Back from the day of Lord Reith and his “Information, Education and Entertainment” policies, the BBC has been branding its self and is now without doubt the biggest broadcasting corporation in the world. Part of this is Jingles. A lot of work goes into the thousands of tiny jingles you probably don’t notice until they change. They are the unnoticeable sounds that inform you of when the shows are on, when you should listen and who you should ring. You know the ones, used around the news with the big “dum dee dum”. There are 40 stations that use Gerald and Chris for their jingles. The two man band travel the length and breadth of the country and occasionally to other countries for a more international jingle experience. They start off by talking to the station about what they want from the new jingle. “It’s all about wanting to create a single station sound” Gerald told me “We want to know exactly what they are looking for”. They take any numbers for the station, addresses of the station, web addresses for BBC Staffordshire, presenter names, show names…. Everything to make the jingles specific. Gerald and Chris get a few demos through of the kind of things they want. They have a listen and bask in the inspiration. Once the guys have sorted out exactly what is wanted they merely pop over to Seattle in America, where the jingles are made at ‘IQ Beats’. The reason they use America is due the huge amount of radio stations there is a huge amount of jingle companies. For Radio Stokes jingles there were 3 singers, all Americans from the local area in Seattle. There was the female voice Karen, Dennis the soul singer and a man who mimics famous singers, Michael. The music was sorted and so were the singers, it was just a case of making sure they pronounce everything correctly, for example “Stoke” or “John Acres” and not with an American accent. That’s the music side… but there were also voiceovers to consider. A lady called Trisha Birtram did these. She’s a pro in the business having years of experience and formerly working at the chief announcer at LWT who are the London Weekend Television. “The job for these people is to signpost everything for the listeners” said Gerald The new jingles are a mix of Brit Pop, Rock, Motown, Dance and Soul. I think that they sound great. They have a new modern twist to add some new flavour to the shows. They create a new energetic buzz that any listening experience needs. Something for all ages. You can here them on 94.6 and 104.1 FM BBC Radio Stoke as of the 12th September. | 
