Radio 1 Anthems Scheduling

[Lee E]

Ok Geeks 

I am looking to know how it works with Newsbeat between the DJs and studios 

So I am assuming (maybe wrongly) on the breakfast show like Tina used to be Rosin is in with Greg and reads the news opposite therefore all Greg does is plays the news in fades her mic up and (iv'e seen this in pics) she has a small desk at the co hosts station and controls the beds and all there and at the end plays the extro and play on the song that is after? or does the DJ do that bit? 

For other shows (I also think sometimes Rosin is in the separate news studio, specially for the 930/1030/1130 editions) does the DJ play the news in and hands control over to the news studio during or during the last song and plays the news in? I assume the DJ plays the news in and hands control of it over during that jingle while they are introducing it and newsbeat studio is faded up as an input then they fade down the DJ and on air studio and the newsbeat one becomes the on air for that two minutes then the new caster faded up the on air studio towards the end as they play the news out? and the DJ takes control and hits play on the system to play the next song - this must be true because the DJ sometimes speaks to the newscaster at the end like Greg not so much on Clara and Scott show but Grimmy defo has and Greg sure does (I know Chris Smith used to be in with Greg on drive a lot and not in the separate studio unless it was the 15 min programme) 

And for the 15 minute programme I assume the same happens DJ plays news in hands control over during to the news studio who then takes full on air control and fades the 82A/D etc down and then the on air DJ doesn't get involved again until the end so I assume as soon as shes handed control over Clara is finished at like 1247 and is out and Scott has to listen to it about 1258 for timing and to be ready to take control at 1300 to hit play on the first song 

I assume Grimmy does the same kind of thing at 1745 and listens in again at about 1758 to take back over so has time for a fag break get a drink? 

Is it an offer/accept type system? 

[OohErr]

I have no insider knowledge, but I would assume they wouldn't bother handing over control of the network to the news just for a two minute bulletin - I would guess they just fade up the news studio during the bulletin and down again at the end, with the newsreader or maybe a tech-op pressing the buttons for the bulletin. Not sure about the 15 minute programmes though, could be different although it seems unlikely to me. But bear in mind that all news outside of breakfast is shared between 1 and 1Xtra so everything you described would be doubly complicated (and also means that network news bulletins would never come from the Radio 1 studio, including Chris Smith's old 16:30/17:00 bulletins that you mentioned).

I would imagine that the presenter's role in this is to hit play on the news in jingle at xx:29:50, fade up the news studio at some point before or during the ramp, then fade down the bed after the newsreader has read the headline and hit play on the main bed with the Newsbeat ID at the start. Less technically capable presenters have struggled with this in the past - notably Maya Jama and Gemma Cairney. Then they just press play on the next song at the end of the bulletin.

I remember once being told that presenters were discouraged from talking to the newsreaders afterwards in case the 1Xtra presenter had left the news studio faded up and the newsreader's half of the conversation could be heard on there. I think Greg also left the news studio faded up once during a song and little bits of the ents journo speaking could be heard over a song - think it was Sinead Garvan, or maybe even Natalie Jamieson depending on how long ago it was. So merely fading up the news studio seems more likely. 

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but it seems like it would make sense based on what I know and what I've heard as a listener.

 

 

[forde52]

I do have some insider knowledge on this, and you're pretty much bang on!

For the hourly simulcasted news, at xx:29:50 the News In Ramp gets played by the DJs on air on R1 & 1X and they fade up the news studio and leave it up for the whole bulletin. The rest of the beds and clips (including the News Out Stab) are played by the newsreader in their studio. Once the News Out Stab has been played then the DJs will start their next song or jingle and fade the news studio down again. Now unless things have changed in the last couple of years, the 15 min programs are the same as above with the news studio is faded up for the whole program, the only difference being that there are Tech-Ops in the adjoining news studio pressing the buttons etc.

Breakfast is different. R1 & 1Xtra Breakfast have their own news, so the back timing on the Ramp isn't as important to get bang on. That's why on breakfast you'll hear "Radio 1 Newsbeat it's now (insert time here)" instead of "This is newsbeat, we're back in an hour" for example. At the start of Grimmy's stint on breakfast, Tina used to be in the news studio. It was only a few years after she gained more of an on-air presence again that she joined Grimmy in his studio for the news. Rosin is mainly (if not always) in the news studio for the news.

