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 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.
