TM
Studios as it is now known, has a long history going
back to the late 60s when partners Tom Merriman and
Jim Long started the business. Long came from radio
programming and sales and ran the operational side
of TM, while Merriman, with his experience in big
bands, wrote most of the music. Merriman and Long
had previously been associated with another Dallas
jingle house, CRC, but this new venture called TM
would be their lasting legacy in the jingle world.
Both men later went on to be associated with other
companies including Long's FirstCom. TM today is in
the capable hands of Greg Clancy, a second
generation jingle star. (His father is Jim Clancy, a
legendary bass singer.)
Muff Murfin (L) and
Tom Merriman (1990)
Merriman was known in the industry for his ability
to write music fast and well. He was familiar with
virtually every genre including classical and jazz.
Within the TM structure Merriman would soon get
involved with not only jingles but also film scores,
live corporate musical events and music for theme
parks. He could really do it all, and with great
style. Any production company would have been lucky
to have him onboard.
TM's
Jingle Writer's Blues (Sung by Otis Connor)
TM has undergone several changes in ownership and
corporate names, including a period during which it
was owned by Disney. While JAM, one of TM's
competitors in Dallas, was formed several years
later in 1974, JAM survived all those years with the
same owners (Jon and MaryLyn Wolfert) and under one
consistent corporate name (officially JAM Creative
Productions). TM changed names several times,
including a merger with Century 21 (not the real
estate company, the jingle producer in Dallas).
During that period it was known as TM Century. TM
also along the way, absorbed the assets of the
company alternately known as Pepper Sound Studios,
Pepper Tanner, William B. Tanner and Media General.
So if we were giving out a crown for the longest
lasting jingle company, it would have to go to TM,
although JAM would win for longevity under the same
corporate name and owners.
TM syndicated literally hundreds of ID jingle
packages over the last 50 years and continues to do
so today. Tom Merriman died in 2009, and one can
find his obituary
here.
Tom Merriman (2008)
He was
survived by his widow, Jackie Merriman, who had been
one of the leading jingle singers in Dallas between
the late 1950s and the early 1990s. Jackie, formerly
known as Jackie Stott and Jackie Dickson, died in
January, 2018. Tom and Jackie were jingle royalty
and their passages marked the end of a rich era in
jingle history.
TM's View: Jingles Help A Station's 'Flow' Billboard
Magazine - April 15, 1972
"It would be a real
downer to I find out that jingles were invented in
Syracuse," exclaims Jim Long, general manager of TM
Productions, one of the major jingles firms in the
business.
TM Productions president Tom Merriman is credited by
many with creating the first singing station ID's
with a theme. "Before that, jingles were really
home-brewed. But, to tell the truth, I heard a tape
once of jingles used back in the 1940's on WOLF in
Syracuse -- a guy singing the call letters and
playing on guitar. The first professional set of
jingles were done in Los Angeles by Bob Sandy and
Larry Greene for Chuck Blore, then at KFWB.
"They were called the 'Color Radio' series and were
the first with a logo. But a couple of years before
that, when Gordon McLendon had the old Liberty
Network, Tom Merriman and some local musicians did
some jingles in the Liberty studio in Dallas and
those have to be considered the first thematic
jingles."
Today, Dallas-based TM is now up to package No. 47.
Jingle packages cost anywhere from a bottom price of
$2,800 to much higher. A couple of weeks ago, Long
was in a Los Angeles recording studio working on
three custom jingles series for WXYZ, Detroit; WCFL,
Chicago; and KILT, Houston, for which the total cost
will be around $85,000.
These same jingles, however, will later go into
syndication at much-reduced rates, depending on the
size of the market; probably the prices will vary
from $2,800 to $5,000. The most popular jingles
series that TM has is "Phase II," which is now in
more than 200 markets, making it the most popular
series since PAMS' "Sonovox Series 18." "I always
tell Bill Meeks of PAMS that I bought that series
when I was programming," Long says. "It was popular
between 1962 and 1968 and sold a long time. Meeks is
now selling package No. 41…. lord, this sounds like
I'm doing a PAMS commercial!"
Jingles have many uses at a radio station, according
to Long. For one thing, a jingle, much as does a
commercial, creates a residual force in the minds of
the listener that makes them remember the station
when they're not listening. "And one of the most
severe problems facing radio -- outside of the fact
that most formats are so similar -- is that jingles
are so short now they almost sound the same," Long
says.
He points to the fact that the jingles all have
either a W or a K to start with and many of them end
high, "so that leaves only two notes with which to
establish an identity factor in the minds of the
listener. Our 'Where Your Friends Are' series was
longer and more creative.
"KDWB had a tremendous increase in ratings in the
past year with these jingles. Sure, the programming
at KDWB had a lot to do with those ratings, but when
the man with the survey diary comes around, all the
good programming in the world doesn't help if the
listener can't remember your call letters. "Also,
jingles today usually help increase the flow of the
sound of the station. The only time the station
stops is when it's into a commercial cluster. These
commercials, in effect, create a problem that a good
jingle can solve -- get the station back moving. We
built a short jingle for Buzz Bennett when he was
programming KCBQ in San Diego that shotgun people
back to music real fast out of a commercial
cluster."
Too, jingles today should "work with the format. For
example, when you consider the whole hour of a
typical broadcast hour at a radio station, none of
those elements want to blend together. For a hard
commercial, you want a propellant back to a record.
When at the end of a commercial, you need a good
jingle to get you back cooking . . . back to a
positive element.
"The a capella jingles that Bill Drake conceived
were to give the illusion that the station was all
music . . . and they did that very effectively. But
the problem, or one of them, that exists today is to
keep the station sounding up-tempo because so much
of the new music is down in tempo. Jingles can help
solve that problem."
Long, with a background in radio programming, likes
to talk to program directors and try to find out
what their aims are for their stations. Then, he and
Tom Merriman sit down and try to create jingles to
fit the program director's needs. "For a program
director, jingles are the most singular biggest
expense on his budget, as a rule."
TM Productions is a division of Starr Broadcasting,
of which William F. Buckley is chairman of the
board. TM is also involved in syndication of a
beautiful music programming service.
