[loujosephs]

Heard a new jingle for Janice Long on BBC radio 2, it was awful. Number 1 stations make a big mistake when they start taking apart the stuff that got them to the top..messing with the imaging is a big mistake..and playing with the music isn’t all that smart either..this station is ripe for a big fall.

[LenGroat]

Hello Lou

This may be interesting from the point of view of other big Radio 2 topic * which has gone very quiet, as maybe it’s the start of the NEW package ?

Amazingly for a MONTH Radio 2 execs have put up with a diatribe on the Grooveworx website.

* http://jinglemad.com/index.php?p=/discussion/8408/what-is-the-status-of-bbc-radio-2

[MarcMannetje]

Interesting, thanks for posting this Lou. Do you mean the Top of Hour Rolling Stones-a-like cut? You can here it here at appr. 3’30 http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b017v9f5

[Barras]

I`m one of those radio ID jingle collectors who generally likes ALL jingles, however, I agree with Lou, that Janice Long jingle is “awful”. I`ve listened to that jingle a few times and just cannot get into it. I know as jingle collectors we tend to analyse jingles down to the last note, the way they`re sung and who composed them etc…and I guess for the average radio listener, it will go in one ear and out of the other ear but that cut is for my yellow-folder named “Worst Jingles Ever”.

[upsweepMember]

well its a personal cut, comissioned by the show, rather than the station, i would probably guess ? – and yes yuk!

[RobinBlamires]

Yeah it’s reminiscent of “Country Girl” by Primal Scream. May have been done by them too most possibly.

[loujosephs]

Nice AJ refresh for Steve Wright..

[IainJohnstonMember]

I heard that very bit of the Janice Long “jingle” on her show as it happened – to me its not a jingle per se at all – it sounds just like one of those (sometimes utterly dire) “BIT OF SOMEONE’S CURRENT SINGLE WITH THE RADIO STATION or DJ NAME SUNG OVER IT BY THE ARTISTE” record-plugging needletime-fillers that often appeared on UK ILR in the late 1970s.

(The meaningless fade at the end shows the “jingle”‘s heritage; either that then if its supposed to be a “real” jingle then someone’s been diddled out of their pocket money !!!)

[loujosephs]

Yeah it’s no AJ production that is for sure. General consensus is that as any kind of image song it well sucks.

[loujosephs]

even the cheap jingles from Ft Worth texas would sound better…lol

[GrahamCollins]

Iain is absolutely right, this is not a jingle at all, but some band messing around at the end of a studio session. They or their manager probably owe Long a favour for a plug and this is a bit of rubbish cross promotion. It even fades in if you listen carefully.

….and don’t you just hate the awful ‘banter’ with the newsreader? Makes me wanna puke.

[Barras]

Question of semantics here…I understand what Iain and Graham say about this “not” being a jingle, however, the sung audio is digitally “carted-up” on the Radio Two playout system (which is probably in the “jingles” section) and has been played out on-the-air as an introduction and identification to the Janice Long show (out of the news into the radio show) . The audio actually sings the words “Radio Two” which identifies the radio station (the ultimate objective of any radio identification jingle) and it sings the name of the presenter too, so in my ears, it is a “jingle”.

[LenGroat]

A very healthy (mainly negative) response here, and understandably so !

It seems that ‘anything goes’ when it comes to a presenter ‘playing what they want’ as regards jingles; moreandmore each show on R2 has its own company/its ‘AJ fan’ or freebies like this.

Yet the ‘suits’ at Radio 2 have STILL not completed the jingle package that they put out to tender so many months ago.. What a MESS ~ which of course the licence payer pays for…

A money saving suggestion ~ just revive the JAM ‘Magic Music’ cuts (and a few other packages from that era) you ONLY need to re-licence rather than PAY for a full package. To stop criticism that they are American, buy a few ‘bits and pieces’ from the Smooth Radio jingle company .. sorry Wise Buddah.

[loujosephs]

Could be worse here we have two major broadcasters firing people left and right and changing the face of radio in ways we don’t want to need.

[MarcMannetje]

Why doesn’t Radio 2 has a proper general Top of the Hour cut that is been used througout the day? I always learned on radioschool you have to plant ‘anchor points’ in an hour schedule, and a TOTH helps name recognition, positions the station immediately ánd is something listeners might start using unconsious in their ‘day clock’… or am I wrong?

[loujosephs]

During the day the live id/news intro does that function. During the off hour day parts not quite sure what it is they do..because the stuff is so off that it’s trash..
Wright and Mayo are the only guys who get the mechanics of this..btw

[upsweepMember]

A money saving suggestion ~ just revive the JAM ‘Magic Music’ cuts (and a few other packages from that era) you ONLY need to re-licence rather than PAY for a full package. To stop criticism that they are American, buy a few ‘bits and pieces’ from the Smooth Radio jingle company .. sorry Wise Buddah.

Now I love this package, and indeed i thought about reviving an older Jam Package, but it did cater for a very different sounding RADIO 2. Could it fit into the modern day playlist which definately not as Easy style as the station on the 80’s with Coldplay, Beyonce, The Feeling.
Perhaps a resing of one of Radio One’s package faster cuts which i believe would fit in the current playlist????????????

[IainJohnstonMember]

“Why doesn’t Radio 2 has a proper general Top of the Hour cut that is been used througout the day?”

