RESEARCH BLOGS

How to make a radio jingle

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• What is a radio Jingle? 

Radio Jingles are known as hooks that include elements of words and melody. It is catchy, simple and is a hard skill to master, so when creating a professional radio show, professional jingle writers come in handy.  

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• Types of radio jingles  

Radio jingles are the forefront of every radio show. It includes the radio name, brand and often frequencies of the channel. DJ drops go further in explaining the personality with a slogan or catchphrase to grab the listener. Promo jingles, as the name implies, support promotions of events, shows and guest appearances. And lastly, time-check jingles often tell the listeners the time in a musical way that suits the show's overall energy and atmosphere. 

 

How to put together a radio mix 

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• Ways of mixing the music 

There are a few ways that people can record music for radio shows. Those options are to record live or arrange and edit. Recording live, being a more DJ-oriented approach, means that freestyle and improvisation can be made, a live audience can be present, and post-production only includes jingle sections and voiceovers. The arrangement and edit style known as mini-mixes are thrown into a DAW of choice, split up into sections. Though normally shorter in play time length of tracks overall, the freedom of transitions between bigger sections of radio talk and songs means more creative artistic expression.  

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• Recommended steps and advice on making a radio show 

Always plan out these types of questions when beginning the planning stages: 

What is the schedule for the overall project? How much time is music involved in between what sections of the show? What genre(s) of music are to be played? What overall mood/energy needs to be shown? Are there any specific voice-overs or jingles that need to be in certain places? What topics are strong for discussions? Is there a main theme? 

Understanding a chosen niche means diving into research on a target audience. Knowing how to align a vision with the audiences' preferences is key. Create polls and/or surveys that reach out to the audience as well as interact with them to gather feedback, then from that feedback, add or tweak parts of the content needed.  

Choosing and arranging tracks in sections depends on how long and how many tracks are included. 10-12 songs around 3-4 minutes in an hour vs 20+ for around 3 hours means more to consider when arranging the track list. Still, when it comes to any radio mix of any length, it is safe to consider BPM, key, mood, as well as energy levels of the sections to place songs when coming to arrangement. Incorporating high energy can just include varying the tone of voice, the use of music and special effects, as well as engaging with guests and others.  

Whether creating the radio live or pre-recorded, making transitions can be easily done by adding elements such as: Faders, Crossfaders, EQ, Reverb, Delay, Loops, etc.  

Even before recording, making scripts can save time and make a show more punctual. Scripting can be as simple as bullet point references. Tips include writing key points down to cover, highlighting times of interactions, as well as other specific timings to keep the show running at a steady pace. There are also many other things to consider- Microphones being one. Types of mics are useful for certain environments. Condensers provide the detail and sensitivity, while dynamics are better suited for live as they are more physically robust. Connections of these microphones are considered based on capability and skill. USB is good for beginners, while plugged-in XLR mics require an audio interface set-up, so has a more professional quality to it.  

To record voiceovers, talking sections or jingles, it is recommended to use an audio editing software. This includes programs such as Logic, Pro Tools, Garageband, and Ableton Live (what I ended up using with my collaborators) depending on what suits your skill set.  

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• Mixing and Mastering 

The editing process after recording takes place to edit out mistakes made and creates a balanced flow of a set that is clean. Fine-tuning is further editing, but by editing the overall volumes and creating consistency so that all sections of the show are well balanced and sound as one. These consistencies include frequency levels being well-matched and panning channels being made equal as well.  

Mastering is to check peak levels and the overall dynamic range to make sure that it’s suitable for specific streaming platforms. This is the stage to also check any unexpected clipping or other unforeseen audio errors so that they are avoided on playback systems. 

 

•  Finishing points 

Once the mix is ready to be exported, the song is ready to be played. WAV files, although chunky in storage space, provide the best quality of sound vs an MP3 that has less storage space but sacrifices the overall quality.  

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• Pros and cons 

There are pros and cons to joining an established station as well as starting your own.  

Pros of joining an established station are that there is an instant gain of credit and visibility, direct access to a pre-made audience and included tech support and other assistance. The cons, however, are a lack of additional personal creation as well as following a strict schedule and guidelines.  

Pros of starting your own show are that there is full creative control, a personal schedule that can be adjusted, and rules and guidelines can be flexible. The cons to this, though, are that there are a lot of extra set-up efforts as well as the task of building an audience from scratch.  

There are also pros and cons to whether the recording is live or scheduled. 

Live gives space for spontaneous moments and access to real-time interaction with listeners. However, this way of recording can be high-pressure for beginners and needs a lot more specific scheduling when recording. Pre-recording gives the beauty of editing and refinement of content; it is flexible when finding recording times, and the level of pressure is a lot lower than recording live. Although the recording of the overall radio sequence is a lot less stressful, the recording sacrifices the experience of chatting and interacting with a live audience, as well as requiring a lot more attention in post-production. 

 

• Effective promotion  

Social media, especially the popular trending platforms, are a go-to for recognition and to begin building an audience. Having a business email reaching out to listeners with content updates and other news, and keeping it frequent, will be a challenge to begin with, but the more people sign up for it, and the more requests come in, the hub will expand massively. Collaborations with others offer more chances of recognition and help gather a lot more listeners. 

 

• Visual identity 

A couple of things that can help build up a visual identity are a logo and a brand to make it stand out more and have a purpose. That way, the professionalism of the show is updated, meaning listeners are more likely to take it seriously. Like the comments about social media and emails, a website is an epic way to build an overall internet hub for everyone to get the whole idea of the entire image of what the show is about, as well as access to past episodes, etc. Having guest speakers on and promoting them beforehand can gather an audience before the show airs. The audience can have the opportunity to learn something new, a story from another perspective and gather new ideas. This can help with expanding professional networks, offering up more opportunities.  

 

Conclusion 

These steps have helped me gather the courage to step into the world of radio. I hope these can help guide others into their own creative worlds, whether that’s production, MCing, or other means of recording for an audience. Taking that first step to see where that vision takes you is daunting but should surely feel extremely rewarding.