[IanF]

BBC Local Radio celebrates it’s 50th birthday on Wednesday 8th November. In celebration the BBC have released this bit of audio of their jingles from the first 10 years…..with weird and wonderful ones too….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05lvnt6

[IainJohnston]

Some gems in there indeed!

Brighton sounded like Evans & Martin Frontal Sound over a ripped-off Tanner track
“Emergency Radio Taunton”? Wot?
Some of those “inst sigs” were more like those for numbers stations…

But can’t beat the old NDO Northern Dance Orchestra stuff though – they actually “got it” vocals-wise,
production, tracks, etc (Merseyside, Manchester)

And the Radiophonic Workshop patch-panel moog stuff was more advanced than many people gave them
credit for (e.g. Derby)

[mbMember]

Love the nostalgia but lets be honest most of these are dreadful – The NDO stuff is more listenable but the rest god awful noise all trying to sound informational and informative. Bear in mind that these were being done around the time PAMS / TM / JAM were producing material that stands up today for the most part. At least BBC local radio is consistent after a dalliance with decent jingles in the late 80’s / Early 90’s they have returned to truly bad imaging so in some ways BBC local radio reflects it heritage – which is why its audience is dying – because despite the huge opportunity left to it by the exit of commercial radio from being local it clings to trying to talk to the elderly – most of whom listen because they are too infirm to get up and turn it off.

[LenGroat]

MB:

I love this…… “because despite the huge opportunity left to it by the exit of commercial radio from being local it clings to trying to talk to the elderly – most of whom listen because they are too infirm to get up and turn it off “

.. from the very focused (true) point at the front about commercial radios appalling lack of being ‘local’ , to the quip at the end !

Your sincerely. L. Groat (Pensioner)

[jonnoMember]

Radio Stoke-on-Trent sounding like it’s played on milk bottles

[mbMember]

MB:

I love this…… “because despite the huge opportunity left to it by the exit of commercial radio from being local it clings to trying to talk to the elderly – most of whom listen because they are too infirm to get up and turn it off “

.. from the very focused (true) point at the front about commercial radios appalling lack of being ‘local’ , to the quip at the end !

Your sincerely. L. Groat (Pensioner)

I will say my father who is 86 says he can’t listen to radio WM any more as its “aimed at the old” he feels to young for the station!

[UKJinglesMember]

Out of that selection…Personally I think London and Manchester were the best…
The worst being Stoke and Cleveland……
Most of the rest sounded like rejected TV Idents!!

[GuyMember]

There was an item on the birth of Local Radio and a selection of jingles on BH on Radio 4 this morning. Around 27′ in:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09cvwsn

[jonnoMember]

There was an item on the birth of Local Radio and a selection of jingles on BH on Radio 4 this morning. Around 27′ in:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09cvwsn

slightly surprised that they included ILR jingles in that compilation

[GuyMember]

BBC impartiality.

So that’s all good then…

[UKJinglesMember]

slightly surprised that they included ILR jingles in that compilation

I’m guessing as with most things to do with the BBC…The producer (straight from university?) hadn’t a clue what the difference was between BBC and ILR, hence the mish-mash of BBC and ILR Jingles to celebrate “50 Years of BBC Local Radio” ;-/

[star tetley]

50 years of BBC Local jingles…favourite packages?..worst packages?..which station has performed best in the jingle department over the years?

[IainJohnston]

With hindsight, some of the earliest were a bit naff, but its “understandable” as the “producers”
were basically flying blind.

Some as I mentioned above weren’t bad at all…
I posted this little lot of NDO / Radiophonic Workshop related material several years ago
https://soundcloud.com/allthebestjingles04a/wixy1360-ancientbeeblocals-2012wma

Audio quality is a little … ummm… but we’re talking about my tapes that were 3&3/4 IPS away back then!

I’ve the old Merseyside and Manchester NDO from 3&3/4 somewhere on a backup disk – maybe
someone else can post those?

EDIT:-
Here’s the (apparent) bit from the BBC programme -indeed “didn’t have a clue” VERY noticable.
Yet the Beeb have recently been embroiled in “jingle copyright situations” but “OK” to have put
on ILR cuts here – hope Steve E got a cheque in the post for them playing his Radio Trent sono !!!

https://soundcloud.com/allthebestjingles04a/bbclocalanniversary-thejinglebit-extract

PS – I don’t recommend anyone to listen to the follow up “BEST bits of BBC locals today” audio – a guy
who sounds like he’s in a helium balloon on the phone to a woman about her doing her shopping at
T***o and who pushes the trolley… Have the BBC locals really sunk that to that kind of low?

