An unusual label. As far as I know Jumbo was one of only two companies which issued records of radio jingles in 7" format in the 1970s, the other being 'Jingle Single' (q.v.). Jumbo's emphasis appears to have been more on the 'memorabilia' side, as it seems to have concentrated on jingles which featured on offshore radio stations. In the days before there were satellite and online radio stations catering for every possible musical taste the only official provider of music to the nation was the BBC. To a certain extent the Beeb failed to keep its finger on the pulse of what the young people were interested in, musically speaking, so they used to tune in to Radio Luxembourg or to radio stations which broadcast from ships in the coastal waters around Britain. Jumbo collected jingles from those programmes, and issued them in 7" form. Presumably the records were aimed at DJs and at people who wanted a memento of the radio stations. The EPs were put out during 1974-c.75, which were the years when government crackdowns on 'pirate' radio stations started to have a terminal effect. Pressing was by Orlake. In addition to its jingle EPs Jumbo was also responsible for a series of albums chronicling the history of various stations such as Caroline and Nordsee International; these records appeared sporadically until at least the late 1980s. The man in charge of Jumbo was Ray Anderson, whose East Anglian Productions also issued records of jingles - original ones - but only in the LP format (see EAP); he and his company are still heavily involved in the 'offshore radio' memorabilia business today. Thanks to Sam Mauger, who not only let me know of Jumbo's existence but also supplied the scans and the following discography.
Copyright 2009 Robert Lyons.