Dick Ellingson: Lost Jingles

I don’t remember ever in my life hearing a jingle on KIRO-AM.

This 1970’s PAMS jingle is from RadioWest.ca ‹ Jingle(s) / ID of the day.

Dick

Author: Dick Ellingson

A man and his dogs in a little country town. Parcel post crusher; blood'n'guts laundry serf; parking lot fender bender/bumper jumper; Lazy B flunkie with 7-word job title; P-I down crew; bobtail trucker; Sunbeam breader; retail store mangler; bothersome boiler roomie; fake real estate agent; d.j./copywriter/p.d./ripper/reader - 600 KGEZ Good Advertising, Kalispell; Community Radio 1510 KURB, Mountlake Terrace; 1540 News/MOR/92.5 Solid Gold Rock & Roll KFKF, Bellevue; 1150 Kountry KAYO America's Own Music, Seattle; 1300 KoMPaSs Radio 13 Modern Country, Seattle; 1360 KLFF Good Music & Great Memories, Glendale/Phoenix; 106.3 Koncert 106 KONC, Sun City/Phoenix; 1580 KCWW Real Country Network, Tempe/Phoenix. Four-year Volunteer P-I/Times/TNT news reader for Evergreen Radio Reading Service broadcasting from the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library, Seattle; dotcomboom day trader who came out alive; King County Metro Bus Driver; Seattle Streetcar Operator. I threw it in at 78 and frequently have bizarre dreams about radio and bus driving, my two preschool dream jobs. More articles by Dick

10 thoughts on “Dick Ellingson: Lost Jingles

  1. At the time, in connection with these jingles, KIRO had a full and very creative compilation of unique tunes with fun lyrics that it played often on air. It was called the “Northwest Suite” and it all focused on how special our region is. It was released by KIRO as an album that I had for many years.

          1. The jingles in the original post use the call letters. The Northwest Suite was a promotional album that KIRO released at the same time as the jingle package: https://www.discogs.com/release/8877482-Bob-Zwirn-John-Strachan-The-Northwest-Suite

            The Strachan Co., a Seattle ad agency, commissioned them and PAMS in Dallas recorded them.

            KIRO took out full-page newspaper ads with Lloyd Cooney gushing about the Radio Northwest format, calling out all the staff one-by-one and the jingle package that “literally rings with sounds of mountains, seas, and cities.”

            It seems that the whole thing was sort of a last-ditch effort to gain some traction against KVI and KOMO and they finally threw in the towel a year later.

            1. Thanks for clarifying the difference between the jingles and the Northwest Suite. I’m thinking a better promotional item might have been KIRO baseball caps and t-shirts.

  2. Wish they had actual air checks of what the DJ’s were playing at that time. My parents listened to KIRO back then.

  3. The KIRO radio northwest “jingles” were from 1972-73.

    I worked weekends just before the change to NBC on the hour and Mutual half hour news and to the KIRO Newsradio 7 format. The package was local, Stratcham and Storm Barn door Company recording. I am not recalling it correctly. There was also an LP KIRO gave to agencies and advertisers of long form version of the jingles / songs that occassionally played on air. I thought they were clever. In October ’73 I moved over to KIRO-FM and cleaned up the automation and format control of the Bonneville beautiful music format. I lost the LP and my copy of the jingle tape has turned to a sticky mess and is not recoverable.

    Prior, Anita Kerr had a package on KIRO and I liked those as well. “Once in a century, there’s 71, KIRO Radio Seattle. Kerr did like packages for KSL and other stations like KBRT Avalon, LA.

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