One of my favourite websites is Jinglemad.com where many people discuss radio jingles past and present and upload their favourite cuts.
However there appear to be quite a few people on that site who appear to be living in the past and I was rather upset to find a thread posted about
the resignation from Lesley Douglas quitting her position as controller of Radio 2, and as a result this would possibly mean new jingles for Radio 2 ideally from JAM.
To give a clearer background JAM provided many jingles for both Radios 1 and 2 for over 20 years although despite breaking many grounds in jingles overall, the behind the scenes staff at the BBC decided to ditch them and not in a very fair manner from what I've heard.
What irritates me is that the thread was started by member Len Groat who spent the best part of two decades running Radio Trent/Trent FM and latterly GEM AM, commisioning some stunning jingle packages along the way.
Without wanting to be disrespectful, most of his posts come across as being very pompous and bitter about the current radio and jingle industry
(especially as they are written in bold type) and a thread like this is rather innapropriate despite many members agreeing with him.
Digressing slightly, Len made a return to the airwaves in 2007 hosting a Sunday afternoon show on the East Midlands Smooth Radio where he decided to use his own set of JAM jingles as opposed to the rather weak sounding Bespoke ones used on the rest of the network.
This didn't go down with the bosses and resulted in Len resigning all because of a fuss over jingles.
Then again from personal experience there's a real buzz about using JAM jingles on air and they were the main reason I wanted to get into radio. Luckily whilst I'm still on Smoke I'll have the chance as in the impossible situation of getting a job in proper radio I'd have no chance.
I also like how Len in his profile photo is stood next to Jon Wolfert holding a tape box of JAM's "Fresh KIIS" demo which is my favourite JAM package and I had a cut from that resung a few years ago which I still use.
Thankfully fellow member and ex Head of Presentation at Radio 2 Chris Stevens makes a very good point about "grave dancing" and I had to respond with a comment below.
I don't actually have the Whitney Houston jingle which was done in the style of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", although here are a selection of the others that Jim Moir commisioned on joining Radio 2 in 1996 that elaborate my point.
And it has to be said that the current Radio 2 jingles despite being used for just over 10 years still get sung by many people as a result of it's catchy melody logo that I imagine is the most known in the UK currently.
Although if less money was spent on people like Jonathan Ross, maybe they would be able to spend more of it on commisioning superb IDs which in Radio 2's case does need a bit of a refresh now and again. Now would probably be a good time actually.
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