[simon_t123Member]

‘ello all I’ve decided to stick all my ‘Essex’ eggs in one basket & upload my collected imaging for radio stations emanating past & present from the county of Essex, UK I’ve started with material I’ve ‘stashed’ up from BBC Essex, feel free to discuss, add to or just enjoy the audio …

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

at the start of BBC broadcasting just for Essex David Arnold was commissioned to produce the launch package for BBC Essex, it all kicked off on November 5th 1986 with Alex Lester (latterly of Radio 2 fame) and the breakfast show, these cuts were in use at a time I first started listening to the radio (at the tender age of I remember BBC Essex launched with a far more ‘tabloid’ approach to broadcasting & played the kind of music Radio One was playing ! in essence it was like a news & info laced pop-led ILR !!! great jingles from a classic era

BBC Essex ’86 (David Arnold) by flamingoodmedia

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

it’s fair to say I was struggling a bit to embed via SoundCloud this morning

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

ahh the package that got me into BBC Local Radio collecting … I was privileged to use some of the cuts on a Media Studies project self-op in 1B at BBC Essex back in 1993, the package emerged in 1991 but in 1993 was over-dubbed / remixed with some “rockin” electric guitar accents & highlighters, it was the ’93 refresh I had used, sadly I’ve not found these with collectors … all the same a great package from David Arnold / TMCI at a time when he was involved imaging many BBC Local Stations.

BBC Essex ’91 (David Arnold / TMCI) by flamingoodmedia

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

the 2nd package from David Arnold remained in use with BBC Essex for some time (thanks to the refresh) until around 1997 when an ‘as yet’ unidentified instrumental package was brought into use, fair to say it was not the best package the county ever put to air but … anyone with any info on it please feel free to comment

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

so, to the year 2000 we go then … BBC Local Radio has always maintained an individuality up to this time when it came to imaging, from the good, to the not so good to the hardly any at all at least in the main the network of stations had enjoyed a high degree of free reign in their operations … around the year 2000 however the powers that be (or to coin a Smashy & Nicey phase) “the powers that bee’d at the time” decided to introduce a certain uniformity to the Beeb locals, which unlike the Mcasso imaging of more recent times was not compulsory but contained elements (such as twinkles) and a 7 note musical logo that did manage to find use on the many stations, sometimes within simpler imaging from ‘BBC Creative’ and sometimes on music tracks (with vocals) inspired or produced in association with Bespoke Music or JAM Creative Productions, it was an interesting time for the locals as uniformity mixed with locality and individuality in a way that seemed to work quite nicely on reflection … for BBC Essex an un-named package started to air in November 2000 which was produced alongside the ‘Contradiction’ package made for use in Kent, Nottingham and Devon, the tracks appear to be produced with input from JAM, as do the vocals, which JM’ers have posted as being possibly a US/UK vocal collaberation (hinted at the time I believe by a JM’er that seemed to be ‘in the know’ – ChrisHarris) so here’s a montage highlighting the BBC Essex package.

BBC Essex ’00 (BBC Creative) by flamingoodmedia

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

after the exercise circa 2000 to bring BBC Local Radio imaging into a uniform sound the stations seemed to change direction and many (if not all) went off to do their own thing again, perhaps more money fell into the pot ? who knows … but what we do know is Beeb locals went to various suppliers for imaging including Vibe/Music4, Wicked Productions, BBC Creative, Bespoke Music, TM Studios and S2Blue who themselves picked up quite a bit of work on packages for Humberside, Nottingham, Cornwall, Guernsey, Lancashire, Suffolk to name a few and … Essex, here’s (most) of the S2Blue narrated demo of the (around) BBC Essex 2006 package.

