The Jingle Man by Lisa Kitchener What's more memorable than music? Nothing. That's the foundation of Genuine Memphis Music and the daily pursuit of Ken Theiss. Theiss is the CEO and President of one of the longest running and most successful jingle companies in the country. I went to work in the music production biz." Tanner's company was based out of Memphis, TN and produced some prestigious national music campaigns for television networks such as ABC. Theiss decided to go beyond presenting and selling for the Tanner group and bought the company with John Waddell in 1993. Theiss decided he wanted take the reigns solo and bought the company on his own a few years ago making yet a final name change to Genuine Memphis Music. The constant with his career has been the talented music professionals that have stayed with the company since the beginning. Theiss says, "Our Head of Creative Tom Lonardo is amazing. He's got a masters in music, teaches percussion at STCC and works with the likes of legends like Sam Shoup." Here's a trivia tidbit: Who sang the oldie "Jim Dandy to the Rescue?" If you guessed Black Oak Arkansas, you're correct! And that brings us to another of Theiss' long-time colleagues, David Mayo. Mayo is a senior lyric writer and was with Black Oak Arkansas when they recorded the past hit. "We've got so many talented people working for us," says Theiss. "We record in some of the best studios are in Memphis, and the pool of talent is terrific. Jimmy Jamison even sings for us!" Jamison is famous for the Rocky movie soundtrack song "Eye of the Tiger" recorded when he was with the band Survivor. "We're the Cadillac of jingle companies, " jokes Theiss, "all our work originates with our artists. We don't buy ancient tracks like much of our competition. We write everything we do." The quality of his work is truly head and shoulders above the rest. Tune into radio, cable or TV stations all over the state of Florida (and nationwide for that matter) and it's likely many of the snappy tuned memorable commercials have been produced by Theiss and his gang. He's been the driving force in roughly 200 jingles annually and more than 5,000 custom production packages in his career. Although he just about always wears a suit and tie for his presentations, Theiss is most comfortable in shorts or a wet suit. He is an avid fisherman, diver, and surfer. I've personally known and have done business with Ken for more than 10 years and it seems he also puts in plenty of down time at his tiki hut turned pier pub at his home on the water in Jacksonville. "Nothing's more memorable than music," says Theiss. "It's how we all learned our ABC's," he laughs, " I still kinda sing the alphabet when I'm looking something up in my files." The old saying supposedly goes 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' That originated with Confucius, Chinese thinker and social philosopher, who actually said 'a picture is worth a thousand pieces of gold.' "Nothing beats music as far as I'm concerned, " says Theiss. "Can you imagine watching a movie without music? Jaws just isn't the same without dunuh-dunuh-dunuh [laughs]. It sets the mood, the tone, the emotion." His passion for the jingle business continues. When asked if early retirement is any time soon (he's quite comfortable financially), Theiss laughs and says "no way, we're just getting started." Want to get more information about getting a jingle? Call Ken Theiss at Genuine Memphis Music (904) 223-5245.