Jim Long (born Timothy John Moynihan; February 7, 1943 – May 30, 2022) was an American entrepreneur, who worked in the broadcast music industry.“Jim Long, the man responsible for launching jingledom into its current phase.” Patoski, Joe Nick. “Texas Monthly” Business, “Cathy Coup, Jingle Writing is a Special art; it’s also a Big Business”. 1972 (pg 152)“Just about anything you hear on a radio – except the news, the time and the temperature – could have first been a product of Jim Long’s imagination.” Fulton, Dennis, “Creative Factory Tune in to Turn Stations Around”, Wi/photos, Dallas Morning News, Business Section, Radio. November 25, 1979 (pg 1, 2H)Clive Calder says “We’re excited about our acquisition of FirstCom and our association with Jim Long. His proven team of executives has a first class reputation for creativity and innovative products and services for the radio industry, as well as film and other growing audio visual markets.” Carnegie, Jim. “Zomba Takes Long Step Into Radio, European Music Firm Buys Production Supplier First Com”. “Radio & Records”, Issue No 842, June 1, 1990 (pg 2, 27)“While some of the most important people in the Dallas jingle scene were writers and musicians, Jim Long was successful and gained respect as a top manager and strategist. He saw trends before others and never let his personal tastes interfere with who he knew would work in the marketplace.” Deutsch, Ken R. LLC, “The Second Jingle Book.”, Maumee, Ohio, www.kenr.com ©2004, (pg 184)Don Worsham refers to Jim Long as “TM had radio guru, Jim Long” (pg 213); He states that “TM perceived as the dominant producer in the ID market place” (pg 250); and that “large presence” of FirstCom in LA as a “major source in the production library music industry . . with Zomba as a 50% ownership (pg 266); Worsham, Don. “The Hits Between the Hits, the History of Radio ID Jingles”, Media Preservation Foundation Press, Longmeadow, MA ©1996 & 2004

Experienced in the development of intellectual properties, his business holdings focused on music production, master recordings, music publishing, and broadcast licensing and syndication for the radio, television and film industries. He founded/co-founded numerous broadcast and radio syndication companies, including Dallas-based TM Productions/Starr Broadcasting, FirstCom/Jim Long Music, Long-Pride Broadcasting, and a Nashville-based music and publishing group, OneMusic. At various times, he also held ownership interest in 19 radio and TV stations throughout the U.S. His record label, Honest Entertainment, produced Grammy-nominated albums.

Biography

Early years Long (who took his maternal grandfather's name when he began his career as a radio announcer) was the only child of John Francis Moynihan and Marion Long Moynihan, whose families came to New England from County Kerry and Mallow, County Cork, Ireland in the 1800s. Always in some form of law enforcement, Long's father retired as a United States Air Force major (provost marshal in Germany) and corrections officer for the State of Massachusetts. His mother was a registered nurse and homemaker.

Fascinated by radio since childhood, Long built his first vacuum tube radio transmitter at the age of 13 and started his own radio station in his basement in Marlborough, Massachusetts. It was a successful enterprise until the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) showed up to confiscate his transmitter. It was interfering with a local radio station's signal. (Long later went to work for the station, WMRC, Milford, Massachusetts). At 15, he produced his first record, "Liza Lee" by Roger and The Markees, and started his own record company, Dell Mont Recording, to release it (also in his basement, using his savings and a $200 loan from his mother). This gave him his first taste of artist promotion, record production, and distribution, especially “returns”. After high school, Long worked at Walgreens Drug Stores, while taking courses in broadcasting, to fulfill his goal of becoming a D.J./radio announcer.

He joined the United States Navy and was stationed at Anacostia Naval Base in Washington, D.C., where he served in the elite U. S. Navy Ceremonial Guard, with duty at Arlington National Cemetery. Honorably discharged, he returned to civilian life to pursue a career in broadcasting, where he put his talents as a writer and producer to work.

Long died on May 30, 2022, at the age of 79.

Notable firsts

Jim Long was the first to:

Introduce the use of CDs in the U.S. as format for music production libraries;(Deutsch), Ken R. LLC, The Jingle Book, the Authoritative Guide to the History, Development and Creation of Radio Jingles. www.kenr.com, ©2002. (pg 184) Introduce and market comprehensive multi-media image campaigns for radio stations, complete with station IDs, print and broadcast advertising, promotional materials, and market research programs. Such as, “Someplace Special”, “Rhythm of the City”, the “You” campaign;Thank you letter from Paul Drew, Red Carpet Productions, July 11, 1979 re “Rhythm of the City/Summer” Create a major special for album oriented rock station programming, “Album Greats”, a 48-hour history of album rock.;Rick McKee, KRKE, Albuquerque, NM “Our FM doubled its audience share with The Evolution of Rock”, Broadcasting, October 9, 1978Bob Taylor, GM, WSTW, Wilmington, DE “We went from dead last to #1 overall in less than a year with TM Stereo Rock.” Broadcasting, October 22, 1979 Successfully automate rock programming;“Starr Broadcasting Annual Report” (1977) reports that “The TM Companies is the largest, most successful broadcast services organization in the world”; that “TM Productions is the innovator in original music for radio and television, in sales support material for broadcast commercials, and in music and sound effects libraries.”; and that “TM Programming is the leading syndicator of automated music formats.” Introduce a cappella and shotgun vocal formats for station IDs;Beau Weaver, RKO Radio, KHJ, Los Angeles, November 3, 1975, “When you did the SYNERGY package for KILT, I was fascinated….It was struck me as the first really different idea I’d heard since you….chopped the stinger off the Phase II cut, giving birth to the SHOTGUN INDUSTRY.” Introduce commercial services and music production libraries for radio stations to sell their local advertisers.;These award winning campaigns, which could be customized for use in non-competing markets included The Producer and MasterPlan. Introduce station ID image songs – station identification jingles of more than :60 seconds that sounded like the hits songs that the stations played, in 1972–1973. Later known in the industry as the “mini-song” station ID – a widely imitated concept; and Introduce the “Turn on the Light” radio format in Washington, D.C.

