[mbMember]

Since hearing Wise Buddah were working on Key 103 I’ve been keen to hear it.
As long term reelworld customers with high quality packages its interestring to see the evolution when they move production companies. Piccadilly and Key have ALWAYS had interesting imaging!! Just to name a few CCS, Sue Manning, Alfasound, JAM, IQ Beats, Reelworld. Sound Ideas…..
So i was interested to hear the new imaging on JingleNews.
http://www.jinglenews.com/2012/02/04/wise-choice-for-key-103/
It’s kept the logo developed whilst at Reelworld. I’d love to hear more of the package but theres a big Ga0Ga esq flavour to it unless the other cuts not heard in the clip even it out a little more. Nice clear vocals, the effects you’d expect to hear on CHR radio and it sounds like a jingle package that sits very well on air. I’m not keen on the overuse of the blokey Voice Over – I hope the remaining jingles rely more on singing that just dropping in the same Manchesters Number One liner.
It’s a very competative market and Capital ( despite my dislike ) are clearly pushing hard. I’m not a great fan of IQ Beats and some of the imaging like the brakfast show jingles are under par whilst other elements of the package are quite good. ( I’ve just never like the vocal style of IQ and the lack of depth and richness to the instrumentation ). I can’t help but feel the Key 103 jingels have a bit more of a feel good vibe about them. I think Wise Buddah have produced a nice jingle package that works well and fits with the music of today. Look forward to hearing more of it.

[RobinBlamires]

Pretty exciting stuff, having heard the demo itself. If you understand the mood and overall feel of a city such as Manchester it’s easy to see how effective the imaging is for the station.

[ratnobMember]

To me – it sounds great. Love the transitions.

[SeanMartin]

I like ’em too. Really good urban vibe that mixed-culture communities can identify with.

Nice sing-along IDs – with a voiceover guy for those who can’t sing !

-Sean

[tom_h]

Love these.

Really catchy and the power intro’s work brilliantly.

I think brmb could have done with something similar when Orion bought it. Individual cuts are avaliable on WB’s website.

[mbMemberAuthor]

Which doesnt work on IE or firefox anymore – it really needs sorting out!

[MartInLeeds]

I’m a big fan of Wise Buddah and Key103 is my regular station of listening choice, so I was pleased to hear some fresh imaging. Over the past couple of weeks of listening I have really observed how the id cut jingles and power intros really do fit in so well with the sound of the station and the flow of the programming. A few comments below….

Main cuts:

One plus point is that both the tracks and vocals seem to match well with the styles of many of the artists played on the station. Many contemporary packages seem to
match either the vocals or the tracks, however few packages seem to match both well. These largely do.

The jingles are snappy and ‘whiz’ straight in, rather than having the five note sonic logic built into the start of every cut, which was one of the things I found a bit tedious about the last two Reelworld packages.

From the demo and also what I’ve heard on air, it seems like there are only basic ‘slogan’ versions of each of the themed jingles. This is a shame, as it would be nice to hear the presenters talking over some ramp versions. There’s nothing like a hot talkover bed that bursts out into a sung ID at the end! I guess if short ‘shotgun’ ID only cuts haven’t been provided then the station can always make them

I’m not keen on the fact that not one of the cuts (unaware of other mixes apart from on demo/heard on air) seems to sing the full “Manchester’s Number One Hit Music Station… Key-1-0-thr-ee”. They all seem to utilise the “nice guy” male voiceover as heard on some of the other Bauer stations such as Radio Aire and TFMradio. I’d hoped that the demo may have full sung vocal versions. To be honest, the voiceover is a bit of a sore point for me, as I was disappointed when I noticed the reduction in Craig Kelly voiceovers and introduction of the generic Bauer one (not sure of his name), so to hear him even on the sung jingles has kind of knocked the shine off them. I just feel that some geographical branding has been lost here, given that the previous IDs were voiced by Craig using his native north west England (albeit not specifically Manchetser) accent. They also kept it unique and different from the other Bauer “Big City” stations.

