing kid shows like "Coming Up Rosie" for the CBC along with other SCTV stars like John Candy and SNL Pioneer Dan Ackroyd. Her big break into the American scene was "Home Alone" in 1990 and more recently the Canadian produced Schitt's Creek that saw amazing success in the US. But it's after Home Alone's success we find this exhibit that is largely off the radar for Catherine O'Hara showing up in....yet...it REALLY sounds like her.
The late Alan Thicke, a well known Canadian in Hollywood as I am sure you know by now, for a variety of things from writing games show music cues, to his own failed syndicated talk show which he sang the theme for, finally hit paydirt with the TV Series "Growing Pains" as the latest version of the all American "have all the answers" TV dad in the 80s. In 1991 his star was still riding high near the end of the series run so it seems the Woolco Department Store chain decided to sponsor a campaign for "Saturday Sales" to air in the latter part of the year. The chain itself would suffer it's demise less then 5 years later being bought out my Walmart as the mega US chain's entry into Canada. Canadians of a certain age still have a fondness for Woolco and it's 1.44 Days they used to have.
Alan is the pitchman for this series of 60 secs spots, but the fun here is that some of the other voice talent is a bit surprising. It seems Catherine O'Hara is here playing "Fran" (maybe as a favor to Alan?) along with character actors Edie Mcclurg playing "Rose" and David Huddleston as "Fred". I confess this is what my ears tell me as I am familiar with the actors voice over years of watching TV and knowing when they pop up in TV series. Edie played Lucille Tarlek in WKRP In Cincinatti one of my favorite TV sitcoms, so I could be wrong as no one is credited other then Alan Thicke. I'll stick with the thought that I am right as they have distinct voices I am familiar with, but who knows for sure.
Regardless, it's a fun campaign from 35 years ago, and hope you enjoy a listen.
It's a sad day in Canadian Retail. The longest existing retailer in North America, The Hudson's Bay company with their "The Bay" and "Zellers" store across Canada closed their remaining stores on June 1st, 2025. The plus side is that it's legacy will continue under control of another well known Canadian brand with over 100 years in retail in this country, Canadian Tire. There's little comparable in the US, so it's probably why CT lasted so long especially with the US retail giants Walmart and Home Depot just to mention two who have invaded the retail landscape over the last few decades. I can't think of a better Canadian company to hold the brand rights to the HBC brand and am looking forward to see what happens in the coming years with what they bought.
One can argue and comment on the Hudson's Bay Company demise, but Wiki has a great article HERE if you want to learn more. For people of a certain age, both The Bay and Zellers were brands we grew up with and shopped at and now they are both gone as they were best known as over the decades and certainly can say centuries for this company at least
This is the only "The Bay" radio spot I have in my reels....likely from 1993. They had their "One Day Sale" back then, and this spot took Bobby Bloom's 1970 hit "Montego Bay" and had some fun in promoting the event. It's well done too.
Enjoy
HBC Media The Bay-One Day Sale "Montego Bay" BR-93-94 :30 English with slate
Years ago I put up 1 spot from this disc on my personal web page, but that's pretty much it. recently, I decided to dig out the disc and do a proper posting
The company goes back almost a century as this paragraph on wikipedia explains:
In 1921, Lester Haft filed a patent for a system to interconnect multiple strings. In late 1925, Joseph Bloch and Albert Sadacca organized a trade association of 15 of Haft patent licensees, all small manufacturers, including C. D. Wood. Block named the trade group National Outfit Manufacturer's Association, or N. O. M. A., and later, simply NOMA. By joining together, the companies could consolidate purchasing and gain other efficiencies to improve their competitiveness. This was successful for the 1925 and 1926 seasons, and by the end of 1926, the companies agreed to formally merge into a single manufacturer bearing the NOMA name. NOMA branded light outfits were sold starting in the 1927 season
This campaign is believed to be from the 1940s, possibly the late 1940s as other discs that I found many years ago with this one, were dated around that time, but as there is nothing on the label, I cannot confirm.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Basch Radio Productions NYC.
NOMA TOYS 1-10 Inclusive 60 xsec Radio spots
I have 100s of these things and the machines to play them on. The grandfather of the 8 track cartridge, celebrating 65 years old this year. I have music, PSAs, music, and old commericals on these things. If you ran a radio station from the 1960s into the mid 1990s, you bought into this format. They were replaced by computers, but the format was so prominent, the software was designed to look like a cart machine to assumingly making it easy to make the DJ's understand the computer. Who knows
The funny thing with this one, i'm amazed that this 37 year old spot never got erased as it was traditionally a format to air the spot for the specific dates then erased. In this case, it didn't and that's a good thing.
