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Radio Two New Jingles???
occy
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I thought l read somewhere Radio Two were geting some new jingles and new set of Christmas jingles?
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occy
Posts: 65,396 occy
Posts: 65,396 occy
Posts: 65,396
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However, like the McCasso situation with the BBC local "network" semi-generic jingles, the contract was being operated via BBC Worldwide which meant THEY and not BBC Programming were controlling the procurement.
US company Grooveworx, who had held the existing main contract since approx 1997 and the last JAM package, were eventually "awarded" the new contract in June this year.
BBC WW though had imposed certain commercial conditions on the contract, especially one where THEY demanded all the worldwide publishing rights & royalties to the proposed package - i.e. the jingle company would only get paid for creating & producing it - saving & earning the BBC's commercial arm a fortune in playout royalties, but meaning the jingle company would simply cover its costs.
Anyone who knows the jingle game knows that custom packages only break even as a production commission - but really earn their keep via re-sings & airplay royalties, all of which in this case would be denied to the producer but theoretically raked in by WW.
Even though Groove "won" the contract, BBC Worldwide insisted on their demands, so for probably the first time in jingle history a jingle producer actually walked away from a large officially-won-and-awarded contract from a prestige client.
On their website Grooveworx also published their "demo" of the prototype cuts they prepared for the "competition", with some appropriate comments about BBC WW's attitude.
Worth saying - the creative "radio people" at the BBC WERE NOT those who blew this - purely the non-comprending "money-makers" at BBC Worldwide.
Read about Groove's view of it all here:-
http://www.grooveworx.com/jingles/bbc2/
It's been running about a year. you clearly don't listen much.
The new news jingles has less brass and was a bit more modern. Evolution not revolution. What do you want This IS RA-DIO
TWO
No need to be nasty, It just doesn't sound any different to the one that has been in use for what seems to be an eternity.
Sure, work out a deal on big drama and other shows which make a fortune in the international market. But don't steal creator's rights, certainly not on something like jingles. No big radio group in the UK is likely to be stupid enough to buy a resing of a current BBC network package (though I recall the 1980s when BBC Midlands and Radio Trent had a few shared cuts) and I think, on this matter, BBC Worldwide have made a mistake.
That said, I agree that some of the cuts might have sounded a little "noisy" on R2. The Mike Harding ones are OK but I'd have liked to have heard some softer mixes, which no doubt would have emerged had the full package been commissioned.
BTW, the current top of the hour news jingle was remixed last year, but the actual melody/main logo has been used by R2 since 1997. Personally I like it.
I agree. It reminds me of the saccharine cover versions period they used to play during the 60's and 70's before they updated the format. It still sounds like a relic from the Light Programme.
If they've been used since 1997, I've not heard many complaints, so what if they're 14 years old???
This topic needless to say has appeared on jingle-related forums.
"BBC Worldwide - or indeed any part of the BBC - shouldn't be looking to capitalise on ownerhship of works like this"
Its been suggested that BBC WW are trying to run jingle procurement in a similar way to procuring programmes (chalk and cheese there though); also its been suggested they are mainly media-types more used to the world of commercial adverts where an ad agency is commissioned to create an ad/jingle/commercial and the production house gets paid for just the ad work/production, but not for "residuals" - and the ID jingle world doesn't work that way - it IS all about syndication and repeat re-sings and thats their bread & butter; seems thats something BBC WW don't quite understand - or perhaps do understand and are being greedy.
For a TM or JAM or Reelworld or Groove to take on such a contract would be pointless - imagine e.g. Ford being commissioned by a small Car Showroom in Birmingham to "create" a new design of car, then being told that only that car showroom would be exclusively allowed to sell/market the cars to the entire world and they would collect all the profits from Ford's design & production experience and Ford would get no more money at all from the deal. Ford would laugh their heads off; perhaps the JAM/TM/RW/etc people are too polite & professional to publically say their opinions., even if Groove as the incumbent main producer of 14 years standing have made it very clear what they think of the situation.
Maybe the "old days" of the Head of R1/R2 simply phoning up JAM or Groove or whatever and saying "right, here's the budget, tell us what we can get and what you can do for it, then get on with it right away" are gone. Instead, a committee has dithered and faffed away at a year's worth of expense(s) insisting on their "we take all" approach with still no result - and thats 6 months now since the "winner" told them what they could do with their "we want the publishing rights" demands.
This approach also appears to have caused the BBC Local stations to have "been obliged" to adopt the somewhat "cheapo" insipid McCasso IDs being rolled out across them; this apparently was also "organised" via BBC WW. McCasso had no real experience of ID jingle packages either, and are from an "ad agency" background too.
NB - all the smaller "supplementary" R2 mini-packages from e.g. S2Blue (Tony Blackburn), JAM (Terry Wogan), etc etc are not part of this "main package" situation.
When Grooveworx were Groove Addicts/Who DId That Music they produced some fantasic 'big' sounding jingles (they had the Capital Radio Group account for over 10 years, and produced the original set of Radio Two post JAM) - and unlike other jingle companies - gave you the full instrumental track lock-outs, so you brought one jingle, and with pro-tools you could have had upwards of over 20 instrumental versions of the same jingle.
I still can't understand this obsession with JAM.
Back in the 70's and 80's and the music policy and presentation of Radio Two was more older and mature, those Ray-ddee-ooo twooooo jingles sounded OK - but listening to some of the current cuts on the JAM website, none of them would sit very well with the current Radio 1.5 style of programming and music playlists Radio Two has at the moment.
As much as I like the work of JAM, there is a fair number of those who long for it to return to the BBC full time, as if their life depends on it.
wise buddah have also resung vocals onto Groove tracks - with permission.
Me neither. I love JAM, but I also recognise that they are a bit dated now and their work doesn't sit comfortably on stations where the jingles are designed to blend in to the music. The people who argue for their return also tend to be the people who want radio to sound how it did 20-30 years ago and complain how awful x station is nowadays.
Not really
I think the difference between Jam & some of the others is that Jam ones stand the test of time far better.
I was listening to a US station the other day that uses re-sings of the old Z100 jingles from the early 90s.They still sound good today, 20 years after Z100 & some UK stations used them.
Most of the others i've heard like the current R2 ones sound tired after just a few years & the date horribly.
As stated - present incumbent Grooveworx, back in June - but they've declined to continue due to the financial conditions on the contract imposed by BBC WW AT THE TENDER STAGE - Groove maybe thought they'd called WW's bluff - but they weren't bluffing.
So now no-one has the new contract. 6 months on.
After 14 years, no new R2 main package jingles - unless someone equivalent to a McCasso steps forward, or an "old pals act" deal arises not a million miles from Broadcasting House.