 

It's also worth noting that in the Nesbeat studio, the "Desk Mon" output that they use for monitoring and in their headphones is actually the output on R1, that's why on certain outside broadcasts when R1 have had issues broadcasting newsbeat and have bailed to a song, the news reader sounds a bit odd over on 1Xtra (the Nesta Mcgregor incident from last year is a brilliant example of this).

[forde52]

2 hours ago, Lee E said:

Is it an offer/accept type system? 

The whole of the BBC (TV, Radio etc) uses something called BNCS (Broadcast Network Control System). I believe it was in house designed by the BBC R&D Dept. This allows any studio across the whole of the BBC (From London to Cardiff to Salford etc) to take over any network (R1, R2, R5Live as examples), or route sources into their studio from anywhere in the BBC, including on the OB Vans.

A good current example of this is Life Hacks which now comes from Media City in Salford instead of NBH. The studio at Media City isn't faded up in a studio at NBH, as they are actually in control of the R1 network at that time.

There are times when it goes wrong, like the other week when Greg tried to hand over the R1 network to Clara's studio after his show and just got "Tone".

[Lee E]

1 hour ago, forde52 said:

 

There are times when it goes wrong, like the other week when Greg tried to hand over the R1 network to Clara's studio after his show and just got "Tone".

That must have been in the hide and seek shows? 

 

[Lee E]

1 hour ago, forde52 said:

The whole of the BBC (TV, Radio etc) uses something called BNCS (Broadcast Network Control System). I believe it was in house designed by the BBC R&D Dept. This allows any studio across the whole of the BBC (From London to Cardiff to Salford etc) to take over any network (R1, R2, R5Live as examples), or route sources into their studio from anywhere in the BBC, including on the OB Vans.
 

I assume you just enter the studio you want to take control then? when does this happen? so when does Clara hand over control to Scott etc? 

 

[Lee E]

1 hour ago, forde52 said:

I do have some insider knowledge on this, and you're pretty much bang on!

For the hourly simulcasted news, at xx:29:50 the News In Ramp gets played by the DJs on air on R1 & 1X and they fade up the news studio and leave it up for the whole bulletin. The rest of the beds and clips (including the News Out Stab) are played by the newsreader in their studio. Once the News Out Stab has been played then the DJs will start their next song or jingle and fade the news studio down again. Now unless things have changed in the last couple of years, the 15 min programs are the same as above with the news studio is faded up for the whole program, the only difference being that there are Tech-Ops in the adjoining news studio pressing the buttons etc.

Breakfast is different. R1 & 1Xtra Breakfast have their own news, so the back timing on the Ramp isn't as important to get bang on. That's why on breakfast you'll hear "Radio 1 Newsbeat it's now (insert time here)" instead of "This is newsbeat, we're back in an hour" for example. At the start of Grimmy's stint on breakfast, Tina used to be in the news studio. It was only a few years after she gained more of an on-air presence again that she joined Grimmy in his studio for the news. Rosin is mainly (if not always) in the news studio for the news.

 

It's also worth noting that in the Nesbeat studio, the "Desk Mon" output that they use for monitoring and in their headphones is actually the output on R1, that's why on certain outside broadcasts when R1 have had issues broadcasting newsbeat and have bailed to a song, the news reader sounds a bit odd over on 1Xtra (the Nesta Mcgregor incident from last year is a brilliant example of this).

Thanks for the insight 

So if it is faded up for the 1245 bulliten some kind of handover must take place between Clara (82D) to Scott (82A) 

And - while were on it why is 82A always used by Greg, Scott and Annie? and 82D by the others? Is it true that 82A was designed to be bigger to accommodate the Chris Moyles show (because it was designed and being built before he announced he was leaving) and all its interactive features streaming and all? hence why the breakfast show latterly came from there ? I know Scott does use a different studio on a Friday for the chart I got this answered on the Chris Stark podcast but they didn't explain why

They also explained that they didn't use 82A when there was a live lounge on, that the studios reversed when there was one

They seem to reverse at weekends too?  