The narrator was Canadian Actor Percy Rodriguez which was an in demand voice over artist for Movie promotion in the 1970s and 1980s, besides his on screen roles in movies and television. He did the original Jaws trailers and promotion...yeah, we'll being him back for the sequel.
It's been 30 years since the final 2 hour episode of Star Trek The Next Generation titled "All Good Things..." and the juggernaut that is probably the most successful science fiction franchise in history just keeps on going with one series wrapping up this month (Discovery) and another wrapping up production of season 3 (Strange New Worlds) in Toronto. It's technically been 60 years this year since the production of the first pilot "The Cage" in late 1964, with the series being 58 years old. The franchise has taken breaks periodically, but still has legions of fans intense about it's message and beliefs for a better world then exists today.
This little nugget was saved by me in 1994 when the local TV station would periodically buy time (or was it barter?) to promote various programs. Often it was news shows, but in this case it was a big deal. After 7 years, the show was ending and it was good to promote it. Paramount had the audio promos produced no doubt for this reason, to cross promote each ep on radio. Shipped on a reel to TV stations, it was tagged by a local announcer.
Sadly the 30 sec promo was lost, but the 60 sec remains and WOW, a lot is going on, but still very listenable. Voice by the king of the movie trailer's himself Don Lafontaine, it was slickly produced and after having it for so long, it's time to share here. The TV station slapped a local TV station label on the box, but I managed to get off a lot of the label to see it was marked for wiping before the spot was sent to the radio station. A dang shame
Enjoy what we have here though.
Star Trek The Next Generation EP 747 "All Good Things".... :60 audio promo with slate
We start our first post of 2024 on a sad note, with the passing of Joe Flaherty veteran comic actor and comedian for decades but is probably best know for his characters on SCTV , including Big Jim McBob (of Farm Film Report fame), Count Floyd/Floyd Robertson, and station owner/manager Guy Caballero, who goes around in a wheelchair only for respect and undeserved sympathy.
It is with the Guy Caballero character that we are going to look at on the Jetsam. The canadian movie channel First Choice, brought back Guy for a series of radio spots (and maybe TV? i'm not sure) to promote it's free preview in early 1991. They were so well written that maybe Joe or the SCTV crew were involved as it really went with the rather greasy nature of Guy on SCTV to promote something TV related. It was a great match really, and we are glad to have these spots live another day, despite the timely reason.
So enjoy these great pieces of comedy as they are part of a comedic icon's body of work for those of us that are a certain age. We visited the SCTV cast on a regular basis in the world of Melonville and will continue to do so. Thanks Joe.
Just enough to get in a couple Pepper related discs tied onto previous posts....I think in 2024 I will make a list of what I have digitzed from the pepper library I have from the early 1970s. I did a quick search on the Jetsam and couldn't find these discs previously, so if I am wrong, sorry. Here are the exhibits:
Various Holiday and Occasion jingles, There are 3 Christmas on this disc, so Let's post it for Christmas. Others, well, you'rte all set for those next year.
Also there's "Tales Of Christmas" and it appears I missed this one from previous posts intentionally or unintentionally i'm not sure. The stories strangely enough seems to be rather violent, so no warm and fuzzy here. Makes you wonder if anyone used these on the air. The narrator is so casual about it, it's kind of funny. Those where the times apparently.
With Halloween this month I dug deep and came out with some rather creative creative from 1977 for Mcdonalds promoting their gift certificates (do they still have them?)
Finally a pile of Ponderosa Restaurants from 1974, which will make you want to be able to go to a restaurant for these prices again. Ahhhh, we can listen and hope can't we? Ponderosa though has always had mixed reviews for me when I was a kid. It was something my family could afford and it was a night out to eat and it wasn't really that bad. just remember the $$$ you saved right?
Another exhibit, this time we look at commericals and PSAs of a past life....I think the 1970s and 1980s called and wanted their advertising back. I decided to keep it here for everyone to remember and enjoy for nostalgia purposes.
In February 2023, Canadian TV Reporter and Broadcast Personality Helen Hutchinson passed away. She was a pioneer for women in Canadian Broadcasting. I think comparable to Barbara Walters in the US. She did everything she could, host a national TV morning show, investigate reporter, sports commentator, it seems she could do it all. More about that HERE to get an idea of the extent of her career.
