Sorry this isn’t TV related, but I’m sure a lot of people on here will be interested to hear that a new BBC Local Radio jingle packaged has been unveiled.
Made by ReelWorld, they’ve debuted on Radio Leicester, with apparently Suffolk next.
They’re quite a departure from what we’ve been used to - very commercial sounding and upbeat. I’m guessing they’ll divide opinion, but on first listen, I like them, and probably the right direction for BBC LR to go in if they’re to find a new audience...
A massive departure and I agree about the commercial sound to them. I like them, but I love the current jingles and branding too, it’s going to take a lot of getting used to, however with recent changes to schedules to skew younger and increase the music I can see why they’re wanting to change.
Going by the imaging, if you're over 60, forget about it. The commercial style straplines and sung jingles are straight out of a small scale commercial radio group from the noughties.
And should a local radio station which has to provide heavy speech alongside the banal playlist be concentrating on the music as a strap when they have a heavy PSB requirement?
Apparently the new sound should be rolled out to all stations by April, so this rollout won't drag on for years on end like it did for the two Mcasso packages, the second of which never quite made it right round the network - BBC Hereford and Worcester are the one station that are still on the old Mcasso package.
And although Radio Leicester are using sung versions of the jingles, it is apparently up to each station to choose whether or not to use the singers or not. Other than that, the jingles and beds will be the same everywhere.
I think this package sounds fantastic. A drastic change, but I think it's good that they are trying to appeal their station sound to younger people as well as their traditional audience of over 50.
It's certainly very commercial sounding, but I don't think that's a bad move.
'The Sound of Leicester'? I wonder if they're trying to capitalise on a heritage brand.
The logo starts off the same as their work for Radio Scotland - it's a definite 'BBC Radio', but I guess it's going to be the same across lots of stations so they can't really include notes for the syllables of the place names here.
The do sound very commercial, especially the notes at the start which sound very familiar to me, but can't place which commercial station I've heard them on.
A bit of a shame as I really like the current package and my local station adopted them less then two years ago so they still feel new. The London package in particular sounds great still
I heard these yesterday but not the bit about stations being able to decide whether to use the sung bits. I was looking forward to hearing how they were going to fit in 'Radio Coventry and Warwickshire' and stretch out 'Tees'
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 7 January 2020 7:34am
'The Sound of Leicester'? I wonder if they're trying to capitalise on a heritage brand.
I wonder what listeners in the rest of LeicesterSHIRE (and Rutland) will make of that?
Will we also have "The sound of Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight" (Solent) and "The sound of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire" (Three Counties), I wonder? Catchy...
BBC Hereford and Worcester are the one station that are still on the old Mcasso package.
Not bloody surprised, they're right out in the sticks
If you think Worcester is in 'the sticks' you've never been to Carlisle or Truro!
I wonder why they never adopted it, reluctance to change or they just didn't like it? How does it work with licensing? The previous two packages came from the same company so having one straggler presumably didn't matter. Now they're moving to someone else does there have to be a quick transition as the Mcasso licenses are expiring?
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 7 January 2020 7:19am
Will we also have "The sound of Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight" (Solent) and "The sound of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire" (Three Counties), I wonder? Catchy...
'the Sound of the Solent' works well I think.
I'd have thought that the strapline/slogan will be different for each station, as they all are now. What works in Leicester won't for a more rural station.
