Radio ID and Jingle Pioneer Tom Merriman Dies
Radio jingle pioneer Tom Merriman, co-founder of TM Productions, has died. He was 85. Merriman passed away Wednesday morning following several months of declining health. Merriman wrote and recorded the first radio jingle for KLIF-AM/Dallas, the first ever recorded in Dallas. He along with Jim Long partnered in 1967 to create TM, one of the successful commercial jingle and radio ID production companies.
The TM Companies grew to include not only to produce radio IDs and commercial jingles, but also radio programming, automated radio formats, and music libraries (TM Programming).
Merriman graduated from the University of Indiana, studied at Juilliard, and wrote and produced music for Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.
