Radio – Page 2 – Dirty Feed

Jon Wolfert on Rewound Radio

Published 26th August 2018

Short version: you should all be listening to Jon Wolfert’s live Rewound Radio show (Sundays, 3pm ET, 8pm BST), full of great 60s/70s music, and loads of talk about radio and advertising jingles.

Long version: why would you want to do this?

Well, I’ve talked before about some of the reasons I love jingles, but hey – I’m just a fan. Jon Wolfert is president of JAM Creative Productions, who have made some of the finest jingles ever made… and also just happens to be the biggest jingle fan in the world. There is literally nobody else in the world who knows more about jingles than Jon. And listening to people talking about stuff they know and love is one of my favourite things in the world.

And he can bring the history of jingles to life in a way I’ve never heard anyone else do. Here’s one of my favourite examples from recent weeks – an eight minute segment from his show, on the topic of 1960s soul jingles:

[mejsaudio src=”https://dirtyfeed.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/rewound-souljingles.mp3″ volume=”false”]

Download “Rewound Radio (12/08/18) – Soul Jingles” (8MB MP3, 8:32)

Jon takes what could have been a difficult subject, and brings out a fascinating tale of not only music, not only radio, but of history, and people. Every jingle has a tale behind it, and nobody can tell those tales better than Jon Wolfert.

Rewound Radio, Sundays, 3pm ET, 8pm BST. Three hours of jingle fun, and loads of great music too. You can’t go wrong.

Here ends your public service announcement.

Radio 1 Vintage: The Methadone Weekend

Published 8th October 2017

Jingles / Radio

A week on from Radio 1 Vintage – the BBC’s joyous three-day celebration of 50 years of Radio 1 – my brain is still buzzing. Much like 2011’s Radio 1’s Longest Show Ever, or 2014’s Phillip’s Live 24 Hour TV Marathon, I felt like this was something which was made just for me.¹ My diseased brain often ponders the production values of old episodes of the The Radio 1 Chart Show: here was Radio 1 Vintage doing the same thing. My little obsessions were acknowledged… if only for a little while.

The sheer amount of stuff the station pumped out over those three days – 54 hours, across 53 separate programmes – is a treasure trove of material which deserves time to sit, ponder and reflect on. Though one thing is for sure: as delightful as Radio 1 Vintage was, it’s almost more delightful to see how happy it made people – people way beyond the usual radio anorak crowd. I love imagining brain synapses firing off across the UK, when a jingle someone hasn’t heard for 30 years comes blaring out the radio.

Ah yes, those jingles. Sure, they were far from the only great thing about Radio 1 Vintage, but they were a huge part of the fun. And if you loved those jingles, you might love this. Back in 2015, I linked to “The Jingles I Grew Up With” by my great mate Duncan Newmarch, celebrating his radio experiences across the years. For 2017, and in celebration of Radio 1’s 50th anniversary, he’s re-edited it to include loads of Radio 1 and Radio 2 stuff he missed the first time round.

So if you’re suffering from Radio 1 Vintage withdrawal symptoms, this might be just what you’re looking for. (If you get to the end of it, you might hear something fun to do with Dirty Feed too. But the real meat is those glorious Radio 1 and Radio 2 jingles.)

[Read more →]

Hopefully in 2020, I’ll get Chris Moyles dangling his bollocks in my mouth while singing a selection of Swansea Sound jingles. ↩

Get Ready for Jim

Published 29th June 2017

Music / Radio

Picture the scene. It’s the early 90s, and a tech op working for a commercial radio station (who shall remain nameless) has the joy of playing out Savile’s Travels to the eager listeners at home. Come out of the news, play a jingle, start the tape, listen to the output, and insert the local ads every so often. Job done.

Unfortunately, this means that this poor guy had to listen to hours upon hours of Jimmy Savile. And it didn’t take him long to realise a lot of the stuff a certain Mr. Savile said was… something fairly akin to gibberish. So when a new digital sampler arrived at the station, he decided to relieve his boredom and have some fun. The result is the most entertaining Jimmy Savile ever was in his entire career. Over 25 years later, perhaps this piece of audio only intended to internal hijinks deserves a wider audience.

Be warned, though. This does actually contain an awful lot of Jimmy Savile.

You may think the above was compiled from many different episodes of Savile’s Travels. I should leave you with one final fact, then: I’m afraid all the samples used come from a single episode of the programme.

Big ones.

