[Jeff Goldstyn]

I've been listening to NRJ (France) this morning and they seem to be playing different (new?) jingles than last week. Does anyone know who produced them? They sound like their old jingles?????

[Barras]

Here`s a montage of the current NRJ jingles, the very first jingle is a Jon Wolfert sonovox !

http://jinglemad.com/e107_files/public/1254920316_3680_FT75835_nrj_oct_2009.mp3 filename:nrj_oct_2009.mp3

[nostalgie]

Thanks, David.

I like the sonovox, but I still miss the era of the Costa Bros on NRJ.

I agree with Jeff, some of the “new” cuts sound like jingles that have been produced many years ago
by Freeway, but it is like if they were remixed…

[SeanMartin]

Sounds just like Freeway to my ears (aside from the trademark jmw sonovox)

It's their heritage identity.

[IainJohnstonMember]

I'm just back from France today, and currently…

NRJ – indeed sound like remixed old Freeway (and the once “hot” station seems to have gone very “soft & slushy” on its music output)

Cherie FM – also NRJ Group – Juin21 stuff well gone, and a lot of older (and possibly a few newer) Freeway cuts being used (distinctly the Costa Brothers sister on lead vocals!)

Nostalgie – ditto NRJ – Freeway from several years ago

RTL2 – solid with some excellent fresh Freeway

RFM – also sound very “Freeway”

Star (Regional) – Freeway, several years old

FranceBleu – very newish Freeway, “modular” as ever to “fit in” all the different departmente/regional names.

Heard one station (can't recall, will need to check radio-recorder) with some stuff that tried to emulate the Reelworld over-dig'ed-reverb but with much softer-sounding vocals.

No JAM, no “real” Reelworld/clones. All very French-produced.
But too many “competing” national stations all playing what sounded like tight-rotation “Greatest Hits of…”(Police, Madonna, etc)
Every cafe, bistro, restaurant, shop etc playing either RFM, RTL2, Cherie or Nostalgie. And of course, very little “DJ” input and a jingle between EVERY record -pure “jukebox radio” but JM'er paradise!

[nostalgie]

Thanks, Wixy, for this report in depth. Actually, you were like an investigator in the last few weeks…
Did you have time to relax?

Welcome back in the real world!

*I am truly happy to hear that Costa Bros are still active in the jingle industry.

[IainJohnstonMember]

Thanks Thierry…
“Did you have time to relax?” Not much – due to a serious & unexpected bureaucratic error beyond our control (or anticipation) my family & I had to do a major & expensive problem sortout while out there and also back in the UK. These things happen sometimes…

“Welcome back in the real world!” JM is a welcome ESCAPE from the “real world” sometimes!!!

“I am truly happy to hear that Costa Bros are still active in the jingle industry” – on their “home turf” they certainly dominate French radio – what they do probably wouldn't work so well elsewhere, but for the mindset of French broadcasting, they have it “right on the button” and their custom work is of exceptional quality in writing, production, and vocals/instrumentation!

[TheMix]

Attention!!

Wixy:
I'm listening to France Bleu's news bulletin and the jingles haven't changed since their new package a year ago.

21 juin are now supplying France Bleu with their national and local jingles.

Concerning NRJ's jingles- the Pure jingles, as good as they were, they lacked the 'soul' of the Freeway sound. Even now when I dig out the old jingles to listen they still have that certain “je ne sais quoi” quality about them.

Thierry:

Did you know NRJ have landed in Canada?

[krille_5]

NRJ in Canada is cool shit!

I work as a jingleproducer at NRJ in Norway, so, here are some norwegian Costa jingles.

:. Christer

http://jinglemad.com/e107_files/public/1255344005_11382_FT75835_nrj_norway_jingles_oct09.mp3 filename:nrj_norway_jingles_oct09.mp3

[TheMix]

Krille, those do sound cool remixed!

NRJ in Canada are btw not using the Costas' jingles or any on-air branding from France, they seem to be produced locally.

[IainJohnstonMember]

TheMix/“Wixy: I'm listening to France Bleu….21 juin….”

Thanks for that Michael!
Our recent trip to France was about 15 months since our previous one, so this was my first listen to FranceBleu etc etc on-air since back then.

