BBC Radio Scotland celebrates 30 years on-air next Tuesday (although I thought it was longer?)
Technically they're not a BBC “Local” as such, and have never had the kind of jingles or “production
elements” or even “formatting” as such that would be familiar to English or Welsh Beeb Local listeners.
They've had a small set of synth-y sounder “thingies” for years & years, that get used occasionally into
the news or for travel report intro.
Their programming is so incredibly diverse both in terms of content and in the different “cultures” that
it caters for spread thinly over an area half the size of England, that even the sort of instrumental
logo'ed pieces that appear Down South (e.g. Steve England efforts, etc) have never been part of their
on-air sound. They've never needed the “cohesion” that such kinds of on-air ID might bring in the
congested airwaves of England. Much of their output is “intelligent speech” plus all kinds of eclectic
specialist music which even includes late-night rock that would never be heard anywhere else on UK
radio apart from Bob Harris, and so on.
(And it isn't “radio for auld grannies” as someone once put it, either!)
So whether they're having a “jingle package” as we would understand it, I would very much doubt.
They don't have to “compete” for audience as they're probably unique, so they don't HAVE to sound
as if they do.
Considering that the only other “speech” station in Scotland is Edinburgh's Talk-107, which has an
ID budget of seemingly about £10 a year, I can't really see the Beeb going for a re-sing of JAM's
“We Talk New York“!
But who knows – they might surprise us all yet!
fredgreek
IainJohnston
fredgreek