How production used to be done

This is a great fun video introduction to an awards category at the American Mercury Radio Awards from 1995.

I have no idea why this has suddenly surfaced fifteen years after it was made but it’s great fun and a glimpse into a world that’s changed so much with digitisation.

If you’re young enough never to have used analogue tape, carts and a live mixing desk for your production then this is for you. See what hell your forefathers went through so you can sit at a Mac all day.

Tags: archive, production, the Greaseman

Can Roy Keane win in Ireland?

Whenever I’m in Ireland I always listen to Newstalk 106-108.

You might enjoy the mix too: think of the harder-edged opinionated end of LBC 97.3 crossed with some US public radio-style arts and business coverage and a bunch of sport at the weekend. With its intelligent, quirky presenter/journalists, national coverage and a strong overall sound Newstalk provides direct competition for the public broadcaster RTE.

I also like the station’s imaging producer John Davies. John’s a guy I employed some years ago at the BBC because he had the imagination and enthusiasm to make promo campaigns that delivered a direct clear message but weren’t formulaic.

Now he’s got his station nominated in Ireland’s Radio Advertising awards for this promo featuring Roy Keane and a mobile phone.

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Hear how John takes the audio entirely out of context, totally misrepresents the situation and implies a third-party endorsement which didn’t exist. All the things I told him never to do when he worked for the BBC. Good work.

This promo is up for public vote in the awards so if you want to support John just email “Best Radio Station Entry = Newstalk – Roy’s Press Conference” to radioadvertisingawards@hunterpr.ie – but hurry, the ceremony is on Friday.

Creative Review for February

Matt Lomax and Kerry McCarthy.

Here it is then… the difficult second edition of the Earshot Creative Review. It’s been wonderful to get such a positive reaction from the first programme and more than two hundred downloads is certainly many more than any of us expected.

This month we bring BBC Radio 3’s Kerry McCarthy and Matt Lomax together. As you’ll hear, they got on rather well despite reading from opposite ends of the radio production stylebook.

Speaking of books, there’s a review of The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, recommended for busy but disorganised radio promotions people and we uncover the true story behind the groovy ad for Daniel’s Fish and Chips.

Play the audio here: Duration 30′00″ (see, we’re pros).

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Download the mp3 (28.1M).

Subscribe via iTunes.

Music beds in this edition are all courtesy of radiobeds.co.uk Voice imaging is by Dan Snaith.

If you’d like the producers of the Daniel’s Fish and Chips jingle to produce something for you, call David Greenwood on 07967 655275.

Any views expressed in this feature are those of the contributors and not of the BBC or Bauer Media (or Daniel’s Fish and Chips come to that). We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purpose of review.

Tags: BBC Radio 3, Kerry McCarthy, Kiss, Matt Lomax

Creative Review for January

Steve Martin, James Stodd and Dan Snaith

The Earshot Creative Review is a new feature in which some of radio’s finest production and imaging producers play their latest work and talk about it.

In this edition, James Stodd of PureTonic Media reveals how he promoted BBC Radio 3 with some office noises, Dan Snaith shows how he use focus groups to generate material for a BBC News campaign that aired on Radio 1 and we only just manage to resist singing along to a groovy fish and chip shop ad from Dorset’s Wessex FM.

There’s also a chance for you to choose the strapline for the Earshot Creative Review.

Play the audio here: Duration 26′04″.

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Download the mp3 (around 24M).

Subscribe to the Earshot Creative Review as a podcast via iTunes.

Download a transcript of this programme (.rtf file)

This is all very new to all of us, so your comments, criticisms and tips and suggestions of content and guests for future editions would be very welcome.

Recorded in the Langham Hotel, London. Imaging kindly produced by Dan Snaith. Thanks to the nice lady who took the photograph and then charged us a King’s ransom for our drinks. Transcription by Good to Go transcription of Richmond. Any views expressed in this feature are solely those of the contributors and not those of the BBC. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purpose of review.

Tags: BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, Dan Snaith, James Stodd, Wessex FM

The rise of mobile

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How often have you heard the line “on tv, on radio, online”? We’ll here’s a campaign promoting content on a different mix of platforms.

These promos are for the BBC’s coverage of the Africa Cup of Nations. They’re on air in West Africa and, as you’ll see and hear, they promote coverage on radio, online and mobile with a strong emphasis on the latter.

Thing is, in much of Africa, online means mobile. A recent report picked up by guardian.co.uk highlighted some of the most popular mobile services. Top of the list was Facebook. The BBC was in the top 10 in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia and Zambia. And the mobile web is growing fast in Africa with page impressions are up 374% in a year.

So what does this mean for radio?

Well, the BBC’s own Hausa language radio service, popular in Northern Nigeria, already has more than 5000 members to its new Facebook group. This from a largely rural part of a relatively poor country where fixed broadband access is out of the reach of the vast majority of people.

In the coming weeks I shall be spending some time in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria and will aim to bring back insights from the broadcasters there who are aiming to make the most of mobile.

But for now here are two tiny insights which go some way to suggest how important mobile has become to life in these countries:

In Nigeria, one radio station manager told me recently that “some people would rather go without a meal than go without their mobile”.

Then, while travelling across Ghana on National Farmers’ Day (we should have one of those) I was listening to a radio phone-in celebrating rural life.

The presenter took a call from a woman who said she had lived without fresh water for seven years. But it was the presenter’s back-anno that truly summed things up:

“…and if you’ve lived for seven years or more without water then text us…”

Tags: Africa, africa cup, facebook, football, Hausa, mobile