Radio jingle jargon often gets used by radio production companies and it can be confusing to the every day DJ, podcaster and even some radio presenters who are just getting started. Mike attempts to lift the curtain on some common jingle terminology in this podcast.
iOS6 Podcasts App
Am I the only person that’s pretty happy with iOS6 maps from Apple? OK, it’s a work in progress and some of Scotland is covered in cloud plus the UK town of Uckfield was located in the wrong place but otherwise it’s fully functional and I like the integration with Yelp. I’ve just joined Yelp myself and like the idea of reviewing places under my real name.
My real interest is the Podcasts app in iOS6. Two updates in a week! Podcasts 1.1 and Podcasts 1.1.1.
First, you cannot play podcasts using the native ‘Music’ app any more! You actually need to download a brand new app to listen to any podcast on you iPhone. What I do like is the graphic interface, the ease of downloading podcasts right to your device and the similarity to Stitcher Smart Radio in that you can stream podcasts.
I’m having a tough time syncing between the Podcasts app and iTunes. Every time I listen to a podcast in the app and sync with iTunes it gets marked as unplayed again. If you can help by providing a solution to this issue please do let me know in the comments to this episode.
A Virtual Assistant for Podcast Production
The interest in hiring virtual assistants to help if you operate a small to medium sized business has boomed over the last 2-3 years. VAs can do everything from artwork to article writing and everything in between such as designing and setting up a website. Did you know that a virtual assistant can also be used for podcast production and editing?
I discovered this by listening to Your First Virtual Assistant Podcast with Jonathan Shank. Jonathan has a passion for VAs and is more than willing to share all he has learned knowledge in his podcast. I really enjoy editing and producing each podcast episode so I’m not sure I’d be fast to let that go from my weekly to do list but Jonathan highlights that VAs can help write up your show notes (like what you’re reading right now) this is a task that takes a large amount of my time and I’d be very happy to look into the possibility of outsourcing my show notes with a couple of conditions.
- I would need to read the notes before publishing them to make sure they resonate with my own thoughts and feelings.
- Even though my show notes could, in theory be written by another person I would still like to have creative input.
What do you think about outsourcing podcasting tasks? Have you done it already with any great success?
Audio Editing Google Hangout
I’m in the planning stages of a Google Hangout.
This is for you if you’d like to learn audio editing tips and tricks and get to grips with the basics of making a radio jingle from scratch or even if you’re a voice over artist looking to up your game and produce your own demo.
If you’re interested then add me to your Google+ circles and let me know you’d be interested in joining a Google Hangouts in which I’d teach some of the techniques you can use to create great sounding audio in my favorite audio editing software – Adobe Audition.
Jingle Jargon Translated into English
The main feature of this episode addresses the jingle jargon you often her jingle companies and production houses use when referencing a specific style of audio production. In radio a donut is quite different to a sticky, sugary treat and there’s no need to be scared if the disc jockey plays a shotgun out of an ad break. There’s an excellent article that covers all the common jingle jargon phrases that I refer to on the podcast on the RadioPresenting.com website.
To summarise a few terms we use on Music Radio Creative:
Ramp – Is the longest version of a sung jingle, usually 30 seconds in length, it contains music that a radio announcer can talk over until 5-10 seconds before the end when the radio station slogan and name will be sung by our jingle singers.
Slogan – This is another cut of the same sung jingle but without the ramp. At around 10 seconds it usually contains a radio station positioning statement (like “The Best Music Mix”) followed by the radio station name.
Shotgun – This is the shortest of all the sung jingle cuts and is normally just the radio station name on sung with music backing. Sometimes a shotgun radio jingle is refereed to as a short ID, super shotgun or even hyper shotgun. Whatever you call it this jingle gets the message across fast!
Jack FM Slogans
One of the most creative radio station brands I’ve recently heard is Jack FM which can be heard in the UK, US, Canada and even as far afield as Russia and Austria. The format is generally free of radio presenters so this leaves more scope (and budget) to write great radio jingle slogans. Here’s an example of a Jack FM slogan that I heard on Jack FM South Coast (UK) recently:
“Jack FM… friendship… it’s great! You can send your friends to sea.”
Audio Marketing on Next Week’s Podcast
You’ve heard of traditional marketing, will no doubt have seen many examples of internet marketing (from pop ups to mailing list opt in forms) and most probably experience social media marketing on a daily basis when you login to get your daily fix on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et al.
Next week, I’ll address audio marketing, specifically how can you get your audio content out to as many ears as possible using the internet. Stay tuned!
Do please leave a comment with your feedback on this week’s episode and pop a nice 5 star review on iTunes if you enjoyed reading and listening.
