Every hour, you hear our jingles booming out your radio. The Boom name sung in beautiful harmony so that no-one can mistake the station they are listening to, even if just catching a snatch of us playing in a corner shop.

The idea for the 'jingle' generally dates back to 1926 -  attributed to an American cereal brand called Wheaties -  advertised by a group of talented barbershop singers.  The idea then spread to memorable melodies being applied to the radio stations themselves.

The jingle industry was then born - largely based in Dallas USA - where writers and singers specialised in creating the earworms which contribute to the personality of a radio station - with each station name delivered with clarity and pride. Whilst music is an art, the crafting of radio jingles is a true specialism owing to their brevity and purpose.

Dallas was the home of many of the old radio jingles from stations you may have listened to in the '60s and '70s - including BBC Radio 1, 2 and several of the pirate stations. During the '80s, several British companies also started to perfect the art and their work was often heard on local commercial stations in the UK, with Manchester becoming the hub thanks to a company called Alfasound, driven by our own Steve England.

Since we launched, the Boom Radio jingles have been written and produced in Dallas by a company called TM Studios. A host of gifted American singers caress our familiar musical logo: Booooom - ray - dee - oh. Whilst they are generally just seconds in duration, you'll also have heard what we call The Boom Song, a one-minute epic, sung by Jeff, Greg, Jordana, Annagrey, Trenton and Bruce.

TM itself has been an established name in jingles for generations, producing identification jingles for stations around the world. Once created and used by one station in one region, they are often re-sung and used in another - from city to city, country to country. At Boom, our David Lloyd selects the ones he feels are best-suited and re-writes the lyrics before handing them over to Chris Stevens and Johnnie Hooper at TM Studios to use their gifts to bring them to beautiful reality. 

By illustration, here's one of ours - paired with another version of the same jingle recorded for a different station many miles away - in Charleston, South Carolina!

Whilst TM is responsible for the vast majority of Boom jingles, you'll hear others occasionally - for example, in Roger Day's Saturday '60s show - which you may recall from the old pirate stations such as Radio London and the early days of Radio 1. These were jingles created originally by possibly the most famous US  jingle company of all  - PAMS - recreated for Boom now by S2Blue.

And, of course, you'll hear the odd 'extra'. Our presenters have worked at so many stations over the years, they often have their own name-check jingles they've carried with them throughout their on-air careers - whether Graham Dene's old Capital Radio jingles performed by the Swingle Singers or Chris Rainbow - or Kenny Everett's creations for Nicky Horne. Listeners often say to us "hearing your jingle again reminds me of running for the bus when I was 17" - which says all there is to say about the value of the radio jingle.