Ryan

New Music Friday is getting worse. Shorter versions of songs are being played. I'm also hearing songs that have previous been TOTD and previously played during normal airtime. Please R1, get rid of this shocking idea immediately. It's not working!

I was listening to the radio at work yesterday. The more I listen to it, the more I stand by what I said earlier in the week about a rebrand not happening soon. I noticed yesterday there was more of a mix of NMF jingles and the current ones, compared to the first Friday. Also, Pure Jingles latest demo on their website has the current branding, surely if a rebrand was coming it would've been put on their website? I will say this again, to launch a new jingle package is (IMO) unprofessional and I can't see the point in phasing it in over days/weeks. Ease it in during one day through Grimmy, Clara, Scott and Gregs shows, just like the current package was eased in. Big Weekend is just over a month away, and getting closer, it's being talked about more on the station...I don't think we'll see any rebrand before or after. Shall we take bets? Also, I think NMF is pointless, and will not last long. It's all about new music. Well, isn't that what R1 is generally all about? New music and chart. I'm hearing a lot of new music previously heard before NMF began, these tracks are new but not that new! Artists release their music on a Friday now, and with the chart helping broadcast that, NMF really is a pointless gimmick that is awful. It's only in segments too, as other music played around it is normal chart music. Take Scott's show for example, it's 3 hours long, I estimate 45 minutes of that is NMF-related tunes.

My reason for doubting new jingles are coming is because the current ones were launched phased in slowly throughout Monday 1st September 2014 and by the time we got to Gregs show pretty much the old jingles had gone. So if new ones were on the way they'd have started them last Friday and not reverted back to the current ones on Saturday. What would be the point in that? Unprofessional for a start.

IMO four voices makes a change because we have variance, rather the the old 2012 ones which just had the grainy "One". And having listened to the radio all day today and hearing the normal ones back on in their usual place, I don't think a new package will be on air soon.

Throughout Friday I was listening to Radio 1 and heard the New Music Friday jingles, fearful that a complete rebrand of the station was coming in. I say fearful because the current ones launched in September '14 are the best in years and give the station a complete new identity than previous sets. I've noticed these new jingles don't include the Where It Begins in any of them (if I'm wrong please correct me). The slogan is great for the station and the TOTH jingles work well, especially with a presenter changeover. I've not listened to the radio all weekend but have just gone through iPlayer Radio and listened to TOTH and jingles played after the news. Here we have a selection of current ones plus newly released content by Pure Jingles, none in the different jingle format of New Music Friday though. Based on this, I don't think a rebrand is coming. Friday's might sound different for now but the rest of the time is still pretty much the same methinks. The current set was only introduced just over 18 months ago, the previous set of jingles lasted from April 2012 to September 2014, so nearly 2.5 years. These jingles are still young and have a lot of time left in them, it's far too early to completely rebrand the station. Also, if New Music Friday jingles were put on permanently 24/7, just think how the sound around the Newsbeat and Official Chart jingles - quite out of place methinks.