The “TOH” is really a USA/North American concept going back to the FCC etc “legal ID”, something that doesn’t exist per se in the UK etc. The UK generally has slowly adopted the TOH over the years as the top-of-hour news intro has “expanded” into a more descriptive identification of the station, especially with networking, centrally-delivered news etc. But its not a mandatory thing in the UK.

(e.g. Radio 1 – from day one had its news at :30 so often “dribbled” over the ;00 mark of an hour; many ILRs used to have no news outwith “busy hours” and thus no “TOH” or formal ID of any kind).

Stations often just had instrumental news intro jingles without all the “wordy bits” now often heard. Radio 2 does at least have its “banner ID” spoken by the presenter or the continuity announcer (! – very “British”) around the news-intro slide.

The BBC of course doesn’t really HAVE to ID itself – its not another clone fighting rival clones in Groundhog Radio-land – its already totally distinctive.

Some of the “news intro” montages on JM (including, dare I say it, some of mine…) have some examples of classic (and often very “BIG SOUNDING”) UK instrumental news-ins, especially those of the Alfasound era. Today – too many weak synthy beep-y tuneless ones, usually all saying virtually the same words bar the name or frequency(ies).

[MarcMannetje]

Thanks Wixy I was aware of the American LEGAL ID-roots of the Top of the Hour. I meant, to ‘position’ a station at the beginning of an hour, you might use a musical way to do so… To musically say who you are and what you do. Because news, when read, might sound like all 300 rivals do…

[mbMember]

I think Magic Music from JAM would sound as odd as using PAMS jingles on the ILR FM’s in the 80’s. It’s a great package but it doesn’t fit thier style or identity now. This is thier most played artist list on compere My Radio – Radio 2 is now contemporary but not chart based music.

Adele
Cee Lo Green
Caro Emerald
Will Young
Nickelback
Matt Cardle
Beyoncé
Lady Antebellum
Glen Campbell
The Beatles
Katy Perry
Rebecca Ferguson
Stevie Wonder
Seal
Take That
The Rolling Stones
Queen
David Bowie
Elton John
Bruce Springsteen
Madonna
Coldplay
James Morrison & Jessie J
Fleetwood Mac
Elvis Presley
Tony Bennett And Lady Gaga
Westlife
Michael Buble
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa
ABBA
The Smiths
Electric Light Orchestra

[theniceguy]

Hey guys… Why still moan about the old jingles? Jon is still around, i would be very interested what he thinks todays ac jingles should sound in combination with todays ac music. Instead of recycling the old stuff

[mbMember]

I’m not moaning, Let me be very clear the packages discussed are fine and on the right station sound fantastic, but I’m sure if JAM pitched for the Radio 2 RFP you’d find the pitch far more contemporary than the jingles in older packages. Radio 2 today is a totally different station to that of the Mid 70s, 80’s and 90’s. I’m not sure any syndicated off thre shelf package would suit the many areas it has to cover from any copmany – although TM and JAM probabbly have the best expereience in some of the lesser demanded areas.

[loujosephs]

If I was running 2, I’d blow up all the 7-12 mid stuff mon-fri and go all christmas.
Get a couple of good jocks to do split the shift and get some jam xams jingles.
Run a home for the holidays contest….

[IainJohnstonMember]

The thing is Lou – BBC Radio 2 ISN’T an American station…the whole concept is completely different and even very “alien” to USA radio; its even a million miles from US PBS radio – its raison d’etre is as a non-commercial public-funded high-quality national station that is there to ENTERTAIN (repeat…ENTERTAIN…) a vast wide adult audience with a huge diversity of popular (and, yes, specialist) music and “intelligent” other content – its NOT yet another giant billion-dollar US corporate-merger gravy train that now merely exists for the personal benefit a bunch of grossly overpaid and over-bonused “boardroom suits” who are only in their “jobs” because of “who they are” with no knowledge of how to actually run “their” failing Chapter 11 businesses and who channel cash straight to line their own pockets at the expense of their now-dwindling employees (and indeed shareholders). Note:- UK JMers can read all about this stuff on the New York Radio Message Board, as linked to elsewhere on JM today).

R2 doesn’t need a “holidays contest” (we don’t call Christmas “the holidays” here anyway ) or an “all-Christmas” format to boost its audience – the audience is THERE ALREADY because of the sheer quality and non-commercial content – and the majority of now-corporately-owned commercial stations in the UK are now so dumbed-down mindnumbingly-repetitively-programmed and narrow-casted (because OUR “suits” just “ape” what they see being done in the States) that anyone with the slightest adult intelligence heads for R2 – it ISN’T perfect (and every listener “sees” the station from a different perspective) – but in terms of being “a friend on the radio” its light-years ahead of the robotic commercial alternatives.

PS – Radio 2 used to have the JAM Christmas jingle set (as indeed did Radio 1) – would be nice if THAT was even re-licensed for a bit – they at least “stood out”, unlike the bland current short “instrumental-thingy” from whoever-made-it!

[MarcMannetje]

Wixy I totally, totally agree! Radio made by heart isn’t commercially driven, but can be more succesful, that is in my opinion what lack most American stations today. A company like ClearChannel is led by fear (getting rid of local content and talents is not a sign of trust) and money. Whilst Radio 2 has a huge market share.

Not because I want to ‘brag’ about it, but the station I work for is driven by love for the audience, the entertainment we bring, and the music we play. Our marketshare is always above 25% 10+, and yes we have a very competative market too.

In these economic and social times commercial driven companies do have to change, because the audience doesn’t tolerate the superficial programming invented in the 80s and 90s anymore…

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