Media Preservation Foundation is a United States

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

dedicated to the archival of media history mainly aimed towards

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

identification and associated items. It was established in 1994 by Tracy E. Carman and Donald Worsham as an archive for documents and important recordings related to the broadcasting industry. The Foundation has managed to acquire a large collection of items from both current and defunct producers including

TM Studios Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such a ...

PAMS PAMS Productions, Inc. (an acronym for Production, Advertising and Merchandising Service), based in Dallas, Texas, was one of the most famous jingle production companies in American broadcasting. It produced identification packages for radio stat ...

JAM Creative Productions JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of American ...

, Johnson & Siday, Futuresonic, FairWest, Wm Meeks Productions,

Johnny Mann John Russell Mann (August 30, 1928June 18, 2014) was an American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, singer, and recording artist. Career Johnny Mann's began his music career in the late 1940s in his hometown of Baltimore before serving ...

, Music Makers, Pepper/Tanner,

Media General Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...

, Jodie Lyons (a/k/a Joseph Callaway Lyons - b.1/3/1930 Jacksonville, FL - d.1/10/2011 Georgetown TX), Tom Merriman, Tony Griffin Productions, Thompson Creative Productions and many others. It is the Foundation's goal to acquire as much of these materials as possible to facilitate the availability of these items for research and other purposes. Media Preservation Foundation has also been known for providing materials back to media outlets, primarily radio stations, who are in the process of creating historic retrospectives of their history. Media Preservation Foundation aids those companies in the media that were not good at keeping copies of their own histories and materials. In addition to ID Jingles, the foundation has a large collection of archives for

Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

's WTIC Radio in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

;

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

's WHYN Radio in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

and many others. The Foundation has also acquired materials from private collectors including the archives of the late Francis Holler, Jr. (a/k/a Frank Holler - d.10/15/2015 Newington CT) in December 2015. Multiple warehouses containing thousands of reels, DATs CDs, Cassettes and even transcription disks is maintained by the Foundation in Indian Orchard, Springfield, Massachusetts. Some Foundation archives are also housed in

Northridge, California Northridge is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The community is home to California State University, Northridge, and the Northridge Fashion Center. Originally named Zelzah by settlers in 1908, the comm ...

. Types of jingles preserved by the foundation also include

Emergency Broadcast System The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Broadcasting System or the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an emergency warning system used in the United States. It replaced the previous CONELRAD system an ...

jingles. Media Preservation Foundation has published a definitive history book on ID Jingles called, The Hits Between The Hits: The History Of Radio ID Jingles. It is authored by former foundation director Donald Worsham.

History

In 2000, Media Preservation Foundation established a fund for another non-profit organization,

REELRADIO The Reel Top 40 Radio Repository, sometimes called REELRADIO, is a virtual museum of radio broadcasts, primarily airchecks from the "Top 40" era of radio in North America. The archives are available by streaming. Established in 1996 as the first ...

, while REELRADIO was in the process of obtaining its tax-exempt status.REELRADIO - Media Preservation Foundation Collection
/ref> Although separate organizations, they share similar purposes. On June 1, 2011, some of the Foundation's archives were damaged during the 2011 New England tornado outbreak

In late 2013, they moved their storage facilities out of Springfield, Mass., to Indian Orchard Mills in Indian Orchard, Springfield, Mass., which is actually a part of the city of Springfield. Beginning in November of 2017, WIOM-LP, broadcasting on 101.7 FM in Springfield, is a broadcast service of Media Preservation Foundation. WIOM runs an

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format targeting the neighborhood of Indian Orchard.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website

Alternate Link
501(c)(3) organizations Music organizations based in the United States History of mass media History of broadcasting Jingle companies Sound archives in the United States History of radio 1994 establishments in the United States Organizations established in 1994 Archives in the United States