BBC Essex ’09 (S2Blue) by flamingoodmedia

[RobinBlamires]

The instrumental package from 1997 was by David Arnold, and a few of them are in the Carlin library under the name “Afternoon Outlook” (CAR-369)

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

thanks Robin I’ll try to have a listen around for those … it’s the one ‘gap’ I’ve got in my BBC Essex collection …

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

and here we arrive in 2009 where once again the BBC have decided that Local Radio imaging should and WILL be brought into line (lols) well, not quite so insistently (or was it ! …) anyway Mcasso were given the task of producing a massive array of imaging to suit all needs, this task was handed down by ‘BBC Worldwide’ who retain all rights on the package … BBC Essex was the first station to take delivery & air the Mcasso imaging, which to be fair has grown on many of us, for most stations it includes a package or cherry-pick of available themes, all with a specific but generic “B-B-C” logo whilst also almost all stations have been provided with localised logo’s (number of notes in the station’s name usually) that are sandwiched normally between 2 blasts of “B-B-C” usually on the news, travel, sport or weather cuts … here for BBC Essex is a small selection from a larger montage, unfortunately STILL in use / not refreshed some 2+ years later !

BBC Essex ’09 (Mcasso) by flamingoodmedia

next I hope to move onto ILR / SALLIE / anything other imaging I can dig up from Essex

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

thanks to Robin Blamires the final piece of my Essex puzzle has been slotted in, as Robin kindly informed me the 1997 instrumental package for BBC Essex appears (in part) on Carlin Music Library [CAR-369] as a suite of tracks composed by David Arnold named “Afternoon Outlook” here, from that package is various mixes of the station theme / news intro exactly as used by BBC Essex between 1997 & 2000.

BBC Essex ’97 (David Arnold) [Carlin Music CAR-369] by flamingoodmedia

and that … is the ENTIRE imaging history of the BBC in Essex !!!

[star tetley]

Thanks for all the BBC Essex stuff – it has been great fun listening to it all. I have dipped in and out of BBC Essex over the years. I used to love the news in from the 2006 package with the drum roll. I was so disappointed the day it disappeared – not knowing at the time it was the beginning of the whole BBC being Mcassod. I’m not a big fan of the Mcasso sound apart from some of the news intros across the country. I agree with you that the selection in Essex is particularly poor.

[simon_t123MemberAuthor]

Hey star tetley, yeah I love the stuff no problem, I don’t think there IS anymore to find … perhaps more from the David Arnold packages in 1986 & 1991, I know that the lyrics changed on some of the cuts between ’86 & ’91 as MW frequencies & FM stereo was a bit old hat by 1991 when this package finished it’s run, I’d imagine like the 1991 package was in 1993 the 1986 package had a refresh somewhere along the line … I don’t have the jingles from the 1993 refresh but I DO have a 1 hour show for my GCSE Media project that they kindly allowed me to produce self-op in Jan 1993 so I’ll aircheck the jingles out of that Agreed about the 2006 news in, brilliant … I was pleased that they still had a sung package to be fair, even if it was S2Blue & not a Dallas jobby ! Tho’ if you’ve ever heard it you’ll know how the Wiltshire versions were sung so much better with that chap from “Strictly Come Dancing” or whatever show it was, Tommy Blaze I think his name is … Essex was the first to get Mcasso’d sadly & I think personally it suffered as a result, not a good selection of cuts … and STILL in use today ! Agreed also that news intros are good Mcasso style, and travel I’ll be adding some more Essex based radio station jingles soon, I think I’ve got some from Breeze / AM / The Breeze some for Ten17, and the stuff from Essex Radio / FM and SGR Colcehster, also some Mellow 1557, Chelmer, Dream, Chelmsford & Southend to come !!!

[geek]

how fantastic to hear the “nice” jingles from bbc essex’s past, the 2000 one’s being my fav, we used to play the news build game in the car ( sad i know) the place names were different each hour and we would shout out the names, i always used to throw in “South woodam ferries” for good measure, lol, i also remember a re-sung version of “from the coast to the capital…” Rick morgans sunday morning show had” from the toast to the caserole …..” and i think it’s such a shame that they all sound the same now it was part of the fun when going on holiday the hear the difference

[dw1987ukMember]

Hi, I know this is an old thread but some of the Soundcloud files linked to above no longer work. Does anyone know if they’re still out there somewhere? Thanks.

[Author]

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