BBC Radio 1

Scottish Is.. The Longest Promo Ever?

| jamesstodd

 

Deep Fried mars Bars
Having worked as a radio promo producer for many years, it’s not often that I hear a bit of production that really  grabs me and makes me sit glued listening to the radio. This morning, I think I heard it.

BBC Radio 1 are currently promoting their coverage of the T in The Park Festival in Scotland.

 

15 hours of television coverage for BBC Three and BBC One and Two Scotland, featuring on the HD channel, 115 hours streaming on the red button across the three days and almost 90 hours on the catch-up service. All that plus highlights for BBC Two and BBC Scotland plus 12 hours of radio on Radio One and Radio Scotland.  Starting on Three at 8pm on Friday 8th July, Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates will be in the tree house studio overlooking a newly designed site, Greg James will be out and about soaking up the atmosphere and local lads Ally McRae from Radio One and Vic Galloway from Radio Scotland will be bringing expert local knowledge

Radio 1 are running standard trails for this – including music from the artists performing and listeners talking about their passion for the event. That works really well .

But then between 2 songs on the Chris Moyles Show this morning, I heard the audio version of this between 2 other songs.

 

It’s a 3 minute promo. With one simple call to action. But it has created a huge buzz. It’s been produced by Matt Fisher, one of the station sound team at Radio 1 along with his colleague Rob Lewis. Matt told me:

We asked the Scottish listeners via our facebook page what being Scottish meant to them. Their replies inspired and fed into the script. Track is Biffy Clyro – God & Satan, VO is Louis Mellis – Scottish VO and Actor. 

It’s a stunningly simple piece of production. It’s under-produced. There hasn’t been a temptation to fill it with unnecessary sound effects. I really hope it wins some awards – it certainly deserves to.

 

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I want it all (and maybe iCloud will give it to me now) UPDATE

| jamesstodd

Back in 2009, I wondered whether one day I’d be able to listen to what I wanted, when I wanted it on my commute to work. I wondered whether I’d be able to switch on my portable device and get the latest news, the latest weather and maybe a selection of content alongside the music I wanted.

Yesterday’s announcement by Apple of the new iOS and also iCloud made me think that maybe this idea could be getting nearer. It looks like, along with allowing me to sync up anything I’ve bought from iTunes, by using iTunes Match, I’ll be able to (at a small cost) match up what I already have on iTunes and sync it with the cloud.

But, surely, there’s more to it than that. From what I understand, and I may be wrong), I’ll be able to sync my iphone up wirelessly with my library. So I’m hoping that since my library not only contains music but also podcasts, that they will sync as well.

If this is the case, this surely offers some interesting options for radio broadcasters.

In a post yesterday, Radio Intelligence asked “is podcasting radio’s enemy?“. The conclusion is that it’s not – but there are some broadcasters who still disagree.

It would be oh so nice if the radio trades spilled some digital ink on these types of broadcasters rather than creating the impression that radio can simply step into a tricked out DeLorean where it’s always 1999.

There has been much discussion of how radio still has a place within the music industry. One of these roles is that of Music Curation. This could be as diverse as new music from Radio 1, or Capital FM bringing you the latest hit record first. Does this always-synced future from Apple now mean that Capital FM should be publishing Smart iTunes playlists that contain the weeks new releases? If you are a Capital fan, you could have this on your iTunes account. Each week, as it syncs, it would show you the new songs that Capital has added – and that you could then buy (maybe with a nice partnership deal for Capital and Apple to get a share of revenues).

But there’s more. If my iPhone now syncs podcasts, couldn’t Capital FM produce a daily podcast that is in effect a topical call to action, a setup of an online-only contest entry or quick excerpt of that days big guest from the breakfast show. Maybe there could be a series of short “blipcasts” – no longer than 60 secs – that have a showbiz update or maybe a daily contest. If there were a way to combine this into a smart playlist with the biggest songs from the Capital playlist – then maybe there’s a way of reaching potential Capital listeners who don’t listen on the move.

And, (thanks to Radio Intelligence for the Twitter suggestion), I’d call it Capital Fm On Demand

Now whilst this may not be possible yet – and indeed the iCloud may not yet offer this – maybe my hoped for future is starting to get nearer.

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Moving the (audio) Furniture

| jamesstodd

What happens when your favourite station changes its furniture – be that it’s jingles, it format, it presenters or even its name?

Photo by @delrico http://yfrog.com/h8mvhegj

Photo by @delrico http://yfrog.com/h8mvhegj

This morning, BBC Radio 1 refreshed the sound of its news bulletins.  You can hear how it sounds on Newsbeat here. The previous package had been on air since around 2006, so a refresh was probably overdue. I’m sure there will be lots of discussion on some forums – but I think it works really well. It sounds fresh, contemporary and fits the current direction of the station.

The new sequence features the phrase “Listen, Watch, Share” – which itself received 30 minutes or so of discussion from Chris Moyles at the start of today’s show. The logic is simple – and fits with the strategy of Radio 1. It’s now as much about online as it is about radio. And there are opportunities to “share” all over the Radio 1 website. Though strangely, on the Radio 1 new pages you can only “Bookmark”.

Moving the “audio furniture” of any radio station is harder than you think. Listeners are used to familiarity and routine. Since a lot of radio listening is fairly passive/ in the background, when something changes, it doesn’t sound right. When stations change presenters, some listeners get annoyed. When stations rebrand or become part of a network, some feel like they have lost some local identity. And sometimes, when changes are proposed, the audience can get very vocal – such as when the Radio 4 controller decided to change the theme to a long running feature.

At some of my previous stations,  loads of thought was put into how any changes on air happened. And in some, the mantra was “get it on air – they’ll get used to it”. At Radio 1, I’m guessing the change will have been carefully considered, piloted and refined.

And if you want to “share” this – the buttons are below..

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