[dw1987ukMember]

There was a problem with BBC Radio Devon’s travel news the other day and they played 35 seconds of clean travel bed:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052hw6g – about 03:40 in.

It’s the new version used by most local stations including London.

[star tetley]

Leicester change over at midday on Tuesday??

[star tetley]

Most stations now have the new package. News, sport, weather, travel more or less the same in all areas. Shame there are so few variations this time.

[Vinnah]

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire still running Mcasso MK1. Are they the only station which has had the exact same Mcasso page since introduction? They’ve been running it for 6 years now. I suppose they don’t like rotating imaging often because Music4 stuff was still sticking around until very recently.

Also still strange things going on during Nick Risby on 3CR. Travel jingle and bed seems to be played from Suffolk but the Travel Out is 3CR’s previous Mcasso package and voice overs.

[RW]

Duplicated post.

[RW]

BBC Radio Cambridgeshire still running Mcasso MK1. Are they the only station which has had the exact same Mcasso page since introduction? They’ve been running it for 6 years now.

Radio Merseyside have had the same news intro since late 2009, as have Radio Kent since May 2010, though the rest of their package was refreshed in 2014.

So overall, it’s Cambridgeshire, Guernsey, Hereford & Worcester, Jersey, Kent, Merseyside, Shropshire, Stoke, Surrey and Sussex that are still airing the pre-2015 jingles, though the travel bed currently used in Sussex and Surrey sounds similar to Radio Berkshire’s travel bed from the new package.

[Vinnah]

That’s interesting. I have only really just got back into listening to what BBC Local Radio are up to with their jingles. I listen to 3CR on regular basis for the programming but I grew disinterested with LR Jingle hunting once Mcasso came along. Do any of the 2015 refresh stations have wildly different news intros now or are they all basically the same?

[RW]

The news intros are indeed basically all the same now – with one exception, Radio Cumbria, who for some reason have a completely different news intro that has pips running through it.

[Vinnah]

Just had a listen to that now. That’s awful. It would have been okay if it never had the pips running through it. It sounds a bit more like the original Mcasso package.

[IanF]

It’s like it was in the 1970’s and early 80’s. Beeb local ‘s cherry picking from various music packages although the difference this time it’s one company sadly

[star tetley]

The news intros are indeed basically all the same now – with one exception, Radio Cumbria, who for some reason have a completely different news intro that has pips running through it.

Yes they are just using one of the programme beds with added pips. Seems strange but I assume with the pips it is intended for news.

[GrahamCollins]

Agree with Vinnah – Cumbria must have one of the most lacklustre news builds on the network…. Sounds almost discordant to me.

Someone sent me this package and it even includes a bed labeled ‘Church Notice Board’. Talk about dull…..

[dw1987ukMember]

BBC Essex have a slightly amended schedule today. They were already on the new Mcasso package, but they’re now using the same news build as Cumbria (but without the pips). The problem is they’re also using that music for all their programmes too!

Up until now they had the same music/beds for all their programmes and a different one for the news. I suppose it gives the station an ‘identity’ but it’s a bit samey having all programmes using the same.

Still no travel bed.

[Vinnah]

Seems as if they’re going out of their way to make an already limited package sound even more limited. Interesting to note that BBC Radio Cambridgeshire had a major schedule change some months ago and still use their original Mcasso package from 2011.

[dw1987ukMember]

Yes, I don’t think I’ve heard any other BBC stations using the same music/beds for all their programmes as well as the news.

The one Essex is now using is also used for Eddie Nestor’s drivetime on London, so people switching between Essex and London (possible in central/west Essex) during drivetime will hear almost no difference in identity.

[star tetley]

I suppose the problem is that there is only one news cut so it is difficult to refresh the sound with this package. Essex have resorted to using a programme bed.

[Vinnah]

It’s really strange that the BBC have gone for this. The original Mcasso whilst bland, had some variation and didn’t sound too bad on some stations which used it well (BBC 3CR for example). This package is just the same old, same old no matter the station that’s its on, though once again 3CR are making a good go of it.

It seems really strange that Essex & Cumbria are using the programme bed for the news, it really sounds completely out of place and extremely amateur, it’s almost like somebody is running an Internet station for the first time.

There’s then the opposite on the likes of BBC Berkshire which seems to be using bits & pieces all over the place, some bits of the new Mcasso package, some bits of the old Mcasso package and other bits which don’t seem to be from any of the Mcasso packages, it’s really strange. Then there’s the others out there like BBC Cambridgeshire who are still on their completely unchanged package from day one of Mcasso.

Either they’re going for a consistent sound or they’re not, but it’s all over the place as it is and has been so since the generic package appeared several years ago. Maybe with the changes, the BBC might revert to allowing stations to commission their own jingles as before.

