"The Sound of JAM is everywhere you go..."

1985 was a very busy year for JAM. There were several CHR and A-C formatted stations competing in almost every city, and JAM did the jingles for most of them. Countdown shows abounded, and you could hear JAM on one after another. To take a "snapshot in time" of that moment, we wrote and recorded The JAM Song.

In order to create as accurate a time capsule as possible, each station's logo melody was correct (as of the day we recorded it) and each station's call letters were sung by the same combination of singers who sang their most recent JAM package. This required lots of research and many different recording sessions which spanned about three weeks.

JAM Song cover

We originally pressed The JAM Song onto a 7" record at 33 1/3 rpm, and mailed it out as a promotional item in September 1985. The back of the record jacket contained the song lyrics and credits, and identified the location of each station mentioned. In 1994 we digitally re-mastered The JAM Song from the original 30 ips master tape and released it on our 20th anniversary commemorative CD, "The First 20 Years". That release is now available here in mp3 format.

The JAM Song takes a whimsical look at what we do, and predicts a time when you'll hear JAM jingles coming from other galaxies. There's even a brief aircheck of an intergalatic station whose legal ID is "Zorp Furble, Andromeda". It shows that despite language differences, radio and jingles are truly universal.

Many formats and call letters have changed since 1985, but it's still fun to look back. We hope you enjoy "The JAM Song".


Extreme trivia:

The lyrics for "The JAM Song" were written by JAM founder Jonathan Wolfert, who was also responsible for the concept and final mix. The music was written and arranged by Bruce Upchurch, who was a JAM staff writer and vocalist at the time. You can read other credits and the lyrics on the back of the record jacket.

Over the years most people have assumed that Zorp Furble is the name of the the alien DJ at the end of the piece. But it was actually meant to be the name of the alien radio station; hence the legal ID jingle "Zorp Furble, Andromeda". You'll also hear the station run a "say it and win" phone-in contest with a female listener giving the correct answer ("Zorp Furble", of course). The voice of the DJ speaking Andromedese is Dallas copywriter Steve White; the contest winner is his wife Kathy.

The back of our JAM company letterhead is blue, with some wavy musical notes in white. The music is not just a random graphic design. It's the the 7-voice vocal arrangement to the pretty middle section of "The JAM Song", which ends with the phrase "the sound of JAM is everywhere you go."

In 2002, the 60s channel of XM Satellite Radio actually used the beginning and end of The JAM Song in a series of promos. So 17 years after it was recorded, the prophecy came true (almost)... you really could hear JAM jingles, and Zorp Furble, coming from space! The source is not exactly another galaxy, but it's only a matter of time.