Behind the Curtain Insights into Q Radio’s Station Sound in Northern Ireland.


Over the past year or so I have been creating a sound that fits with the style of the artists that the station plays. Q Radio’s target audience is around mid 20’s to mid 40’s and although we also play a lot of classic songs from the 90’s, we still want to sound modern in how we promote our brand. We don’t want to sound like a station from the 90s. We have found that a lot of the older listeners don’t really want to grow up too much and also don’t want to be treated like they're older either.


I wanted to get away from the typical jingle sound. We used the acapella sung jingle voices in the branded intros for a while. After hearing the vocals being used that way, it helped allow us to discover that they sound very different from the vocalists in the songs. They stood out as sounding very retro. I then started using a new vocalist Kathryn Rende who works with Anthony James in New York. (Known for producing Steve Wright sound of show in UK). After hearing Kathryn we realised she sounded like a mixture of Arianna Grande, Dua Lipa, Sia and able to soften her voice like Christina and the Queens etc. So I started to use Kathryn mixed with other voices such as station voices Olga Kaye, Anthony James, me and parts of the artists themselves from the acapellas of the songs  too. Quite often in the branded intros I manage to find parts that can be edited in and make them sound like they are saying either ‘Q’, ‘Ray’, ‘Dee’, ‘Oh’. It can be a lot of fun doing that. I like to group voices together as well with some 'shouts' mainly saying the “Q”, part of the brand name. We do have a sonic logo but in our branded intros the logo is adaptable, so it becomes part of the song using a melody that fits the introduction. Whenever I use this analogy it reminds me of Bruce Lee’s martial arts ‘Jeet Kune Do’ which I have been a fan of for years and do a little myself. I remember hearing Bruce Lee say, “Be like Water”, “Don’t get set into one form, adapt it, build your own, and let it grow. You fill a cup with water, the water then becomes the cup, you fill it into a bottle, water becomes the bottle”. I never quite got that for years until I started producing the intros where the brand style and shape became like the intro with no fixed way of doing it; It’s different every time! As auto tuning is used on certain voices I think it is important to make sure that there are enough “Real” sounding vocals in the mix too- otherwise it can sound too robotic or computerised. I like to keep it real! We also run some sung jingles in the top of the hour and out of breaks. I produced these myself using Kathryn on lead vocal with harmonies etc balanced with some sound effects / design from Imaging Blueprint. 


In most of the station promos I use a lot of listener voices. After all they always seem to sound most believable compared to other voices who could be told what to say. The reactions from the listeners are always real and it makes the promos sound a lot more fun.


I also changed the delivery of station voices to create the type of atmosphere we are looking for. The voices sound a bit more fun, louder with a bit more passion in the voice and not delivered so much like the typical way a voice-over delivers. That took a little bit of playing around with.    


Recently we introduced a new slogan. We wanted to get away from the typical radio station slogan that we have been hearing for decades. Over the years liners and Jingles have been filled with boasts and hard sell salesperson type tactics, now I think we need to be really focusing on who we are talking to, e.g, would we sit next to a friend and say “Hi, I’m the BEST person you know!”, “Keep being my FRIEND! “, or “Hey I’m the ONLY friend you need, forget the rest you’ve got the BEST!”. We wanted to go with a more connective use of language.

Currently at Q Radio we have introduced the strapline, ‘Q Radio….. Feels Good’ , not just meaning the music but the brand, giving a more holistic feeling to with everything we do. I was thinking about how when we listen to a song that we really love, what is it we really love? It’s the feeling we get when we listen to it. It keeps going back to the feeling. So if something sounds good, then you feel good! I have always been told that Imaging is the soul of the radio station. Imaging can change how listeners perceive the station. The goal was to make Q Radio sound like a happy, fun and modern station that sounds attractive to an older audience that want to stay young. We consistently deliver the same message in all of our idents. Q Radio…. Feels Good. That is the one unique selling point, rather than selling lots of things that Q Radio is. If using any other words in the idents then I make sure they point back to that one main thing. Therefore, listeners can grasp one idea and come away with a very CLEAR idea of what that message is. I learned this from Dave Foxx (former Z100 New York Creative Services Director).


In short, my job is finding 'different' ways to deliver the same message. Thats the challenging thing! -But its the products ever-changing nature which stops me from ever getting bored!


Carl





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