I visited west sound in 1986 and had a tour of their studio. The photos I took are very interesting. I wrote to them recently but they didnt want the photos so I passed them to Andy Walmsley who runs an online radio history site. You can see them on his site (search for west sound) here along with my collection of Autographed photos of West Sound Presenters
Here is a jingle montage I found on Soundcloud, the best ones are about half way through. They had a really weird theme called mystical waters which was recorded by a group of kids singing “lalala” in North Ayrhsire, the opening jingle is the music only version the other one on this demo is with the kids. They used it to close the station at 8pm every night. It was recorded at one of our Local schools in the Garnock valley. Their first kids show on Saturday mornings was with Dippy the Dolphin, John MacAuley and Fiona MacDonald. (was it Fiona?)
I do like the idea that voiceover artists and jingle singers like me are now very cynical and bitter hearing their voices 20 years later after being paid pennies (in cash) for a days work.
Im really happy that the days of sarcasm in Broadcasting have gone. Lou Grant and the older people had that stereotypical Scottish dour way, lacking warmth. Liz Kristiansen, the STV presenter was the same, bordering on sarcasm while introducing shows. I think it came from our Presbyterian roots and shaped us for many years. Weirdly though, the people were actually very warm and friendly, it was like they were trained to be unhappy. Perhaps they were just reflecting our culture of the tme.
Kilbirnie & Beyond 