R.I.P.: Radio's Jingle Guy Ben Freedman Was 64

We are saddened to report that Ben Freedman, owner of the oldest continuously operated radio ID jingle company, died Friday in Plano, TX.

He was 64.

Freedman was recovering from an October heart attack when he died.  He was also forced to cope with injuries sustained in a car accident a few years ago.

Freedman established WAY Productions and started producing jingles when he was just 14-years-old in his hometown of Buffalo, NY.

Ben had formed an admiration for the truly great jingle companies PAMS, Pepper and CRC, while serving as a "go-for" at WKBW 1520 AM with the famous jocks including Joey Reynolds, Dan Neaverth, Rod Roddy, Jay Nelson, Jeff Kaye, Stan Roberts and others

In 1966, he landed his first air shift at Gordon McLendon’s WYSL FM in Buffalo under direct supervision of the Old Scotsman himself.

He first visited Texas in the late 70s and formed a new marketing association with several other audio producers including International Programming Services in Los Angeles, Tommy Calandra Productions in Buffalo, House Q Studios in Buffalo and ATB Productions in London. The new association is called Creative Productions Marketing Group or CPMG Incorporated for short.

The 70s

Late in 1980,  CPMG, Ken R. Music of Toledo and Toby Arnold formed a loose association to individually market Ben and Ken’s resings of the classic PAMS tracks.

In 1988, he returned to Dallas and for eights year marketed all of the old and newly created PAMS materials to over 500 stations including WCBS FM. He eventually became Vice President of jingle sales for the "new and upcoming" Century 21 Programming, Inc.

In 1995, Ben went into business for himself.

At the time of his death, Ben was planning a recording session for next month.

Tom’s Take:  Ben was a unique personality and truly talented. He made radio better. He was a friend and will be dearly missed.