Radio

Oooh Eeeee Ooooh – Goodbye Alan

| jamesstodd

I read today that Alan Fawkes, one of the co-founders of Alfasound Tapetrix jingle company in the late 1970s, has died.

I guess I can partly credit my interest in radio and then later in radio production to the jingles I used to hear coming out of my cheap AM radio as a 10 year old in Chichester for Radio Victory. (Tracked down via jinglemad.com)

Produced by Alfasound, these were no modern day classics – even with the soft filter of nostalgia. But at the time, these guys were pretty cutting-edge, producing the radio jingles for huge heritage commercial and BBC local stations across the UK. Hell, they even produced the jingles for my hospital radio station. Indeed, at the time, I probably spent way too many hours listening to their jingle demos – and the latter ones from JAM productions – wondering if one day I’d ever get to work on one of those stations. Little did I know that many years later, I’d be comissioning the jingle packages for Capital FM and the Capital FM network from companies such as Groove Addicts or Wise Buddah. I guess these guys helped inspire me in some way…

I once met Alan Fawkes and his colleague Steve England.  I drove up to Manchester with a friend for the day to visit the studios, have an look around, and sit in on a recording session From memory it was a package for BBC Radio Bristol – I remember Alan playing his tambourine. It seemed very British – certainly of a time. But these guys created the sound of much of British radio for over a decade.

And so another  page of UK radio history  turns and another figure sails away.

Sony Radio Awards nominated

| jamesstodd

Finally, one of my projects has been nominated for a Sony Award. For those who don’t know – the Sony Radio Academy Awards have been going for 28 years now – and celebrate the best of UK radio – from stations to presenters to producers and programmes. I’ve been part of a couple of winning entries including Lights Out London for Capital FM a few years back , but this one is purely production.

My work on the campaign for BBC Radio 3’s Composers of The Year Campaign has been shortlisted in the Best Promotional / Advertising Campaign category. And it’s up against some pretty big names too.It’s good to see 95.8 Capital FM get some nominations again this year – even if it means up against my friend Arden Hanley for his “Jingle Bell Ball” campaign. And there seems to be no stopping Jack FM too – produced by Joe Thomas. There are also entries from the BBC World Service and Real Radio too. So it’s a wide and varied field.

The Radio 3 campaign supported a very visual TV campaign which ran on TV last year. The challenge was to get across the key idea of stepping out of the “mundane” into a world where you could lose yourself in music. Here’s one of the TV trails:

These awards can be quite frustrating for a producer though as you don’t often get to hear the other entries you’re shortlisted against. So – in the spirt of sharing, I’m posting the audio from my radio campaign entry here.

Here’s Jack FM’s entry (thanks Joe):

If the other producers read this – please feel free to send me yours too and I’ll post them here too. That way – we can showcase some truly great (and very different campaigns).

[All audio (c) BBC. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purpose of review].

Who’s Getting Disruptive?

| jamesstodd

Do you recognise this sound then…?

 

IMAGE (C) BBC

I heard this fantastic bit of “disruptive” audio this morning during the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1. This was produced by BBC Radio X-Trails – a team I’m shortly joining as a producer – and is a great example of doing things a little differently from the normal. It is, in effect, a teaser trail, for the new series of Doctor Who which starts this Saturday night on BBC1. However – the premise for this is effectively that the Doctor has crashed his TARDIS into the radio station – works out where he is – andsays stuff that points towards the new series – without giving a direct call to action.

What makes this effective is the fact that the “break in” to programming is fairly obvious – and that the TARDIS sound occurs fairly early on – making it effectively a “sonic trigger”. Promotion for the new Doctor Who series is all over the media at the moment – from Youtube to the BBC Website – and with the new Doctor appearing on shows such as Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and the likes – this is a clever way to build audio into the mix. My guess is that more traditional trails with a specific call to action will follow.

And have you ever heard a DJ interrupted mid-link before? Takes a bit of preparation beforehand – but sounds quite clever too!

So how could you make this sort of thing  work on your station? Get thinking…

[All audio (c) BBC. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purpose of review].

Get Into The Groove

| jamesstodd

Steve Martin posted this video on his blog recently – from a recording session for a station at Groove Addicts in Los Angeles (from Jingle News)

I was really glad to see this – since I had the pleasure of working with these guys back in December 2002 and  February 2003 on a massive jingle package for the old Capital FM Network. They are a fantastic team of people who have been doing what they do for decades. From memory, I think they tend to do far more work for commercials now than radio stuff, but this is a really interesting example of how they work.

The Groove Addicts Plane

Making radio  jingles is done in so many different ways. You don’t necessarily need massive studios and huge bands in a studio to create a big sound. But they are in L.A.- and in L.A. – you do things BIG. And it’s all about the client as well – a huge sun terrace with catered lunch – food and drink on tap and a fantastic vibe to fire off too.

The studios at Groove Addicts are massive. In fact, when they were built, the building had a small plane hanging from the inside of the roof. So they built the studios, breakout area and all the facilities around it. It’s pretty cool to be playing a game of pool in between sessions with this plane overhead. And the staff are pretty freindly too (though not quite sure why I’m smiling so much..).