WJSV Complete Broadcast Day: 75 Years On

Published 21st September 2014

Radio

On the 21st September 1939, radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. did something amazing: they recorded their entire day of output. From sign-on at 6am, to sign-off at 1am. Today is 75 years to the day since that recording was made; which means it seems an ideal time to inform you – or merely remind you – that the entire day is available to listen to online.¹

Many others have written about the background to this remarkable recording – this piece on RadioArchives.com and this piece from the Library of Congress will tell you all you need to know. As the only complete day which has survived from what some call the Golden Age of Radio, its importance is only beaten by the sheer visceral impact of listening to the recording. This is no dry, worthy exercise – actually hearing the material is the closest you’ll get to travelling back to the United States in 1939. A horrendous cliche perhaps, but one I honestly believe is true.

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There are many versions of the day dotted around the internet, but that link is by far the best quality version I have found. ↩

“This is 5NG calling…”

Published 15th November 2012

Life / Radio

I had a strange telephone call from my mother yesterday. She woke up that morning, bleary-eyed, to hear a rather strange voice over the radio – me, when I was nine…

Sure enough, BBC Radio Nottingham in its BBC at 90 celebrations had a lovely little report on Andy Whittaker’s breakfast show about the history of the station – and they used an extract from my latest podcast for an aircheck of wonderful local broadcaster Dennis McCarthy.

You can hear it 22 minutes into Andy’s show, or take a listen below; it’s a lovely little piece of radio.

[mejsaudio src=”https://dirtyfeed.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/bbcnottingham90.mp3″]

Download “This is 5NG calling…” (8MB MP3, 3:59)

Thanks to reporter Kevin Stanley (and Paul Robey, who was credited in a repeat later in the day for the archive clips). I’m proud – in whatever small way – of being part of Radio Nottingham’s celebrations.

Got a tear in my eye. Must go.

Dirty Feed Podcast #3: Junior Jackpot

Published 9th September 2012

Podcast / Radio

Dennis McCarthy

Forgive me, ladies and gentlemen, for the months long absence of this podcast. Join me now, as we travel back through the mists of time to BBC Radio Nottingham in the early 90s, and meet fantastic local broadcaster Dennis McCarthy. Oh yes, and me when I was 9.

[mejsaudio src=”https://www.dirtyfeed.org/downloads/podcast/dirtyfeed-3r.mp3″]

Download Podcast #3: Junior Jackpot (27MB MP3, 13:53)
(Subscribe using RSS / iTunes)

What a swotty little prick.

What I’m really thinking: the radio listener

Published 3rd June 2012

Radio

Via the excellent @BobDinan, here’s a depressing article – What I’m really thinking: the radio presenter. It takes some feat to contradict yourself so splendidly using only four paragraphs, but somehow this piece manages it.

“Listeners have told me they’re pregnant before they’ve told their boyfriends. They’ve just had nobody else to go to. This job has made me realise there are a lot of lonely people in the world. I know they think I’m their friend.”

Radio as friend. Got you. Makes sense. I mean, I’d quibble with how it’s phrased, and it seems to pity an audience of which the vast majority doesn’t need pitying – but whatever.

“This is the only job I’ve done and I’m amazed we still have an audience. With a smartphone you can listen to whatever song you want, whenever you want. You don’t have to tune in on the off chance I’ll play something you like. Within a generation I think there will be no such thing as a radio presenter. Which is why, when people ask me how to get into radio, I think – don’t.”

…hang on. You started the piece by pointing out how radio can connect with an audience – using the human voice, in a way that an iPod can’t. Have you completely forgotten what you’ve just written?

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Bob’s Question

Published 15th February 2012

Radio

Over a year and a half after I read this article on radio, I keep coming back to it:

“Q: Why should I listen to your radio station?

After all, I have an iPod with more than 10,000 tunes that collectively form the soundtrack of my life. I have more music on my computer. I can listen to endless computer-generated combinations – better mix, better variety – that can surprise me and amuse me between now and whenever I lose my interest, my sanity, my life. My iPod can do all that; my computer can do it too.

So why should I listen to your radio station?

After all, I can listen to online stations that programme the music I like (70s retro … electronica … ambient), and many of these play without interruption, without call-letters, without commercials, without an intervening human presence.

So why should I listen to our radio station in this brave new world of choice and lifestyle-customisation and narrowcasting?

And yet listen I do. I need radio.”

Give the whole thing a read. It sums up most of my thoughts about what radio should be doing… and why so many stations leave me cold.