What seemed to be lost to time though, is the one commerical that I know of that she lent her personality to. ABC Laundry Detergent is a brand of detergent in Canada that has been around for decades, but Helen did the first campaign for it "Can't See a Difference" in the late 1970s. I was surprised not to find the TV ad online for this really, as it was really played to death in the era and even subsequent years later as the campaign did so well. It was recycled into the late 1980s, but without Helen. One can assume at that point in her career she didn't want to hawk laundry soap, but in any event, it was so set on my brain over the years that I was gleeful when I found a original tape of the radio ad (which took the audio from the TV ad and put it on the air) destined for the tape eraser. Obviously, it made it past getting wiped and up here to present to you as a piece of canadian flotsam
Suddenly It's the 1970s, chain smoking the cancer sticks of tobacco in a high stress job is commonplace and a concern even then. We've come a long way since then, but endorsements from big time TV celeb Ed Asner who admits in this spot he had those days to come on and try to lay off the smoking for a day certainly were a reality then and who knows, maybe some people quit because of this campaign. We will never know, but let's look back 45 years to a simpler, more second hand smoking time with this exhibit.
Finally, it's the 1980s and one hot Canadian artist is Corey Hart who impacted the 80s teen culture with his hit "Sunglasses At Night" and many more in Canada and beyond throughout the 80s. Last I heard he was touring still off and on. He was a great influence to try to get kids from even starting smoking as we hear this 15 second PSA from the mid/late 80s.
In a purchase of radio station gear and tapes last year, I came across this reel on this post. Usually, commerical tapes get wiped for reused for dubs of tapes for other stations or work tapes, etc, so I didn't have a lot of hope that the original content on this reel was intact. I put it on the machine and almost jumped for joy that it actually was and in great shape. 50 years ago was a different time, and this spot certainly reflects that, in a good way. I held off posting this given it's 50th was coming up (based on the box date) but worth it to respect the 50th anniversary of a spot likely lost and forgotten over time. Let's enjoy it again shall we?
It's about timne I dropped by. Just under a year since my last post. Still it's an occasional thing now. The main project is to get the Jetsam exhibits over to our friends at archive.org for safe keeping for the end of eternity. Well, i'm hopeful for the eternity anyway. Brewster Kahle seems to be a bit eccentric rich guy, but I applaude him for preserving a lot of what wouldn't necessarily be preserved if he didn't do it. That's sort of the philosophy around here, so just glad to have a place to put my exhibits that don't disappear when the monthly hosting ends because I can't pay the bill. You know, the 6 feet under thing. The Grim Reaper won't do it for me. I've been thinking of preserving my work here somewhere, and as I use the internet archive for other things, it seems like a natural fit.
So far this date, 2010, 2011 and 2012 exhibits are all now on the internet archive, with links working accordingly. Any bad links, let me know, as tedious work as it is, I can miss a few things.
This however, is the first exhibit to go straight to the internet archive and linked here.
Based on a date label on the tape that the radio station put on the box, from September 1976 a rather lifestyle oriented leaning campaign for Miller High Life Beer. It seems to be a blue collar focus, but aren't a lot of these things? The refined gentleman sips fine wine, which the average working guy chugs down pitchers of beer as a reward for a hard working day to deal with. I get it.
This exhibit has a theme, continuing the Public Service message even after the celebrity has passed. I suppose it's a bit morbid, but the message is still valid, albeit a bit dated and fun nostalgia at the very least. Here's 3 celebrities that i'd be surprised you didn't know who they are if you are a certain age...
Frank Sinatra turned this PSA for Easter seals in 1976
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Johnny Cash about Stop Smoking for the Seventh Day Adventists (date unknown)
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Finally John Candy for the Canadian Wildlife Federation
It's time for an exhibit of Commerical Flotsam...from the 80s.
Undeniably, Max Headroom (as portrayed by Canadian actor Matt Frewer) has to be an iconic symbol of the 1980s that lasted beyond the short lived Max Headroom TV series about Network 23. The whole bad stutter and what amounts to primitive graphic of the 80s on what the future would look like makes me think of a slightly simpler time.
Does it make me think about Coke? well not really. Still, Max was HOT circa 1987, and appealing to the young and if anything is a perfect vehicle for Coke, was Max Headroom.
It was a advertising marriage made in heaven you could probably say.
These two radio spots from that year remind you when max is new, stuttering with a artificial looking computer image was cool and you just wanted to "catch the wave" of hype that was the soft drink's slogan for that era.
Funny though, just coming off the new taste of coke, drinking trhe old taste of coke, I don't remember buying into the hype myself, but I just drank the product, but Max Headroom was still fun and decades later, it still is.
Enjoy!
