Remember those snappy little tunes that you heard going into songs, coming out of songs and in between songs? Those are called jingles or to be more precise “radio jingles.” Jingles were used to create a brand or image for the station or the on air personality. Most of the time jingles were sung either with or without musical instruments. Some stations used a musical hook at the beginning of the jingle to get the listeners attention. The hook many times became the brand/image and even without the verbal part of the jingle identified the station immediately. Stations such as KSTN, KFRC, KHJ, KYNO had distinctive jingles. They were all programmed by Drake/Chenault and the listener could easily tell that they were listening to a station under that brand.
Radio jingles were recorded to cartridge machines (carts) with a unique jingle on each cart be it fast, slow, medium etc. The carts were labeled as such. Jingles were used to set the tempo of a program. Going into a fast record the DJ would use a fast jingle, going into a down tempo song a slow jingle would be used. There were also jingles to go into weather, sports and news.
Radio stations obtained their jingles by contracting with producers and studios who would create a sound and melody acceptable to the station. The studio assembled singers and musicians to record the jingles. Jingles could also be created by individuals who did in-house productions.
Here you will be treated to a collection of jingles that have been heard in this area over the years. We will add to the collection as we get additional jingles and welcome any contributions that Modesto Radio Museum fans might have.
Enjoy what we have for you so far and visit often to see what new “old” stuff we have.
Great memories!