Thomas Wayne Merriman (20 March 1924 – 11 November 2009)[1] was an American music composer based in Dallas, Texas, who in 1955 created the first production company specializing in radio station advertising campaigns and jingles.
Merriman led the Liberty Network Band, and arranged and/or produced music for Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.
May 24, 1949; d. April 28, 2013), whom he took under his wing when he was a teenager at St. Mark's School in Dallas; and jazz composer/producer, Phil Kelly, now living in Bellingham, Washington, who says that "working with Tom over a period of thirty plus years was always [like] continuing post-graduate instruction in how to write all kinds of commercial music.
Merriman continued to support countless young musicians by hiring recent graduates of the newly formed (at that time) One O'Clock Lab Band — and by creating an internship program at TM which fostered the production talents of then Indiana University student, Linda Adelkoff LeGrand, who became a top-level recording engineer and vocal producer.
San Francisco Bay area DJs Cut Chemist and Shadow, featured Merriman's song as the centerpiece of their "BrainFreeze" mix CD.