How To Make Radio Jingles

Jingles are essential for radio stations. Be it to reinforce the station’s brand, or to provide income via sponsorship. They can be as easy or as hard to make as you allow. All will require a level of proficiency with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) however this is a skill that can be developed as you learn and practice.

With this post, I’m not always going to go in depth with each method, instead, I will link to appropriate sites so you can click to learn more only if you need to.

Basics

The first thing you need is a DAW. I would recommend Reaper since it is software that can be completely free. It has an unlimited, all-inclusive free trial period however I would recommend you pay for the license as soon as you can to maintain support for it. Other software you can use is Audacity, Garageband, Adobe Audition,  Logic, and Pro Tools. The latter three coming at a cost that may not be accessible for smaller Radio Stations.

Secondly, you need either good studio headphones or, studio monitors. This will ensure you are mixing accurately and providing the best sounding Jingle. If you choose bad speakers or headphones, you may be EQing incorrectly and may not hear the bass frequencies at all.

A good quality microphone is essential if you want a good sounding speaker. Use an Audio Interface to link it to your DAW

Finally, you need to decide whether you will compose the jingle or if you will use samples and sound beds. Many sample and bed packs come royalty free and allow for commercial use. These are the ones to download. Look for drum loops, bass lines and instrument loops.

Getting Started

Let’s start by examining what a jingle does. Firstly it identifies the brand and has to be memorable and prominent. This is essential for the listener to identify what they are listening to and who the show’s sponsors are.

Because it has to relate to the listener, consider the style of sound the jingle uses. For a metal station, the jingle may be laden with awesome riffs and a gritty voice, for a club sponsor, expect to need good dancy basslines that sum up the night a club-goer would experience.

Use this knowledge when scouring the internet for appropriate samples.

Once you have them, or if you want to compose your own jingle from scratch, you need to consider music theory. A jingle will sound atrocious if all the elements are out of key with each other. You will need to ensure everything is the same key and tempo.

This also applies, to an extent, with the songs played on the show. If you have a deep house show that remains around 120BPM throughout, you would expect the jingle to be of a similar tempo so the flow isn’t disrupted.

Composition

Now you know what you are going to make, start with the music and FX in the background. What you are looking for is a sound that won’t drown out the voice when it talks. Look for instruments that don’t clash frequency ranges with the person who you aim to record. A male, for example, could clash with low-frequency guitar chords. This could be solved later using hard EQing but it is so much simpler to arrange the music to avoid as much work as possible.

The jingle should last around 15-20 seconds in most cases, providing enough time to provide all the necessary information.

I normally start my jingles with a sound effect and, likewise, end them with one. This means it doesn’t clash with the previous song, nor the one after. Sound effects can be backspins, cinematic booms, vocal shots e.t.c. and try to incorporate one appropriate for the brand.