Nostalgia Sunday – On the radio

August 28, 2011 - 10:20 PM by

It’s hard to describe how important radio was — and is — to Israelis but we’ll give it a shot. In a land where up until 20 years ago there was but a single television station — and a non-commercial one that shut down broadcasts at midnight, at the very latest — radio was where you got your news, every hour on the hour. Radio announced the founding of the State. Radio brought you the latest music. And it was radio that broadcast ads with catchy jingles which stuck in your head and the heads of everyone else around you, and everyone in the country, really.

The power of this collective commercials consciousness is so strong that even today, should you chant to people of a given age group, “Bo ligdol eetanu”, they will immediately snap their fingers twice and holler back, “Bank Hapoalim!” (click on this link and all the other links in this post and you’ll hear the jingles).

Shapam is the official broker for commercial airtime on the Voice of Israel and, by uploading a tiny portion of their archives, they have done a wonderful public service for all of those scratching their heads and going, “What was the name of that awful carbonated wine we used to drink because there was no good wine in Israel?” (Fantasia), “Did I imagine it or was that really Sassi Keshet singing the Dogli song?” (Yes, it is he), or “How long has Osem been using that same tag line” (At least since 1961, if we go according to the release date of this early “Zeh tov, zeh tov, zeh Osem” spot).

Some very famous singers supplemented their incomes by writing and singing ad jingles, from The Dudaim pitching Wissotzky Tea in the Sixties, Arik Einstein hawking Telma instant soup or Danny Sanderson promoting Yosef the Carpet King in the Seventies. It’s understandable, as Israeli artists didn’t earn much then — or even now.

Following the great egg dearth of the 1973-4 Yom Kippur War, entertainer Gadi Yagil was hired to promote egg consumption in 1977 in the spot known as “Beitzim, beitzim“. The ad became a classic due, in no small part, to the fact that the listening public didn’t necessarily associate the song with the primary topic but rather, with its secondary meaning.

That same year, the airwaves got up and boogied to the disco beat with an ad for a new soft drink named for that thriving metropolis, that glorious city on the hill, that new Jerusalem which beckoned to all Israelis: Queens. Seriously.

Shandy, a mixture of beer and lemon soda, has recently been launched on the Israeli market. But this isn’t the first time. For a brief moment in 1982, there was a beverage on the market known as “British Shandy“. It was apparently terrible (one friend used to call it “British shandeh“) but the jingle has looped in my brain ever since. Another that arises unbidden in the dark hours of the night: Achim Farag (Farag Brothers)… 1,2,3,4 photo studios!

If you, like me, know with certainty that Dor ha-jeans shoteh Queens (The jeans generation drinks Queens), don’t wait a minute longer. There are many more jingles to click on and listen to at the Shapam site.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Business, Entertainment, Food, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, tv 

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One Comment on Nostalgia Sunday – On the radio

  1. Nostalgia Sunday – Kol Israel archive open to all | ISRAELITY on Sun, Feb 5th 2012 11:04 PM

    2. [...] launched an online radio station of old Israeli songs. Late last summer, we reported on Shapam’s collection of old radio ad spots. And now, the largest collection of Israeli music from pre-State to recent times, has been made [...]

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