Free Radio - Cut One

My Boo channel (click on my silly little pic above) features some great audio from the last hundred years of radio. Some, I have more involvement in personally than others, given I was not around in 1922.

This one is a little to do with me though. It’s the first jingle, steaming from the mixers at the Wise Buddah production house, for the new Free Radio, which launches in the next few weeks, replacing the old brmb, Beacon, Mercia and Wyvern commercial radio brand names in the West Midlands.

Given we all have worked in radio for more years than we care to remember, and have great fondness for station heritage, the change is as emotional for us as for the listeners. We walk away from brand names including ones have been part of commercial radio since it drew its first breath; and since I had acne. That’s why we’re having a few drinks with many of those who’ve been involved over the years. It’s been great to reminisce, and for me to meet some names I heard on-air as that spotty teen.

The reasons for change are thoroughly sound though, and amplified in duller fora than this. The fact is: it’s just a name-change; and the stations have evolved much, much more under their decades of life under their old names, than they will change as we move to the new green wrapping.

That’s why we’re getting as excited about the future as we have been about the past; and there’s nothing like a new jingle to make radio seem tangible.

Apologies to brand police - the pic is half way through the brand change. I really should not have. Ah well.