Sung jingles banned
The man who will define a new generation of young radio listeners in the United Kingdom, Nick Grimshaw, will take to the airwaves in just over a month. Chris Moyles was famous for who ‘brand new cheesy songs’ and sung radio jingles. Are the creators of the new Radio 1 Breakfast Show simply trying to ensure that Grimshaw sounds different to Moyles or is there a deeper message?
The opportunity to pitch for the imaging contract is still open for another few days (until 15th August) and in the ‘opportunity to bid’ document from the BBC it specifically states: “Please steer clear of sung jingles”.
Does this mean the end of the line for sung jingles? Has the axe fallen on jingle singers? Are music jingles a thing of the past for the modern radio listener?
What do you think? Leave a comment with your views.
About Mike Russell
This is clearly an attempt to make Grimshaw different. They will have to do something special as I've always thought of him as a bit dull and unimaginative to listen to. But then again when you have a production staff of 7 how can you go wrong?
The thing I loved about Moyles is that he was a self confessed 'radio geek' and loved radio jingles. This was reflected in the overall fun jingle sound of his breakfast show. Will Grimshaw's 'imaging' blend in with the rest of Radio 1's house style or will it be something completely different and set a new trend?
Well I'm a Kenny everett fan all the way and I'm sorry but nobody can match his little sonnets, even PAMS weren't as creative. So if radio 1 want to turn there back on sung jingles let em and let the rest of us be as creative as we want.
Spike Hammond I agree 100% about Kenny Everett. Will we ever hear a show like his on the radio again? I was always inspired by Pat Sharp's 10 jingles in a row on Capital in the 1990s… those where the days! Tony Blackburn is a great listen on BBC Radio 2 with his re-sung PAMS jingles to match the era when he first started at Radio 1. At least the BBC still have a flagship radio station where sung jingles still live?
It makes sense I guess. Nick Grimshaw's show will be different from Moyles and the imaging will reflect this. Agree with the comments on Everett and Pat Sharp, they had the skills to make the identification of their show as memorable as themselves. It would have been clearly noticeable and different without such imaging.
That's right Robin – I agree. Looking at the production brief one thing that stands out to me was that they don't want it to sound like ANY former Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
Moyles is a hard act to follow, they probably just want to steer things in a different direction. Anyway, isn't Moyles staying at Radio 1? I heard his contract isn't up for a while yet, so maybe he'll be using his sung jingles at a weekend slot…
That's right. The new guy needs to make his own mark and not sound like anything that's been before. Radio 1 absolutely should be cutting edge so I can see why they have made this decision.