William Bruce Meeks Jr. (aka William Bruce Meeks II; March 2, 1921 – September 8, 1999) was an American producer, composer and arranger of

radio jingles A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

and founder of

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 ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

; which, according to ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' in 1972, was the largest jingles firm in the world. Meeks was also a keen

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

player. In addition, he was an expert in music physics.

Biography

He was born on March 2, 1921, in

Terrell, Texas Terrell is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Kaufman County. As of the 2020 census, its population was 17,465. Terrell is located about east of Dallas. History Terrell developed as a railroad town, beginning in 1873 with the con ...

. He graduated from Dallas' Sunset High School and the

University of North Texas College of Music The University of North Texas College of Music, based in Denton, is a comprehensive music school among the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. It developed the first jazz studies ...

, and was an Army-Air Force World War 2 veteran. Bill worked in radio, both as a broadcaster and also selling advertising. He would often create jingles for some of the clients he sold time to. Eventually, he decided to devote all his time to

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

, and in 1951, he started his own company called " PAMS Advertising Agency, Inc". For several years, PAMS created commercials and sold air time for a variety of clients and very few station jingles were made. But in the mid-1950s, the radio ID side of the business took off, and previously made individual cuts were assembled into packages that were then syndicated to stations all over America. After the success of the first few PAMS jingle series, the company's focus slowly shifted to providing IDs to the ever growing number of top-40 radio stations. By the end of 1964, PAMS' primary business had become station jingles, and the name of the company was shortened to PAMS, Inc. Not all of Meeks's ideas worked and not all his ventures were financially successful, but many of them touched the lives of millions of radio listeners, even though most outside of the industry don't know his name. Bill ran PAMS for 27 years before suspending operations in 1978. PAMS jingles were later produced by Ken R. Deutsch and Ben Freedman under the CPMG/PAMS moniker. In 1990, following court hearings, the original PAMS corporation, including all its copyrights, was purchased by

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 America ...

in Dallas.

Family

William Bruce Meeks Jr. was born to William Bosse Meeks (1893–1981) and Ola Lema Nations (1892–1987). He had a brother – Charles Holten Meeks (September 7, 1922 – July 27, 1976) – born to the same marriage. William Bruce Meeks Jr. married Marjorie Ann Staggs (December 18, 1924, Abbeville, Louisiana – June 7, 2011, Dallas, Texas) on August 11, 1943, and together, they had three children: Dennis Bruce Meeks (aka Dennis Bruce Meeks, Sr.) (September 13, 1945 – November 25, 2014 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina), Anita Louise Meeks, and Jeanne Marie Meeks (April 9, 1958 – August 7, 1994, Dallas, Texas). Bill Meeks died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

on September 8, 1999.

References

External links

PAMS story

Further reading on Meeks and PAMS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meeks, William B. Jr. Jingle writers American male composers 1999 deaths 1921 births American radio producers 20th-century American composers People from Terrell, Texas 20th-century American male musicians