Endless Archiving

There are occasions when I get a bout of "producer's block" with
little inspiration on things to search for on the old Youtube.

However on viewing the newspaper review on today's This Morning
I noticed one of the pundits was Mik Scarlet, a broadcaster and
muscian who used to present a show on Channel 4 in the early
90s by the name of "Beat That".

It immediately prompted a Youtube search resulting me finding
an episode from 1991.

The format was ahead of its time as it's now commonplace
to find not just children's programmes, but just about anything
on television putting ordinary individuals into tough tightly timed
challenges, in the Apprentice age.

Though cutting to the chase, the one memorable part of the programme (unsurprisingly on my part) was the theme tune, which is your
typical early 90s fodder of orchestra hits, swirly pianos
and the show's title repeated at different pitches.

On viewing the end credits, it says the theme was by Mcasso,
who nowadays are behind the sonic identity of BBC Local Radio
that can be heard on all the English BBC Local Stations
and have irritated many jingle anoraks.

Though personally I think it's a memorable audio brand,
though I have never heard the sung "BBC" used on air.

Far less lazy use of archive research is discussed on the latest
podcast from the BBC College of Production where a panel
of television and radio producers give an interesting insight
in how to go about using archives.

Most useful of all is the idea of having a specific idea of 
what you're searching for, rather than making a visit to
the archives and rummaging left right and centre.

Though quite often a find from the archives spirals off
into other areas altogether.

One of the panelists is Heather Davies from Unusual Productions
who happens to be one of the women I mentioned in yesterday's
blog post and would have been a good speaker at the Social
Media in Radio event.

In the words of fellow producer Trevor Dann, it's proof that
no matter how wide or personal the scale, "archives are fun!".