Seeing the video got me a little nostalgic for that package we worked on back in 2002 – it was a huge effort really. The demos came about pretty quickly in the November of 2002 and we had it all on air in the spring of 2003. At the time, I was working with our production consultant Jean-Michel Meschin of Soniic Design in France. He now mainly cuts radio ads for French movies – but still works on radio imaging too. In fact – there are still some elements of his influence on air in the production of Fun Radio in France where he was one time production director.

(L-R Phil-X, Gerhard Joost and Jean-Michel Meschin

And the highlight was probably working with these guys – the composer/musician etc Phil-X who composed the rockier stuff (including the Top of Hour)- and the engineer Gerhard Joost. In fact – Phil had a band who we saw live at the House of Blues when we were over there – and this was one of their songs. OTT or what?

The Jingle Bell Ball Rocks

| jamesstodd

I remember writing, back in June, about 95.8 Capital FM’s Summertime Ball. My conclusion was that the event was great, but the online coverage were pretty average.

This weekend, they ramped it up 1000 per cent – and gave a pretty much perfect example of how this sort of event can live and breathe online and on air.

If I’d been a listener getting ready to go to the ball, there was pretty much everything  I’d have wanted. From online travel guides, to background on all the artists. And as the weekend arrived, the content ramped up too.

From their YouTube channel, there was this clever  preview of the stage going up:

And as the event progressed, all the backstage interviews arrived here too. From Ne-Yo to JLS, to the most viewed at present – Miley Cyrus.

But my favourite part was the online blog, and more impressive – the Twitter update feed. This gave a really interesting insight into the whole event, from the buildup to what was going on backstage. Even the iPhone app had photos and content updated on it throughout the evening – great for listeners on their way home listening to the station.

And from the look of it – the listeners enjoyed it too.

As the promos said last night – “only Capital could do an event like this” It was big. It was in your face . And it was 2 sell-out nights at the O2.

Nice one Capital.

Student Radio Comes of Age

| jamesstodd

Picture from http://www.studentradio.org.uk

I once won a Student Radio Award. It was way back in 1992 – in whichever incarnation the Student Radio Association was then in. I won Best Male DJ – and was presented the award by Liz Kershaw at a very informal awards ceremony in the Students Union of Hull University. It didn’t lead to a glittering presenting career (unless you include random shifts on mercury FM and a year doing drivetime on Mercury Extra 1521am). However, it did cement my passion for radio and for the benefits of student radio.

My station was C4 Radio in Canterbury – now long gone – replaced by CSR. It was a tiny station with absolutely no budget – well maybe £1000 for a year if we were lucky. In the first year, everyone could hear it in the Halls of residence. In fact, my first experience was in Freshers week when we encountered Jon Holmes (before the record Ofcom fine) knocking on our doors with a free delivery service of baked potatoes. We had loads of fun though – raising money by organising student nights in the ropey Studio 3 nightclub. And using the production facilities of the college’s Radio Film and television department. And it must have taught us all something. Apart from Jon Holmes, people such as Kevin Hughes, Will Roffey, Michael Chequer, Andy Garland and more were kicked out into the real world of radio.

So last night, the great and good of student radio gathered at the IndigO2 for the Student Radio Awards 2009. And you can see all the award winners here. I was proud for the 4th year to have been asked to judge one of the categories, and yet again, was blown away by what these stations are doing and what they can achieve.

Now, there are many differences. Back when I was doing it, we had no internet, no streaming, and frankly very few ways to promote the station apart from a photocopier and pinning posters to noticeboards. Nowadays, these stations are as advanced, if not more advanced than their commercial and BBC rivals. They all, on the most part, have great websites; they use social networking in clever ways, and people can listen however and whenever they like. One year at C4, we found our whole AM loop system destroyed by construction of a new building. It took ages to fix, and we were somewhat limited to broadcasting on speakers to the student union. One station this year faced a similar problem – they simply moved online and streamed the whole station.

I judged the Best Live Event or Outside Broadcast category. And this featured some really interesting entries, from CUR’s coverage of the May Bumps, to various varsity matches. But I was really proud to see CSR – the reincarnation of C4 radio, win the silver for this category. I’m guessing they have smaller resources than many student stations, but managed to surpass many technical challenges to create a range of output live from Lounge on the Farm. Congratulations also to Smoke Radio for winning the Gold for Smoke’s Summer sendoff – a challenging week of outside broadcasts that took the station out to various campus sites across London – and some really engaging content too.

Last night’s awards was heavily supported again by BBC Radio 1, who genuinely support the work of the SRA, in both the awards and also at various events such as The Big Weekend. It goes without saying, they should be doing it and they genuinely engage with it. What was good to see was the involvement to a far greater level from Global Radio this year. Last year, Ashley Tabor, the CEO, was there. This year, Director of Broadcasting Richard Park was there along with a load of the groups DJs too. And they clearly see the value of student radio in developing new talent.