Even if none of the cuts have been produced with the full sung slogan and station ID, then perhaps they could be used more creatively by the presenters to avoid always using them with a voiceover. For example, with cut 4 it would sound great if the presenter said something along the lines of “10:15, you’re on Manchester’s Number One” behind the “woooh”/first couple of notes intro and then let the jingle do the rest, picking up with the “hit music statioioion”.

Power Intros:

As a long term beleiver in power intros and it is nice to hear them again being used on Manchester’s Number One Hit Music station after a gap of nearly five years. To be honest though I think they only work really effectively when there is clearly more than one iteration of the station name, which I’ve only only heard in the Rihanna S&M intro from the bew batch. Must confess that I did find myself singing a couple of them whilst dancing to the Rihanna and Maroon 5 tracks at the weekend on a busy dancefloor forty miles north east of Manchester!

Also, in future power intros it would be nice to hear some sung “Manchester”s, to really brand the songs to the station and emphasise the locality. The Modjo Lady power intro from 2000ish which sang “Key 103 Manchester Key 103” is one that springs into my mind every time I hear that track, over 11 years on from it being a UK hit.

In summary the new Power Intros are all good and mixing the voiceover with a power intros works well, unlike with voicovers in the jingle itself!

I’m a massive fan of the last two Reelworld packages which went on air in 2005 and 2008 in their original forms and whilst I’m sad to hear the back of these, it is nice to hear something fresh on the staion. I must say, well done to Key103 for going British this time too. Whatever I’ve said above, the new WB imaging is being used very well and does seem to acheive what they want it to acheive.

Despite the new imaging the station is still heavily using the TMStudios packages on the “Mike and Chelsea in the Morning” breaksfast show. This seems to go against the grain as these are jingles which blatently sound like jingles and have musical styles which really do not match the sound of the songs – I love them though and it
would miss them if they went! To be honest, these jingles seem to have been used increasingly over the past couple of weeks, with some of the “song” beds used as ramp jingles for talkover purposes, with just a short set of end vocals. This has happened for a long time, however it was previously complemented by the breakfast show hosts
also using the Reelworld ramp jingles as talk over cuts. This perhaps strengthens the argument for some ramp versions of the Wise Buddah sung jingles.

Perhaps worth mentioning here, I’ve also noticed Key 103 using some internally produced jingles lately, including last week a “288 0103 288 0103 288 0103 baby 288 0103” (or similar) phone number jingle and a “Do I scrape my windscreen…….” weather related jingle!

Although the new imaging is not 100% to my taste I do like it a lot and can strongly say that the Key103 imaging of the 1990s (as much as I liked it back then) would not be in harmony with today’s music and life pace.

I look forward to hearing more of the superb Wise Buddah work on Key103! Fab idea about a continuous update package!

[IainJohnstonMember]

“would be nice to hear the presenters talking over some ramp versions. There’s nothing like a hot talkover bed that bursts out into a sung ID at the end!”

Oddly enough, of any stations that I’m aware of that have “ramp” versions of their cuts on demos or collector dubs etc, I’ve NEVER heard a DJ/presenter actually talk-over any of them “live” at all! Ever! (
Pre-record v/os, “sponsor tags”, etc yes – but in real-time – no – is that yet another “radio skill” now lost in these days of “the computer decides what jingle plays next”?

[MartInLeeds]

Wixy –

“Oddly enough, of any stations that I’m aware of that have “ramp” versions of their cuts on demos or collector dubs etc, I’ve NEVER heard a DJ/presenter actually talk-over any of them “live” at all! Ever! (
Pre-record v/os, “sponsor tags”, etc yes – but in real-time – no – is that yet another “radio skill” now lost in these days of “the computer decides what jingle plays next”?

Hi Wixy – TFMradio use the ramp version from their TMStudios package as talk up ramps a fair bit. As I mentioned above, Mike Toolan from Key103 often used the Reelword ramps in that way too. Using a mixout of a “song” style jingle with just the last few words of lyrics is surely as good though?

Computer may schedule what is played next but but it is programmed by humans – perhaps some lack creativity!

[Author]

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