Radio career Beginning in 1961, Long worked as an announcer, producer and program manager at radio stations in Keene (WKBK), Dover (WTSN) and Manchester (WFEA), NH; Westfield (WDEW) and Southbridge (WESO), Massachusetts; Waterbury, Connecticut (WWCO); Springfield, Vermont (WCFR); Bangor, Maine (WGUY); Messina (WSTS), Malone (WICY), Utica (WRUN) and Syracuse (WOLF) New York; Orlando, Florida (WKIS); and Indianapolis (WIBC), Indiana.

In early 1967, after a year as Program Director of WIBC/Indianapolis, the 24-year-old Long was given the opportunity to move to Texas by composer Tom Merriman who was working at Dallas-based Commercial Recording Corporation (CRC). Within six months, he and Merriman would launch TM Productions, Inc."Before partnering with Jim Long in 1967 to create one of the nation’s most influential commercial jingle and radio ID production companies, TM Productions, Tom Merriman was a staff writer for various production houses, an independent producer, the owner of CRC (Commercial Recording Corporation), where he wrote and recorded a custom jingle for the Dallas Morning News: “Start the day with the world on your doorstep, with the Dallas Morning News”." www.tommerrimantribute.com (Deutsch), Ken R. LLC, The Jingle Book, the Authoritative Guide to the History, Development and Creation of Radio Jingles. www.kenr.com, ©2002. Ref to Jim Long founding TM with Tom Merriman, “Interview with a Legend: Tom Merriman “ (pg 40, 42), Tom’s quote, “... I have to give Jim a lot of credit.... He was the business side of the thing, and in many ways the creative side, too.” (pg 43); Brian Beck explaining that name, TM, referred not just to Tom Merriman, but to Tim Moynihan (pg 57) with $10,000 capital.

Companies

The TM Companies (1967–1979) In 1967 TM Productions began as a music production company, producing commercial jingles and broadcast station identifications (IDs). Long conceptualized and co-produced an entirely new approach to station IDs which provided stations a natural flow from commercial breaks to station IDs to music programming, increasing listenership and ratings. Called “Phase 2”, “The Propellants” and “The Winning Score”, these programs were quickly adopted by top stations including KILT Houston, WCFL Chicago and KHJ Los Angeles. He also created IDs that sounded like the hit songs the stations were playing (e.g., “And the Beat Goes On” and “Charisma” for WCFL Chicago and KLIF Dallas). These concepts were extremely successful and soon widely imitated within the industry.

TM Productions was the first production-syndication company to create and market comprehensive multi-media image campaigns for radio stations, complete with station IDs, print and broadcast advertising, promotional materials, and market research programs. (“Someplace Special”, “Rhythm of the City”, “You”, “Where You Belong” and “Where Your Friends Are”) These image campaigns increased ratings at stations like WCOL Columbus, KRFC San Francisco, KHJ Los Angeles, and WIBG in Philadelphia. These award-winning campaigns could be syndicated for use in non-competing markets.

A similar format image campaign was also developed for television stations, with WLKY-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, serving as the pilot. Called ColorTheme, it incorporated animation and music for station IDs and was customized for many major market TV stations, including the MetroMedia Group, Inc.

Long also introduced commercial services libraries – full service, multi-media advertising campaigns designed for local advertisers by award-winning composers and writer-producers. For the first time, radio stations could provide high quality advertising campaigns to their advertising sponsor clients. The Producer (1973) and MasterPlan (1976)(Deutsch), Ken R. LLC, The Second Jingle Book. Maumee, Ohio, www.kenr.com ©2004. Ref Jim’s quote, as CEO of OneMusic and former president of TM, regarding “Are Jingles Dead?” (pg 30-31); ref to TM’s “clever package in 1972 for WCFL-AM in Chicago called SHOCKWAVE “ - first to use electronic sounds and synthesizer to IDs (pg 60); Ref “TM Productions, Part 6” (chapters 42-49, pgs 181-205); “Long on Jingles” ref Jim Long meeting Tom Merriman, forming TM, first “Series 47” ID package, story of TM logo which Long borrowed from Phil’s Deli in Dallas; Long taking TM into syndication of automated formats; successful production libraries “The Producer” and “MasterPlan”; test marketing concepts; “The Creative Department” commercial services library; confirmation of FirstCom producing the first CD production library in 1984 (pg 184); Ken R. quote re Jim, “While some of the most important people in the Dallas jingle scene were writers and musicians, Jim Long was successful and gained respect as a top manager and strategist. He saw trends before others and never let his personal tastes interfere with who he knew would work in the marketplace.” (pg 184) were licensed to over 2000 radio stations, worldwide, and generated millions of dollars in additional revenue for local radio broadcasters.

The scope of the business included three additional product divisions: