GUIDELINES FOR PRODUCTION OF RADIO STATION IDENTIFICATION JINGLES [incomplete draft] by GRANT GODDARD

www.grantgoddard.co.uk February 2001

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WHAT ARE JINGLES? Jingles are very short pieces of music that a radio station broadcasts as an audio divider between other programming elements. For example, a jingle is played between the end of one song and the beginning of the next; a jingle is played at the end of a series of radio commercials and before the next piece of music is played; a jingle is played at the beginning and the end of a news report. Jingles can be purely instrumental, or they can comprise of a voice singing the station name and FM frequency over a music track, or they can be in the form of a voice speaking the station name, FM frequency and/or station slogan over a music track. WHY ARE JINGLES USED? Jingles are like the wrapper on a packet of biscuits or the box in which you buy soap detergent. You recognise the packet on the shelf of a supermarket when you buy it. The more distinctive the packaging, the more quickly you can identify the product you want. Radio jingles work the same way the more distinctive the jingles are, the more quickly the listener can be certain they are listening to the right radio station. Jingles that include the stations name and FM frequency (ie: Star Radio 106.9 FM) also help the RJ by announcing the station name in an interesting way, so that the RJ does not have to repeat exactly the same information between every song (ie: you are listening to Star Radio on 106.9 FM). Jingles also help in the transition between moods that results from two very different songs being played one immediately after the other. If a slow, romantic song with a slow, quiet fade-out is followed by a very fast song with a loud introduction, the listener will be startled by the sudden change of mood. Inserting a jingle between the two songs can help make the transition more easily. HOW LONG ARE JINGLES? The best jingles are very, very short 5 seconds on average, and 10 seconds at the most. They can vary in length but the most important characteristic is a jingle is made as short as is musically possible. Any extraneous audio needs to be edited out in order to leave the absolute bare bones of the jingle. WHAT IS THE MUSICAL STRUCTURE OF A JINGLE? A jingle needs to have a definite beginning, a definite middle section, and a definite end. It is not possible simply to edit 5 seconds from the middle of an existing song, because the 5-second sample will sound exactly what it is a sample of something bigger. Neither can a jingle simply fade up at the beginning or fade down at the end. Each jingle needs to begin naturally and end naturally. Creating and recording a 5-second song is an incredibly challenging task for musicians who are used to thinking in terms of minutes rather than seconds when they compose. A jingle can start with a drum roll, a piece of percussion, or the first note/chord of an instrument. Some jingles will
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end abruptly with a bang (+ reverb). Some jingles will end with a resonant chord or sound that fades naturally over a longer time period. WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF A JINGLE? Melody. In five to ten seconds, the listener needs to remember a simple melody of a few notes. Jingles are played very often on a radio station, so it will not take the listener long to memorise and recall the melody each time a jingle is played. The simpler the melody, the easier it is for the listener to recall. WHAT IS THE TONE OF A JINGLE? Fun. A jingle does not need to sound worthy or imposing. The best creative jingles play with listeners minds. When the jingle plays on the radio, you want the listener to be interested and entertained, in exactly the same way they would be if a good song is played on the radio. You want the jingle to interest the listener sufficiently that they go over to their radio and turn up the volume. Once the jingle finishes playing, it should arouse expectation in the listeners mind the listener will be eagerly waiting for the same jingle to be played again (the same reaction the listener has to a good song). VARIATIONS ON A THEME Jingles can be built around five to ten different themes. Jingles are like classical music you have a basic melody or a basic pattern of notes, and then you execute it in as many ways as possible. So you end up with jingles that use different instruments, play at different tempos, and play with the basic elements creatively. For example, one version of a jingle could have a false ending followed by the real ending, whereas another jingle could use the false ending as the real ending. The two jingles are identical in all other ways. As the jingle plays, the listener recognises the melody and the production, but there is no way the listener can tell (until the ending) which version of the jingle the station is playing until the very end. In this way, the jingle is playing with the listeners familiarity with the jingles and the listeners expectations. Hopefully, such an example entertains the listener in some small way. HOW MANY JINGLES IN TOTAL? Each theme might be executed in 10 to 20 different ways. Obviously it depends upon the creativity of the artists and producer. One theme might only embrace five variations, whilst another theme might warrant twenty different jingles as a result. There are no hard and fast rules. If a jingle is creative, clever, interesting, then it deserves to be used. A theme might result in 20 different variations but, at the end of the project, the best 15 of those might be selected to use on the radio station. DO JINGLES HAVE TO BE A SPECIFIC LENGTH? No. The artists involved can make them any odd length of seconds 5 seconds, 6 seconds, 7 seconds, 8 seconds it really does not matter.
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FULL FREQUENCY SOUNDS It is important when making jingles to consider what the listener will hear in different situations. Radio listeners will use everything from the cheapest transistor radio which only reproduces mid-range frequencies with no top end or bottom end, to a cheap car radio that only reproduces top-end frequencies, to a home hi-fi system that reproduces the full range of frequencies. Each jingle has to be produced in a way that it reproduces successfully on every type of audio system. Therefore, each jingle should include instrumentation that covers the full frequency range. This does not mean that all the instruments within a jingle need to follow the same melody line or rhythm pattern it makes it even more interesting if the listener hears a slightly different combination of sounds depending upon the audio system on which they listen to the station. TYPES OF JINGLES ID Transition Beds Stings

Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk

Guidelines For Production Of Radio Station Identification Jingles [incomplete draft] 2001 Grant Goddard

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