But most importantly, as Matt Deegan noted in his blog, it was the enthusiasm of the students which was the most importnat to see. They are the next generation of broadcasters, engineers and producers. If UK radio doesn’t give them a chance, then it is dead in the water. And if you are in radio,  or even if you’re not but feel you have insight to offer, then get involved. You can find out more about the I Love Student radio campaign here

So – to the award winners – congratulations – may you go on to good things. And to those who entered and didn’t win, or who didn’t do as well as they wanted, keep pushing the boundaries, be different and enjoy. It may be the best radio years of your life. But it should b fun.

Capital – (Hot Rockin’) at Last?

| jamesstodd

It’s been over 12 months since I left Capital FM.

When I left, I had mixed feelings. Here was a station which I’d put loads of time and effort into as part of a dedicated production team who had been passionate about making it succeed, despite many changes in direction, format and leadership. We’d had to face being judged day in day out by media obeservers, the press and at many points, by the City.  Yet, throughout it all, there was a core team of people who really did want it to get better.

So you can maybe understand that I was a little cynical about the sound being created by the new owners in the months after I left.

Well, for the record, I think they were probably right. To make a wholesale change, you really do need to be brutal – strip stuff down and get back to basics. As an imaging producer, for me the sound was too simple, too basic. But it has probably done the job it was intended to do. Strip it back, let  the music talk, and then start building on a few core things; big events, the biggest hits and the big stars. And that’s what they’ve done.

And I think it’s an important point to be aware of. You can’t just produce the type of radio you want to hear as a producer. It has to be attuned to how the listener hears it, and relate to them in the right ways. What I find now in my current job, working for Pure Tonic Media, is that there’s a real need to be able to switch your ways of thinking depending on the particular project you’re working on. In one week, I can be making material for CHR format stations, a rock format and then, like last week, BBC Radio 3 and 4

But there has to be room in station imaging for touches of humour or topicality.  And there are odd moments of that in Capital’s current production used for the Jingle Bell Ball. In fact this morning I heard a brilliantly simple piece featuring Sir Michael Caine uttering the line “even I can’t get tickets; the only way I’ll be able to get in is to blow the bloomin’ doors off”. Simple, creative and fun. I hope they’ll start doing this more on occasion – otherwise it can all begin to sound a little one dimensional.

In fact, events like the Summertime Ball and currently the Jingle Bell Ball now show how much Capital is heading back on track.

Nik Goodman mentioned recently how he thought the current TV ad for the event had pretty poor production values for such a big brand. I do agree it doesn’t look a million dollars and doesn’t sound that creative. However, it is in your face and has a pretty simple message: we’ve got the biggest stars, you want to come ,and the only way you can is to listen to us. Yes it’s big, bragging and boastful – but good or bad, that’s what Capital does well. You don’t go to them for insightful analysis. You go there for Johnny Vaughan having a laugh with the punters, the latest Black Eyed Peas song and concert tickets. And if they can win with that in a crowded market, they should keep doing it.

Being Big

| jamesstodd

The other day I shared a link to this on Twitter and my friend @matt shared it on his blog

It’s a fantastic way to promote a massive event such as the MTV Video Music Awards. In fact, it’s a really good example of what you can do with some creative thinking and, I guess, a really big budget. And I wonder how many awards Britney, Katy Perry, Ne-Yo and Cobra Starship win on the night? I guess that doing this film for MTV won’t do their chances any harm.

So if MTV can do it – why can’t anyone.

NRJ did it in a similar way for their awards in January. OK – not with a song and dance spectacular. But still, featuring a load of big artists including Coldplay and Rihanna

But what stops you getting a big Hollywood Star in your video? Just a simple idea, good planning, and the balls to do it without asking I guess. Welshy – the former panel-op and audio producer on Johnny Vaughan’s Capital Breakfast show came up with this when the Bourne Ultimatum opened in London.

It may be long – but it’s a really nice idea – and the fact that they got the payoff with Matt Damon made this a really fun video – and got it some nice viral mileage as well.

Seacrest Gets Viral

| jamesstodd

Twitter is taking brands – whether commercial, radio, or celebrity – to a whole new level. It allows consumers or “fans” to get something extra. Some of it is an interesting insight into people’s lives and some is dull. But it certainly furthers the levels of interaction. In radio – loads of people are doing it. I learn what’s going on from Absolute Radio. I get the latest travel news from Southeastern trains. And I find out what the new big tunes are on BRMB via Tweets from Darren Lee.

In America, Ryan Seacrest has taken it to a whole new level. Not content with being on air in Los Angeles on KIISfm,  his show is  also syndicated across the country. Plus he does American Idol. And wherever he goes – he tweets. He’s great at interacting with his followers. And you get updates on all his sites as well. In short – he (and his team) – are masters of self promotion.

And if you’re as well known as Seacrest – why not join up with one of your other Twitter chums like Ben Stiller  – to up the number of followers with a viral video?

Enjoy…