Radio Jingles

Radio Jingles

A Radio Jingle is designed to advertise something such as a radio show, station events or other media products like upcoming films or TV shows and of course commercial products. Other Jingles include station idents which are important for listeners to know what radio station they are listening too. All Jingles are different as they each have their own target audience they appeal too.
When making a Jingle it’s important to know what it’s for, and who’s it for? A BBC radio 1 audience for example tend to have jingles with lots of sound FX and echo affects that feature lots of non-diegetic sounds that are constantly changing and have been computer edited. Also the voice over tends to contain an echo also. The Jingle tends to last for at a minute which is quite long for a Jingle. They sometimes will play lots of small sections from songs that might be played within the show itself to allow the audience to know the theme of the show that Jingle is intended for.
However a Jingle for BBC radio 4 targets a much older audience and they tend to be much shorter in length only about 30 seconds at most. They feature soft melody background music that can be linked to the host of the show. The voice over is softly spoken in an clear manner that is easily understood, there are no sound FX or echo’s used at all.
Station idents are different from normal Jingles as they never change and always sound similar no matter what station you listen too.

Codes and Convention of a radio Jingle
· They always contain speech in the form of a voice over that provides clear and relevant information.
· They always have music that is also relevant to the target audience.
· Station idents occur frequently and are always the same sounding.
· Sow promotions always give the name of the show and who presenting along with the time of day the show is on.