[IainJohnston]

No wonder even staid old “Auntie BBC” BBC Radio Scotland went to Reelworld Europe custom instead of these dirges !

Part of the “idea” of the “in house contracted” McCasso stuff was that the BBC could “earn” royalties from the sale of
resings or whatever of the packages to clients in other countries.

Can someone remind me – how many non-UK stations have these been “syndicated” to so far ????

[simon_t123Member]

I think part of the idea with Mcasso was that the BBC owned all rights so that rather than royalties from resale the BBC (BBC Worldwide) actually get paid royalties every time one of it’s LR stations plays a Mcasso cut … There’s an industry funding scheme that had limited success of production houses putting up free jingle production for stations whilst awaiting royalties for plays in return …

Not sure what Essex are on dropping that all-powerful generic news build but using a weaker programme menu for a news intro doesn’t seem right …

And still, since ‘call the boss’ some 5/6 years back had an older listener say he couldn’t hear the travel for the bed there’s no use of travel beds in Essex, other than … Eastern regional programming it produces on a Sunday ! Which seems to feature the wrong edit of the travel out stab (the up key B-B-C rather than the down key B-B-C) … Not great

[RW]

Radio Kent have finally changed over to the ‘new’ Mcasso jingle package this week. That leaves Surrey, Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Jersey, Hereford & Worcester and Merseyside who are all still using the pre-2015 jingles.

[mbMember]

I’ve not met many fans of the Mcasso “2” package more of a resigned fact that it is what it is.
Mcasso seem to be very in bed with the BBC producing the new sound identity for BBC Sounds – It sounds more like a Giraffee farting but I’m sure there was much angst over its production and sound.
I was told the core problem is it is written by people who don’t seem to understand how Beds, Ramps, Stabs are constructed and hence when cut up for practical use jar and don’t work. But the commercial deal/terms is so poor with BBC Worldwide taking writing credit there is virtually no profit in writing, producing or the contunued airplay of jingles.
Maybe with the station being “more” local in thie rapproach and “different” the single package will get dropped.
Its sad that BBC local radio now now sounds older and more dreary than every before – with the new changes from OFCOM virtually wiping out Commercial local radio they could step up and be more general but locally focussed and get some listeners under 75 but they need to understand that thier demographic now grew up with Capital, Picadilly, Radio 1, Radio 2 etc you can be bright and modern without sounding like background funeral parlor musak!

[IainJohnston]

“but they need to understand that…you can be bright and modern without sounding like background funeral parlor musak!”

Exactly!
And since “staid” BBC Radio Scotland avoided McCasso like the proverbial, and went to Reelworld Europe, it CAN be done
– AND use BBC in-house musicians to do the strings and brass and do the recording of those elements just a few hundred
yards from the BBC’s front door.

What/why DO BBC in England persist with McCasso if they are people who really don’t understand the “product” that they
are supposed to be producing?

The original “financial benefit” of using McCasso appears to have evaporated a long time ago.

[star tetley]

Treasure Quest for 3CR/Northampton has a new sung jingle with bed.

[IainJohnston]

Heard BBC Radio Cumbria last week – was like pre relaxed-needletime days with a presenter repeating the same
words /phrases several times each long link, long phone-in competitions, and the Mcasso “jingles” purely instrumental
and buried under insipid V/o’s.

However, commercial rival CFM had a sung tag to go on the generic Bauar no-sing semi-promos that we get subjected
to up here.

“Where have all the jingles gone….” ?

[JasonRNF]

BBC 3CR have finally completed their painfully slow refresh (using Mcasso 2015 and some irritating ticking travel and weather bed).
Sounds like JVS has had his custom made (it took several months to get them perfect because up until Tuesday he was using the old voiceovers and jingles). He is a perfectionist, refused to play the new GDPR jingle (I don’t blame him)

Work to replace the old jingles started in October and was painfully slow. First programme stabs and jingles, then the news and travel, finally Treasure Quest and The JVS Show. Sunday Breakfast, The Health Show, The All Request Hour (Sat Breakfast) and Three Counties Sport weekend programmes still use old voiceover branding, as well as the regional phone in jingle. What a sloppy, slow roll-out.

I’ve got used to the new voiceover, it’s just the new voiceovers. They’re dreadful (in my opinion). The female can’t pronounce Roberto correctly (Roberta?!) and the male one, who is now also prominent on the news jingle, just says the station frequencies and name.

It’s like he’s just saying it, no real ‘announcement’ or real ‘style’, he’s just speaking. What a poor choice, surely there are better voiceover artists more suited to this type of job?!

And don’t get me started on the new trail voiceover. Even worse than the main voiceovers, sounds like he is pinching his nose when narrating! Rant over!

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