[Lee E]

How does the hand over process happen between two shows? for instance alot of the time at the moment presenters are bing encouraged to talk at the start of the show

Some time ago the breakfast show would play it's last song then a Clara Jingle would play and then a song and she would speak after two back to back songs at like 10:06

Now seems Greg talks out of the breakfast show plays his bed at 09:59:20 and talks upto 10 then Clara's anthems jingle plays and she talks at 10:00:10

Greg fades claras studio up as an input as hes talking and plays her intro and hands control over then or during his last song hands control over and Clara just has his studio faded up as an input for him to play his outro and say bye and then as her intro plays fades him down and carries on

When does Clara Hand over to Scott? at 1245 when newsbeat is on?

[Lee E]

Why is 82A always used by Greg, Scott and Annie? and 82D by the others? Is it true that 82A was designed to be bigger to accommodate the Chris Moyles show (because it was designed and being built before he announced he was leaving) and all its interactive features streaming and all? hence why the breakfast show latterly came from there ? I know Scott does use a different studio on a Friday for the chart I got this answered on the Chris Stark podcast but they didn't explain why

They also explained that they didn't use 82A when there was a live lounge on, that the studios reversed when there was one

They seem to reverse at weekends too?  

[forde52]

8 hours ago, Lee E said:

Why is 82A always used by Greg, Scott and Annie? and 82D by the others? Is it true that 82A was designed to be bigger to accommodate the Chris Moyles show (because it was designed and being built before he announced he was leaving) and all its interactive features streaming and all? hence why the breakfast show latterly came from there ? I know Scott does use a different studio on a Friday for the chart I got this answered on the Chris Stark podcast but they didn't explain why

They also explained that they didn't use 82A when there was a live lounge on, that the studios reversed when there was one

They seem to reverse at weekends too?  

There are 6 studios shared with R1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. 82A and B are the 2 bigger studios and are mainly used by Radio 1 as that is the flagship station out of the 3, but another big reason? The Live Lounge! 82A Can't be used to broadcast during a Live Lounge because all the equipment for the LL (Such as the mixing desk etc) is in 82A, and as such the studio is full of the Tech Ops who are mixing and controlling the LL. Clara (and Fearne when she was there) always does her show from 82B. On the days when 1Xtra had a LL and R1 didn't Trevor would be in 82B and Fearne would be in one of the smaller studios. When Greg was on drive he would normally use 82B as well. Greg, Scott and Annie don't just use 82A though, if someone else has booked that studio then they will use one of the smaller ones.

The chart has always been in one of the smaller studios, even when Reggie and Jameela did it. Greg only used to do the Chart in 82B because that was his studio at the time for drive.

I did Feet Up Friday (Whoooooooooo?!?) with Dev back in 2014 and we were in 82B and to say the studios were only about 2 years old then, they were battered! 

[Lee E]

13 hours ago, forde52 said:

There are 6 studios shared with R1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. 82A and B are the 2 bigger studios and are mainly used by Radio 1 as that is the flagship station out of the 3, but another big reason? The Live Lounge! 82A Can't be used to broadcast during a Live Lounge because all the equipment for the LL (Such as the mixing desk etc) is in 82A, and as such the studio is full of the Tech Ops who are mixing and controlling the LL. Clara (and Fearne when she was there) always does her show from 82B. On the days when 1Xtra had a LL and R1 didn't Trevor would be in 82B and Fearne would be in one of the smaller studios. When Greg was on drive he would normally use 82B as well. Greg, Scott and Annie don't just use 82A though, if someone else has booked that studio then they will use one of the smaller ones.

The chart has always been in one of the smaller studios, even when Reggie and Jameela did it. Greg only used to do the Chart in 82B because that was his studio at the time for drive.

I did Feet Up Friday (Whoooooooooo?!?) with Dev back in 2014 and we were in 82B and to say the studios were only about 2 years old then, they were battered! 

I thought Clara and Grimmy use 82D? 

[forde52]

7 hours ago, Lee E said:

I thought Clara and Grimmy use 82D? 

Yeah I meant D, Must have pressed B because it was after A ?‍♂️

[Lee E]

19 hours ago, forde52 said:

Yeah I meant D, Must have pressed B because it was after A ?‍♂️

Easily done

So how does the hand over process work between presenters when they hand over like Greg to Clara for instance?

[SamChisholm]

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