#1 Jingle?

[Shadoe Fan]

I was listening to AT40 3/31/90, and Shadoe plays an April Fool's joke at the start of hour 3 by playing a jingle for #1. It sounded like the jingles from the late 80s Casey era.

Was a #1 jingle ever played during the 80s? I always thought it was just the drum roll played as Casey introduced it.

[Radioman]

Eventually the N°1 intro Shadoe Stevens started to use in 1989 was more like a "Jingle" than a drum roll, even it wasn't really a Jingle.
I can remember it sounded strange to me for a very long time after all those years with N° 1 drum rolls before.

[BROWNJB1]

I'm right there with you Radioman. When Shadoe started played that #1 jingle back in 1989, it sounded weird, in fact, it took me months to figure, however, I actually started to like it. In fact. it had its own unique sound, and once that jingle was played, that particular song had made it to the promise land. I haven't heard that jingle in years, and I hope to hear it again, as I plan to add some Shadoe Stevens shows to my collection.

[Radioman]

It seems - back in 1989 - even the staff themselves had some problems with using the new N°1 jingle. You may remember there were several weeks when they didn't use that jingle and played the Top song right out of the story.
When the superslow ballad from Richard Marx was N°1 for a couple of weeks, they had no jingle for the Top Spot.

[Scott Lakefield]

This whole thread about the Shadoe-era #1 "jingle" to me really points up the fact that there was a key problem production-wise in the Shadoe era of AT40...too much emphasis on production elements (jingles, sound effects, etc.) and not enough on other hallmarks such as stories, countdowns, and music.

Interestingly, at the time these shows originally aired, I *LIKED* this fact, and wished they'd do more of it on "Casey's Top 40." Of course, with CT40, the engineers liked to use the same jingles over and over again. I listened to a CT40 show from May 1994 this weekend, and they used the same jingle to start every segment of the entire show! I guess this is just a case of too much in the other direction!

[BrettVW]

Now that I am both studying and working in radio, I have learned that good production is key, yet difficult - and it all depends on the situation. Bad production can make an otherwise good station or program sound bad, and excellent production can, at least temporarily, spice up a not-so-good station or program.

Plus, production varies so much. Imagine Seacrest or Dees style jingles on Casey's shows. It would make the show sound goofy. On the flip-side, imagine a simple Casey style jingle going into a Seacrest or Dees segment....it wouldn't sound right either.

Casey's shows have always had jingles that I feel worked well with the show. And they have been changed over time. Obviously, the 70's and 80's sounding jingles wouldn't sound 'proper' on a non-flashback show in 2006. Even now, the Hot AC & AC jingles are different, and both fit the respective shows well. Even when both shows were AT20, they had seperate jingle packages to fit the format. And the final Casey-AT40 Premiere jingles (still my favorite) fit that format and show well, yet would have sounded out of place on the Hot AC or AC shows (moreso the AC shows).

One thing is that Casey has never had to rely on fancy production work for his shows. He doesn't need to, it's not his style. His shows would sound weird with anything else. The only thing I would change if I were doing production for the show would be returning the bed music under Casey's voice during his teases before commercial breaks. They brought the feature back for a few weeks in October-ish 2004, as well as one of the first shows of 2005 (at least on AT20) and I really enjoyed the way it sounded. Not every tease, mind you...maybe once or twice a show.

Oh yeah, and perhaps get some new AT20 jingles. Nothing wrong with the ones now, they are just 8 years old.

[Shadoe Fan]

I've uploaded the fake #1 jingle from the April Fool's show. You can find it on the page with my Shadoe promos:

calbean.users3.50megs.com/at40/promotest.html

As for Shadoe's regular #1 intro sound effect, I enjoy it. It fits Shadoe's style of the show. I think at the beginning of Shadoe's run the effects and such didn't outdo the main content, but by the end the show had been gutted of most of its interesting content. Thus it appeared overdone with effects because that and bland artist actualities were all that was left, IMHO.

[BROWNJB1]

I would like to hear the real No.1 jingle of the Shadoe Stevens era.

[Scott Lakefield]

at20fantoo said:

I think at the beginning of Shadoe's run the effects and such didn't outdo the main content, but by the end the show had been gutted of most of its interesting content. Thus it appeared overdone with effects because that and bland artist actualities were all that was left, IMHO.

You just hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head!

[Radioman]

brettvw said:

Imagine Seacrest or Dees style jingles on Casey's shows. It would make the show sound goofy. On the flip-side, imagine a simple Casey style jingle going into a Seacrest or Dees segment....it wouldn't sound right either.

One thing is that Casey has never had to rely on fancy production work for his shows. He doesn't need to, it's not his style. His shows would sound weird with anything else. The only thing I would change if I were doing production for the show would be returning the bed music under Casey's voice during his teases before commercial breaks. They brought the feature back for a few weeks in October-ish 2004, as well as one of the first shows of 2005 (at least on AT20) and I really enjoyed the way it sounded. Not every tease, mind you...maybe once or twice a show.

Oh yeah, and perhaps get some new AT20 jingles. Nothing wrong with the ones now, they are just 8 years old.

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