To me, in the ear-plug “headphones” on my mini-recorder, on-air they sounded like Freeway – but to be fair, when Juin21 first did CherieFM jingles approx 2 (3???) years ago, those cuts also still “sounded a bit Freeway“, so I'm thinking that FB would have most likely also spec'd their 2008 custom to follow-on their previous “style”, perhaps a bit like sometimes JAM and TM cuts in the late 1980s occasionally could “sometimes seem a little similar at times” – what the Client asks for in a vast high-prestige bespoke package is what the Producer makes sure the Client gets!

I don't have streaming links to hand for the various French networks, but last time I listened the French streaming audio tended to be of exceptionally good quality, so I'd recommend any JM'er wanting to hear a very different kind of radio mindset from that of the UK (and perhaps also the USA) that chasing-down a few of the links would prove very worthwhile.

[IainJohnstonMember]

This is a quick selection of NRJ material old & new, from various “in-the-clear” sources (not the Freeway demos) and also some of my old “summer holiday” aircheck cassettes.

http://jinglemad.com/e107_files/public/1255441038_75_FT75835_wixy1360-nrj-france-selection.mp3 filename:wixy1360-nrj-france-selection.mp3

[TheMix]

Ah, 15 months. That would explain it. Hope you're due back soon

21 juin site

Im guessing FB wanted their jingles to go in a new direction- the Costa cuts were starting to run out of ideas and in came 21juin with a younger, fresher sound. But for logistics the logo and the logo-type construction for the local names remained the same. Des bonnes habitudes, je crois…

Chérie FM- I thought their 21juin jingles were great, personally.

For French radio links etc, ComFM and the like are available.

Seems like a little community of Francophones (Thierry) and Francophiles is developing here. C'est magnifique, ca!

[TheMix]

Well off-topic:

I found a gem of a radio montage of RFM (circa mid 90's) in their Gold/Soft AC incarnation (called 'La radio en or') on Youtube

LINK

A ratings winner it wasn't (as RFM is now AC) but what a sound!

[IainJohnstonMember]

Michael, somehow the ComFm link ne marche pas – can't see why, as typing it directly into a browser does work OK.

Some of the data on ComFm turned out to be out-of-date for where I was visiting (Reims/Chaumont areas of Haute Marne) but still got in a good listen both there and down Autoroute A1 and Paris.

At least the Juin21 site loads “quicker” than it used to!

[TheMix]

Ecoutez!

[SeanMartin]

On one of my visits to the NRJ studios, I was most impressed by the pains taken to load new musical elements into the playout system.

Every item – jingles, promos & songs – were meticulously categorised by style, tempo in & out, BPM, musical chord/note in & out, etc, etc.

Every element was designed to make a musical match – and never a clash. It was brilliant.

It's a network that's tried to reinvent itself over the decades (commercial FM is relatively new in France compared with the US) and I think just about every jingle production studio has had a shot at creating the “new” station sound (some even got paid) – but the listener always expects the heritage Freeway sound and NRJ France always always always comes back to it. The proof is in the ratings.

*Imaginez, pour un instant, Nostalgie by any other company sauf Freeway. A French network and ALL the jingles are in English !

NRJ is unique.

-Sean

*Traduction disponible sur demande : )

[IainJohnstonMember]

Careful now Sean, Thierry has already had to have a word with me about my “schoolboy French”! :^)

Worth commenting that Nostalgie (owned by NRJ Group) now also operates in quite a number of countries, with their jingles in English, by Freeway, regardless of the country – even Turkey.

Have actually got Michael's NRJ streaming link on the background at the moment – some blethering phone-in thing that possibly seems to be a “discussion” about the station itself (too fast talking for me to “get” half of it) – but a mix-out JMW sono cut from the 1992(?) JAM custom just got played a few minutes ago!!!

EDIT: on Nostalgie, might as well “bump” this from a wee while back…
http://www.4shared.com/file/63782317/a4383826/Wixy1360-Nostalgie-Freeway.html

[bodo1980]

NRJ has new “Pure Jingles”.
http://www.radioszene.de/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/PURE-Jingles-PURE-NRJ-2011-Highlights.mp3

Here you can read an article in german.
30 Jahre NRJ Frankreich und neue PURE Jingles | RADIOSZENE

30 Jahre NRJ Frankreich und neue PURE Jingles

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