My Ken R. CD Collection: Photo 5/11

My Ken R. CD Collection: Photo 5/11

Image by raider3_anime
Since I was on the subject of posting up my music playlists (computer, ipod, etc.), and eventually my physical music collection (CD, LPs (still no turntable ^_^;)), I've decided to start with something related, and that has been near and dear to me.

I'm in the mood to share, and this is part of what makes me who I am.

About a decade ago, I got into the hobby of collecting radio jingles. (Those bits of presentation and production that air in between the songs, that define a radio station's identity and format, and that graced the airwaves, with the "Golden Age" most likely being around the 1950s through the 1970s.)

I got into collecting radio jingles more or less by accident, remembering the mainstream radio I listened to while growing up in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. (Yes, I'm older than I look. My cut-off point is around 1996/1997, when KOME-FM 98.5 in San Jose, CA faded out of existence. ^_^;)

I came across an online museum dedicated to archiving radio station airchecks from the latter half of the 20th century - Reelradio.com (I need to resubscribe someday.), and I'd spend my time not web surfing, chatting, or playing games, listening to radio that existed before I was born, or that was popular in other areas of the USA when I was young. Occasionally, I'd catch airchecks of Dr. Don Rose on KFRC-AM in San Francisco (I grew up listening to him ^_^;), among other radio legends.

In the early 2000s, I started collecting radio jingles and related CDs, thanks to a man named Ken R. Deutsch from Ohio, who ran his own jingle sales and production company from 1977 to 2005, catering to professional disc jockeys as well as classic jingle collectors.

I'll share the few CDs I acquired from 2000 to 2005 with you here.

These two discs are important, as an interest to me, related to some of the last wave of programming on NBC's radio network from the mid 1950s to 1975.

1955 brought about a radical rethink in NBC's radio programming, thanks to Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, president of NBC at the time. (He was Sigourney's daddy! ^_^;)

The "NBC Monitor" radio was a magazine-style program, designed to help radio compete and retain market share, as television was emerging and eroding their audience. The prorgram offered a mix of news, sports, comedy, variety, music, celebrity interviews, and other short segments.

"NBC Monitor" ran initially as a weekend program, airing 40 hours consecutively from early Saturday to Sunday evening.

As time went on, hosts changed, hours were scaled back, and programming simplified, as regional NBC radio affiliate stations concentrated on developing their own formats and identities separate from the network.

NBC kept the show going through the early 1970s, introducing some major changes (Including hiring Don Imus, Wolfman Jack, and KHJ's Robert W. Morgan as hosts for a brief period of time), before the Monitor Beacon (and the program itself) faded out for good at the end of January 1975, barely making 20 years on the air.

NBC Monitor gave way for the launch of NBC News and Information Service (NIS) in mid-1975, with the intent to launch a national network for all-news radio stations. Failure to expand the service beyond smaller market stations, among other issues plaging the service, led to the demise of NIS nearly two years after its inception.

The NIS package has a rather broad and consistent series of programming themes and formatic elements.