Coca Cola Ltd Max Headroom "Good Taste" # 87-72-30
McCann Erickson Advertising June 4th 1987
Back in 2014, we looked at Wrigley's Spearmint Gum jingles from the 1960s. the actual link to that post here HERE! Recently I found another disc from what seems to be around the same time, and a similar campaign, but here's the spots that are slightly different.
Today March 26th, marks a decade this little project I started because I collected all these tapes, and it's time to come up with something to do with them. Working in radio production for a couple of radio stations, I tended to take a few tapes home after the commericals were finished airing, before they were erased to be reused for other purposes. Stuff that caught my ears one way or another. My wife actually came up with the name, and I wrote the purpose as posted on this page. Everything came together, and over time, I've had people contact me looking for "that one spot" that they cannot find anywhere. I wish I was a miracle worker, but the reality is, I only have so many, and this is why posts have not been frequent over the last few months. This will continue, but this blog will not be considered dead in my mind. If I find something of interest, it will be posted.
For our 10th Anniversary, I have a rather incredibly nice package that is a time capsule of the mid 1960s that a friend gave me cleaning out his records. the "now sound" of the 1960s reflects in this jingle package that is more a PSA then anything else, about taking a portable radio everywhere you go a "lively companion" as it were. It was done right, top 40 artists and stars of the time, with the Johnny Mann Singers, who sang a majority of the big top 40 radio station jingles in the US and beyond of that time.
The whole package is colorful with distinctive artwork and coloring, so I have included lot of pics of the package.
With halloween tomorrow, I thought I'd go a bit creepy, because, well, nothing says talking about death then a jingle, no matter how tasteful you try to make it. At least in my mind. WKRP did the wole ferriman up tempo funeral home jingle thing back in the 70s, and well they were shooting for laughs, this set of jingles was serious business. I'd love to hear the copy someone would have come up with for these jingles...It would be interesting.
That's not to say there isn't other fun stuff here, The garden side of the disc has some bad puns in the lyrics you sort of expect. Just add a hypy over the top used car salesman type announcer and you'll have a great spot.
The image ideas disc has some very generic comments about sales that you can almost use anywhere....campy as they are.
I haven't had some 1970s US Beer spots in awhile it seems....well, if I did it recently in the last year or so, I couldn't find them on a quick google search, so here's some more. From a tape collection I bought years ago off ebay, i'm still getting some mileage out of the material in it. No doubt most, if not all these reels are jingles forgotten in time.
One thing that amazes me is how hravily compressed the audio is. It was the era I suppose, AM radio was king, and everything is produced for AM Radio. Heavily compressed meant pushing out of your speakers much like squeezing a balloon and watching it bulge in certain areas. The bulge is the loudness of the audio increased. It does sacrifice audio quality though. The quality isn't much better then a black and white TV back then. It still got the message across.
From April 1976 a Variety of Jingles for Papst Blue Ribbon Beer.
Note that cut 4 on this tape was ruined by someone recording over part of it, so with a bit of editing of the :60 jingle from cut 1, I came reasonably close to the original.
DOWNLOAD
From September 1976 (based on the side label on the box) 3 version of Miller Lite Beer.
Finally, from May 1977, this really isn't a jingle, but some great creative about beer. Seems a quick google search implies the company is still around too, or maybe it's just someone else used the name for a restaurant. In any event, there's are 2 great spots.
...for Chiquita Bananas specifically, it dates back to the 1940s. In fact, here's a you tube LINK HERE to a animated commerical run in theatres in the 40s, with Carmen Miranda doing the sing for the memorable jingle.
We, however, present a mid 1980s take on the whole jingle, singing the song in various situations which reflect the titles of the versions (as noted on the box below)
Please note, the 1st cut audio I did a ok edit on, as the tape was missing the very first part of the cut, so I took the missing part from the second cut and put it on the first to make it more complete (got it? I know it's a bit confusing!!)
Also, starting with this exhibit, I am moving the source audio to Google Drive as an experiment.
THE EMBEDDED PLAYER BELOW SHOULD WORK AND CLICKING ON THE POPOUT LINK IN THE PLAYER IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER SHOULD OPEN ANOTHER BROWSER WHICH WILL GIVE YOU A DOWNLOAD LINK IN THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THAT BROWSER!!!
If this works out, we'll eventually use it going forward and move everything over eventually. Enjoy!!!
Going through some of the tanner stuff I have, I found 2 5001 Lps.....apparently there was a "R" version of 5001, which I will assume is revision, despite the fact it has a totally different label, or maybe this is where the company decided to change the labels? Who knows.
So, 2 tanner Lps this month, which seems to have different jingles on them. Enjoy!