Personally I’ll stick to “quality discussion” with the gritty political etc debate on BBC Radio Scotland!
(…and their custom instrumental jingles/production cuts – complete with discernable “right number of
notes for the station name sylables ) are NOT from Mecanno I might add).

[IanF]

Those Radio Derby jingles are great Iain. Radio Derby mostly had great jingles in their day, including the MoR sounding package from 1980 to 83 (my holy grail). Worst imho was that Airforce package in 89. Compared to David Arnold’s it sounded awful. TM came to the rescue though in the early 90’s I’m glad to say!

[LenGroat]

I’m guessing as with most things to do with the BBC…The producer (straight from university?) hadn’t a clue what the difference was between BBC and ILR, hence the mish-mash of BBC and ILR Jingles to celebrate “50 Years of BBC Local Radio”

That’s not good for a (supposedly) credible station but as in ALL things BBC there is no point complaining about inaccurate statements as the producer or editor is wheeled out to basically say they were not wrong! It’s a minor point them not knowing Trent and Pennine were commercial stations – but Twitter is littered with the hash-tag #BBCbias – it’s the News, and how it reported in a missbalanced way that needs investigating.

And if you saw the photo of Chris Evans in the national press recently…. which shows he really is ginger..

….. it brought new meaning to the old Radio 2 ‘strap-line’…. “It’s ALL For You” !!

[mbMember]

That montage is lifted straight from the opening of part 6 of the Story of pop radio produced about 30 years ago narrated by Noel Edmonds !!!!!

[rakMember]

That montage is lifted straight from the opening of part 6 of the Story of pop radio produced about 30 years ago narrated by Noel Edmonds !!!!!

Definitely! I remember it well, even though I’ve not heard it for 30 or so years. A poor show to be using ILR jingles to illustrate BBC LR.

Was it the same programme that had a montage of (quite nice, possibly Sue Manning) BBC Stoke jingles, followed by a comment about Bruno Brookes “showing off his jingle collection”?

[mbMember]

I’ve got parts 5 & 6 if anyone wants

[ratnobMember]

Grim. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop did, of course, make some great theme tunes (Dr Who, the early PM theme, Newsround), but blimey they also had a gift for making terrible BBC radio idents as the montage demonstrates.

[gameswizardMember]

the Story of pop radio produced about 30 years ago narrated by Noel Edmonds

For anyone interested, Pt1~Pt6 are on SoundCloud:

Pt 1: https://soundcloud.com/user-541669003/the-story-of-pop-radio-bbc-radio-1-16783
Pt 2: https://soundcloud.com/user-541669003/the-story-of-pop-radio-bbc-radio-1-23783
Pt 3: https://soundcloud.com/user-541669003/the-story-of-pop-radio-part-3-bbc-radio-1-30783
Pt 4: https://soundcloud.com/user-541669003/the-story-of-pop-radio-part-4-bbc-radio-1-6883
Pt 5: https://soundcloud.com/dansette-1/the-story-of-pop-radio-part-5-bbc-radio-1-13883
Pt 6: https://soundcloud.com/dansette-1/the-story-of-pop-radio-part-6-bbc-radio-1-1983

[rakMember]

From tonight’s speech by Tony Hall at the 50th birthday Gillards – the end of a networked ‘jingle package’, perhaps?
Secondly, I want each of our stations to establish its own sound; its own personality. And I want you to shape that character.
I know why we’ve had to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. But that’s not where the country is, so it’s not where we’re heading. That’s why I’m going to give our local editors more creative freedom to celebrate local life. To reflect local identity. And nurture local talent.
https://radiotoday.co.uk/2017/11/tony-halls-full-speech-at-gillard-awards-2017/

[LenGroat]

RAK:

That’s all good news for ‘local radio’ folk, the staff, and (perhaps) jingle companies. But if it had been a decision on a commercial station, long before now, ” heads would have rolled”! Surely the BBC ‘suits’/people who made /forced through the original “dead-end” policy decision (as many of us recognised), should be named and sacked?

The FIRST thing is to lose the damned ‘Editors’ title and give each station a bloody HEAD OF MUSIC/ PROGRAMME CONTROLLER, who knows something about programming!

[Author]

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