Annoying R3 Trailers

[french frank]

....our guru, our guru we bow down to your regathered powers....

Me especially. What about promos? Or is that too like Proms?

[smittims]

Etymologically speaking, I think 'promo' is more appropriate, as it implies moving forward ('pro - motion') to the full-length programme. But I'm beginning to sound like Margo in 'The Good Life' who imitated the Christmas Cracker by saying 'crack!' instead of 'bang!' '...because crack is the stem of cracker'.

Maybe we should have a thread on 'conversation-stopping remarks'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Etymologically speaking, I think 'promo' is more appropriate, as it implies moving forward ('pro - motion') to the full-length programme. But I'm beginning to sound like Margo in 'The Good Life' who imitated the Christmas Cracker by saying 'crack!' instead of 'bang!' '...because crack is the stem of cracker'.

Maybe we should have a thread on 'conversation-stopping remarks'.

Promo is an American term . I’ve sometimes heard it used in broadcasting usually to refer to the presenter live promoting an upcoming programme .Thie is also called a “talk up “or “talking up.”Interestingly this is often thought to be the most effective form of plugging a programme and as a consequence it is now somewhat overdone.It happens on Radio 3 a lot.

I ought to write a book on this but no one would buy it. There are so many TV jargon terms that a lot of the better run programmes run a multi page glossary for new people . Believe it or not the terms for the same thing vary across different places because people insist on using the brand name for a device rather than what it does . So what is an Aston in one place is chyron (that’s going back a bit) in another. This is the device that puts a caption on a picture.

[french frank]

Etymologically speaking, I think 'promo' is more appropriate, as it implies moving forward ('pro - motion') to the full-length programme. But I'm beginning to sound like Margo in 'The Good Life' who imitated the Christmas Cracker by saying 'crack!' instead of 'bang!' '...because crack is the stem of cracker'.

Maybe we should have a thread on 'conversation-stopping remarks'.

BBC uses promo and trailer apparemment (or did - that was 2017):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38919482

[Ein Heldenleben]

BBC uses promo and trailer apparemment (or did - that was 2017):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38919482

That piece would have probably been writing by an online journalist not a tv or radio producer . Let’s put it this way in thirty four years in 10 different departments I never heard any one use the word trailer but I must have heard the word trail every day unfortunately. I even witnessed a spectacular row when a R2 news producer dropped“ the f***ing sports trail “. I kid you not.
In a competitive environment it’s amazing how the trivial takes on a life of its own.
But there are very many areas I didn’t work in and it’s perfectly possible that others use different terms .
Incidentally there were a lot of people in the Beeb who thought those anti -English rugby trails a big mistake esp the fee fi fo fum one which seemed to encourage on pitch violence.

[french frank]

That piece would have probably been writing by an online journalist not a tv or radio producer .

Not unlike newpapers, especially regional ones, where press releases from anyone and everyone get published virtually unaltered for reasons of time and filling space.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Not unlike newpapers, especially regional ones, where press releases from anyone and everyone get published virtually unaltered for reasons of time and filling space.

Whereas in BBC online the subs used to constantly tinker with the copy even though it had nearly always been written by another BBC journalist. But don’t get me going on that ….I’m sure it doesn’t happen now (can’t think of appropriate emoji).

A friend who works as a press officer for a conservation charity told me that he really sharpened his writing skills when he realised (about ten years ago) that his releases were going verbatim into the local paper. I reckon there are now 10 to 20 press / comms people for every journalist job in the West / South West now. “ They think it’s all over …” yep that was local papers…

[Old Grumpy]

I even witnessed a spectacular row when a R2 news producer dropped“ the f***ing sports trail.

Could do with more of that across the board!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Could do with more of that across the board!

yes well that’s one reason why they tend not to get dropped . Hell hath no fury like a producer who’s had their trail dropped because “oh well the weather overran a bit.” At one place it got so bad the boss made us run trails at the beginning of the show ..boy did that annoy the gallery. Happy days …

[Frances_iom]

Remember Andy Kershaw, late of this parish, who in his brief stint as R3 used to introduce the then presenter read trails as 'now for the parish news' - personally I now tune in only for the programs I want to hear, 2-3 minutes of trail in the hour remove a lot of my enjoyment - the one trail I could willingly 'kill for' is the one often dropped in after the Bach before 7 section as I use it as a weekday alarm and wish to hear the brief news summary but my radio alarm has no mute; the new trend now especially on R4 is to dress up a trail as a faux news item - degrades the program and makes usually turn off.

[smittims]

Yes, the BBC have been 'advertising' for years, despite their supposed ban, and many a 'news item' has really been a plug for a forthcoming BBC programme. They also quite shamelessly plug commercial projects such as theatre productions and book publications under the guise of 'news'. I imagine publishers ahd agents go in for quite a bit of lobbying to bring this about.

[french frank]

I imagine publishers ahd agents go in for quite a bit of lobbying to bring this about.

Jostling, even. They send out free copies, recordings &c in order to attract attention, get more coverage and make more sales. But the BBC either reviews/plays them or it doesn't. They won't do either if they haven't heard about them first. What I disliked was the practice of slipping trails and promotional announcements in unexpectedly to catch people out if they thought they would try to avoid them. The whole point of trails is to hit people's ears, by hook or by crook.

So my suggestion was that they should have special five-minute announcement programmes at fixed times when they gave out all the programme news, and people who wanted to hear them would make a point of listening, just as they made an 'appointment' to hear specific programmes. That got short shrift: not good marketing practice, Catch the blighters out as often as possible even if you enrage them so much they refuse to listen on principle.

[Serial_Apologist]

Jostling, even. They send out free copies, recordings &c in order to attract attention, get more coverage and make more sales. But the BBC either reviews/plays them or it doesn't. They won't do either if they haven't heard about them first. What I disliked was the practice of slipping trails and promotional announcements in unexpectedly to catch people out if they thought they would try to avoid them. The whole point of trails is to hit people's ears, by hook or by crook.

So my suggestion was that they should have special five-minute announcement programmes at fixed times when they gave out all the programme news, and people who wanted to hear them would make a point of listening, just as they made an 'appointment' to hear specific programmes. That got short shrift: not good marketing practice, Catch the blighters out as often as possible even if you enrage them so much they refuse to listen on principle.

Yet another example of capitalist realism!

[french frank]

Yet another example of capitalist realism!

Or unrealism. On one paper I worked for the subs had a regular divvy out of all the books they sent in for review. I don't know why they never fathomed that we didn't do book reviews.

[JasonPalmer]

Trail for Fleetwood mac on bbc 2 after strictly come dancing meant i watched some of that program before switching to a film. Trails are great !