In a niche market, there are a handful of major jingles companies, mainly run by experienced, seasoned professionals, plus a plethora of smaller companies all jostling for a piece of the action.
The so-called ‘aural branding’ industry is a fast moving one and staying at the top takes commitment, hard work and a real understanding of the sometimes esoteric world of the radio jingle.
‘It’s all about connecting with the public,’ says Sandy Beech of Music 4. ‘If someone is walking down the street singing a jingle to himself, and that recalls the radio station, then we’ve done our job.’
Made in Dallas
The first company to produce syndicated radio jingle ‘packages’ was Dallas-based PAMS in the 1950s. (A package is the term for the set of styled musical identification elements used by the radio station to, for example, segue music together, introduce news and travel information and to keep up the station’s momentum by providing backing music under presenter speech.) Radio jingles crossed the pond with the pirate radio ships and in the UK they’ve been resounding in listeners’ ears since the swinging ‘60s.
Steve England was a presenter on original pirate station Radio Caroline before getting into radio production. ‘Back then, the Musicians’ Union stipulated that jingles had to be made in the UK, which led to the development of the UK industry,’ he says. ‘There are basically two types of jingle: those used for identification – or idents – and those heard on adverts.’
Steve England
With the loosening of the Union’s stranglehold, UK radio stations began buying jingles packages directly from the US. JAM, also a Dallas-based outfit, began producing jingles in 1974. England formed his company, Alfasound, in 1979.
‘We represented JAM,’ says England. ‘And the jingles were re-sung for the different stations, either in the US or the UK.’
The trend for American-made jingles took hold in the 1980s. But fashions come and go and at the start of the 1990s, radio stations began to consider jingles somewhat passé.
‘For five or so years there were no sung jingles made in the UK at all,’ says David Arnold of aural branding company David Arnold Music, ‘they were replaced by sweepers and sound design.’
UK flavour
Since then tastes have changed again, and toward the latter half of the 1990s UK-produced jingles came back into vogue.
Currently one of the busiest production companies is Music 4, which produces the jingles for Chris Moyles’ breakfast show on Radio One and has also worked on Virgin Radio’s breakfast show with Christian O’Connell.
‘Americans used to dominate the market,’ says Music 4’s Roger Dexter. ‘In 1997 we opened the doors when we did the first non-US package for Radio One. At the moment it’s split 50-50 between the US and the UK.’
'a jingle package should evolve and develop'
Dexter believes UK jingles have a distinct advantage over the US-produced packages. ‘UK jingles better reflect the changes in the fast-moving music scene over here,’ he says. ‘After the resurgence in rock, for example, a lot of jingles now are guitar-based.’
Fresh packages
Quality is of paramount importance, especially when such high production values are used in the records presenters are playing on air.
‘Chris Moyles uses big brass sections for his jingles because it’s ironic and funny, but it’s always of the very highest quality,’ says Dexter. ‘We use top session singers; people who have sung with the likes of Will Young.’
And with tastes constantly changing, it’s important for jingle packages to be updated.
As much a consultancy as an aural branding company, David Arnold Music analyses playlists, presenters and presentation style. ‘It’s naive to buy a jingles package, use it for two years, then throw it away and start again,’ says Arnold. ‘It should evolve and develop. BBC Southern Counties have just done a new package; it’s the same melody, but we’ve updated the style. It can now sit next to Will Young on the playlist.’
Jingle jangle?
The terminology can be baffling for people who’ve never been exposed to the world of broadcasting. Idents, sweepers, drops and stings are the elements that help identify the station between the songs. Beds and donuts are used by the station presenters to talk over to avoid ‘dead air’ thus helping to keep up the pace of the station. (A donut is so-called because it may be sung at the beginning and end and have a ‘hole’ of music to talk over in the middle).
'you’ve got to be a tunesmith…if you’re not, don’t bother'
Breaking into jingle-writing to make money requires hard graft. Dexter comments, ‘It’s difficult for people to get into. There’s a lot of competition and you need experience. In 1987, 15 companies pitched for the re-branding of Greater London Radio. Now there are a lot less.’
Joe Campbell runs Joe & Co alongside Paul Hart and works mainly in television. ‘Jingle-writing requires discipline because they are in multiples of seconds,’ he states. ‘Twenty-nine seconds, 39 seconds, 59 seconds… you need to be very disciplined to make it work.’
Tony and Gaynor Sadler work in both TV and radio and went from living in a bedsit for 11 years, to owning a large house in a leafy London suburb. They recommend songwriters to explore the possibilities of working in aural branding, although they warn against complacency. ‘You have to be really committed and take it seriously,’ says Gaynor, while Tony warns, ‘Don’t come into the business if you have an ego…And you have to love all styles of music.’
Music 4’s Beech emphasises, ‘Being a great musician isn’t enough. Unless you’ve worked in radio, it’s hard: you have to understand the dynamics and listen to what’s around you. But you can’t see it as an easy route to make money.’
Tunes help you…
And what of jingles to sell products? While commercial TV tends to exploit well-known music to identify and ally consumers with advertisers’ products, radio’s lesser budgets tend to require made-to-measure jingles.
‘Jingles for product advertising are still alive and kicking in the commercial radio industry,’ says Steve England. ‘Companies still want their name and telephone number sung in a memorable way. We produce a lot of that.’
And at the end of the day it’s all about writing great music.
‘You’ve got to be a tunesmith,’ says Campbell. ‘If you’re not, don’t bother.’
David Arnold adds, ‘Since the start of 2000, people have come back to the tune. Melody is at the heart of everything we do. That’s fundamental to all audio branding – start with the melody.’
This article originally appeared in M20, published June 2006.